BurningOfCairo  

 

 
 


Dear All, 

I am wondering if anyone on this list remembers or has any information on an event that happened a half a century ago in Egypt during the rule of King Farouk, when downtown Cairo was burned. 

My father who has passed on talked about this when I was a little boy but I can't remember all what he said. 

Did any one of you witness this or have any information about it? 

Dr. M. El-Baroudy 
 


Young Egyptian nationalists were carrying out guerrilla attacks against the British bases in the Canal Zone, hoping thereby to make the region untenable for the British army and force an evacuation. But the British army, having lost its base in Palestine, was determined to hang on to the Canal Zone. On Friday 25 January I952, British army units surrounded a police station manned by auxiliary police in the town of Isma`iliyah, believing the police to be aiding and abetting the guerrillas, and demanded their surrender. The Egyptian police, on orders from the minister of the interior, refused to surrender. They were surrounded by centurion tanks and artillery was used against the building, killing scores of Egyptian policemen. 

That was the spark that set off a series of events that I witnessed in Cairo the following day.


I was a little boy and I remember that it was a Saturday! I had a day off from my boarding school in Ma`adiy. My Father, a career officer, had recently been appointed Lieutenant Governor of the (mudiyriyah) province of al-Fayuwm, leaving my mother and my elder brother behind to settle some family business. We were staying in a leased apartment which looked over Sulayman Pasha square (now Tal`at Harb) on the corner of al-'Antiykhanah street (now M. Basyuwniy) facing Groppi's on the square. (The building is still standing today). 

I had an appointment with the doctor in Duqqiy at 9:00 AM sharp, to have a wart removed from my little finger. The procedure lasted about an hour. When we returned home we sensed something strange and brooding in the air. 

Reading Al-Ahram newspaper I learned about the events of the previous day, and the fate of the Egyptian Police garrison in al-Ismaa`liyah city and the rumor of the police strike in Cairo which by now was gaining momentum. 

Around 2:00 PM I heard a "walwalah" (clamor) coming from the square. I looked down and saw a dozen or so women wearing miylaayaat laff (the black cloak that used to be the national dress for Egyptian women). 

Then I saw a black Citroen packed with passengers entering the square. One of the passengers, his body halfway out of the window, was waving back and forth the Old green Egyptian flag with the white crescent and three stars. 

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a rousing mob coming from Ma`ruwf district filled the square. The black Citroen car made three or four circles around the square, and as if by magic, all of the traffic stopped and the black car disappeared. Strangely, it reminded me of Indians circling the wagons in a Western movie. I rushed to call my mother to come watch the scene  which was about to unfold. 

A determined mob roaming around was setting fire to British owned establishments, clubs and businesses, and others belonging to foreigners including night clubs and casinos. 

First was the sound of the shattering glass of Groppi's windows. Some of the mob went inside and escorted the employees safely outside. Some climbed for the Groppi's sign and dismantled the royal emblem (Confisserie de la Maison Royale) from it. They, then proceeded systematically to smash everything in the place. 

I could see the sacks of sugar and flour being dragged into the Miydan (square). Then the mob proceeded to attack a paint shop next door and set fire to it. You can imagine the smoke that came from the burning paint. The fire quickly spread to engulf both Groppi's and a small ammunition store next to the paint store. The combination was deadly and loud, it was like a Chinese New Year celebration but with live ammunition! 

Then the mob proceeded to attack any building that looked foreign. The first casualty was Air France building on the square, followed by Crystal Patisserie (close to al-'Ismaa`liyah square lately renamed al-Tahriyr square). Next to our building, on al- Antikhanah Street (now M. Basyuwniy street), they ransacked a roof garden night club.  Meanwhile, while I was on the roof garden of our building opposite of it watching the scene unraveling below me with disbelief! 

By now I could see a cloud of black smoke hung over Cairo as people cowered in their houses and watched in bewilderment while an ever growing mob seemed to go berserk, chanting anti-British slogans as it burnt buildings, looted stores and destroyed property. 

Next the mob set fire to the fashionable " Grands Magasins Hannaux", then Sedanawi on Isma`iyl Pasha Street (now Qasr al-Niyl), then `Omar Effendi, followed by Benzion and so on. The frenzied mob went on a rampage unchecked by the police who were on strike, along with the fire department. 

The rampage continued way into the wee hours of the following morning, The army had been belatedly called out, and order was restored by the imposition of a curfew on the city. By then the center of Cairo looked like a ravaged war zone with gutted department stores, smoldering buildings and smashed shop fronts. 

THE DAY AFTER. 

The next day, I remember taking a stroll with my mother and elder brother through the streets. I recall very well, stepping over and sometimes tripping over the fire hoses which were laying on the street. The sprinkling water was still oozing from then. 
 

I referred to the "frenzied mob" before, and they were, but in sort of an organized way (!). It was strange scene. They took great care to escort people out of the buildings, including foreigners, before they attacked them. According to my friend Samiyr Ra'fat, in his book _Maadi  1904-1962_, amazingly only 10 individual lost their lives in the Turf Club fire on Maghrabiy street (now`Adly) where they were hidden. 

It was the second time in my life that I witnessed such a big fire. The first was the burning of the military depot at the Citadel (Hariyq al-Qal`ah), a year or so before. 

All the movies theaters: Rivoli, Metro, Cairo Palace, Cinema Opera, Miami - all burned down. The Old Shepheard Hotel (near al-Opera square),Safiyah Hilmy Casino had also been burned. Groppi `Adly, l'Américain, Barclay's Bank, the Brazilian Coffee Shop, Fuw'ad Street (now 26th of July), Chemla, Cicurel stores, Continental Savoy Hotel, Opera Square, in front of al-'Izbakiyah Gardens, and on and on and on and on -- all ravaged and looked churned like a scene out of Berlin after the war. 

Modern European Cairo, which dated from the time of Isma`iyl Pasha (1863-1879)  was consumed overnight 
 

 

It was a day I will never forget. Egypt was never the same. The burning of Cairo, much like the burning of Alexandria seventy years earlier, was a landmark in the history of Egypt. It signified the end of an era, the era of "liberal" experiment. Parliament had proved ineffective in the face of both the monarch and the political parties and governments of the day. The political parties had run out of imagination and backbone and could only react to, not initiate, events. The monarch was completely discredited both in his personal and in his public life. 

The following day, Sunday the 27th, the King, in a desperate attempt to contain the situation, summoned the veteran politician `Aliy Mahir Pasha to form a government . 

I distinctly recall my mother shaking her head back and forth and with a sigh saying: 

"Too little too late! The writing was on the wall long before this event." 

As my late father had always predicated: It was an inevitable clash of two Cairos. The Old Cairo was reclaiming the Modern Western one. 

It was ominous! It happened then, and most likely it will happen again. 

For six months, various palace appointed regimes tried to limp along.  But the coup de grace came on 23 July 1952, when a handful of young officers lead by Gamal `Abd al-Nasir organized a coup d'état that overthrew the monarchy, and with it, the form of government which had existed since 1922. 
 
 

 

Who was behind the burning of Cairo? Was it organized or spontaneous?  These are questions that remain unanswered to the present day, although speculation is rife. The truth will probably never be known but there were strong rumors that the events had been organized by Ahmad Husayn of Misr al-Fatah, and indeed he was later tried for it but the case was shelved when the Revolution broke out. Others claimed some Eastern European embassies had supplied the sophisticated incendiary materials that were used. 

Wa Allahu 'A`lam! (But God only knows) 

The Egyptian Chronicles