"Egypt is passing through the most dangerous neck of the bottle in its modern history and perhaps all of its ancient history. There is a historical coup in the place and place of Egypt, but from the bottom to the back, we all see the opinion of the eye, but apparently, we prefer to bury our heads in the sand."
(Jamal Hamdan)
Affected by Egypt's defeats and setbacks in war and freedom, the book "Egypt's Personality" was published by the scientist Jamal Hamdan in 1967, when echoes of the setback were still heard, and its physical and psychological destruction was felt and felt. Jamal Hamdan addressed the minds through his various writings between research and books, not only showing the facts, but also showing disasters of their natural size without underestimating or intimidating, when he said that Egypt slides into its destruction as a national value and shrinks its size and weight among its neighbors, he was not terrified, but rather He talks about a reality that we can see today from Al Ain.
One of the signs of this slide today, which is evident according to the successive events experienced by Egypt, was evident when the Egyptian state decided to grant the two islands of Tiran and Sanafir to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a decision that was followed by directing the media owned by the whole authority, or consecrated by order, to support and justify this decision. And, despite the fact that there are a few people who objected and confirmed the Egyptian of these two islands, most of the Egyptian people were confused between believing and denying, and it is not known with certainty whether these islands are Egyptian or not.
Gamal Hamdan describes this "miserable confusion" experienced by the Egyptians, who says: "We, as ordinary citizens, are very ignorant of Egypt. Less people know about Egypt are the Egyptians, so it is no wonder after this and what we see and what we feel is confusion that our national culture is deficient and limited, but rather we take it in an emotional way." Rough rather than a mature scientific. And we pay a heavy price in all aspects and aspects of our life without exception. ”On the one hand, on the other hand, according to Hamdan, we need - as Egyptians - a complete, in-depth and documented understanding of our face and destination, our entity and our position, and our capabilities and our property, no By blind media, not propaganda, not even obedient, perverted, directive The path of knowledge and knowledge. The question here is not about knowing the history of the Egyptian state, but rather how it arose and how nature shaped it before the Egyptians formed it?
How was the oldest country formed in history?
"Everything that falls in Egypt indicates that this country is the country of slavery and tyranny."
Volney.
Before proceeding to talk about the role that Egypt's geography played in forming the state, it is important to know that geography, because of its specificity as a unique science, is concerned with deepening research more than narration, as it links the old with the present, the material with the non-material, and the earth with man, as it is often We find a deaf geography but it speaks through man, and we often find deaf civilizations but it speaks through geography. Geography is a science that combines and volunteers science in the service of knowledge, not the event itself, but rather the causes of its occurrence.
On the land of Egypt, societal and political unity was formed over thousands of years, and Egypt's geography had a major role in shaping what is known as "society". Its desert bordering the Nile River was a major reason in determining the possibility of the spread of the population, as the Nile River formed the boundaries of life within the valley. Natural homogeneity was an essential characteristic of the Egyptian environment, as the whole valley is an overflow unit, its land is from its water formation, the river is the only valley builder, and the river is the main control if not the absolute form of the natural map, so the Nile River gives Egypt the land of its homogeneity as much as it controls its life, Just as the English historian Herford Brook described George the land of Egypt, saying: “There is no other example of a country that is wholly, and to this extent, the creation of a single geographical circumstance like Egypt.” (1)
| The Nile River (Reuters) |
As for the Nile River, the main problem in forming the societal and political personality of Egypt, we do not exaggerate if we refer to the Nile River as Egypt, and vice versa, or as the ancient Egyptians describe that “everyone who inhabits the Nile River from the mouth to the waterfall is Egyptian.” The formation of the Nile River differs from the formation of many rivers of the world, as it almost cuts the desert of Egypt from the middle, such as the blood flow, so there is no life outside it, or as Jamal Hamdan describes it. "He is the backbone of a very small population, within an endless sphere, as he is the only perennial. Not parties, but the heart, and this is what brings us to the unity of the well-established community in Egypt, so from the beginning it is one continuous mass without interruption. (2)
As for the vast desert, it played an important role in repelling invasions and migrations from other peoples, but it also played an opposite role as well. In spite of the giant area of Egypt, which is estimated at one million square kilometers, the valley area suitable for agriculture and construction is not more than 35 thousand square kilometers, i.e. 3.5% of its area, so the built-up area in Egypt is almost the size of a country like the Netherlands, even though the area of Egypt is almost The size of the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland combined. The mixing of the Nile River with the Egyptian desert geography made it impossible for the emergence of different peoples and nationalities on its banks, such as the Rhine (France - Germany) and the Danube (Romania - Bulgaria).
So, the Nile River was the main reason for building the state, because Egypt is essentially a flooded environment that does not depend on rain in its life, but rather the river, and river agriculture is based on participatory basis, because agriculture needs a huge human effort in preparing the land to receive seeds, then creating a network of canals until Flood water reaches the seeds, and then the harvesting process, all of these processes are closely related to the nation’s participation, but at the same time it needed to “control the river” by building arches and dams, and what is the point then of having the river be tuned without the presence of “people control” "? Without a "discipline of the river," the noble Nile turns into a flood of wreckage, and without "discipline of people" the process of distributing water becomes a bloody process controlled by the law of the jungle. (3)
The Egyptians were "the servants of the Nile", then the servants of the Nile became "the servants of the state", then the servant of Pharaoh by extension, and from here the Pharaonic tyranny of the Egyptians began
In light of the country's natural framework, "organization" has become a basic condition for life, as it is incumbent upon everyone to voluntarily waive his freedom, to submit to a higher authority that distributes water among all. Nature alone was no longer the farmer's lady, but irrigation added another master, the “ruler”. For the ruler to play a mediating role between man and the environment, and the connection between the farmer and the river, and a guardian of the relationship between them, and in order to control all people, the ruler had to turn into a kind of holiness, and the pharaohs of the gods and sons of the gods appeared in Egypt as a kind of power that They use it in control, as river officers and people. (4)
In the Egyptian state, the pharaoh became the legal or theoretical, he is the sole owner of the land, and the whole country became a public sector belonging to the state, and the pharaoh became the king of the land and those on it and everyone is subject to absolute submission, so the pharaoh’s deification was an ancient and pivotal phenomenon, so the Egyptians were "the slave of the Nile", then he became a slave The Nile is "a slave to the state," then a slave to Pharaoh by extension, and from here the Pharaonic tyranny of the Egyptians began. (5)
As for the Pharaonic state, it in turn became a central authority and a totalitarian regime that governs as it owns and controls as it governs. In short, the Pharaonic state was an absolute dictatorial regime, so the Pharaonic regime played its role in establishing the Egyptian civilization and laid its foundations, but soon it turned into oppression, from the distributor of water to The owner of the water, and from the barrier and judge among the people to the one who controls the people, it was not strange for Pharaoh to ask: “Is it not mine for me, the king of Egypt, and these rivers flow from under me?” (6)
| Peasants of the Pharaonic State (communication sites) |
Thus, the Egyptian society was divided into pharaohs and peasants, so that the strength, cruelty, and richness of the first class were as much as the crushing, poverty, and subordination of the second class. A gap made the pharaonic state turn into a police state that protects feudalism and property through the pharaoh's men, and makes peasants more like the slaves that the pharaoh uses in construction and construction, as monuments such as pyramids and giant temples, despite their economic sterility, are only evidence that they are a huge monument to tyranny. (7 )
Therefore, it is not surprising that social theories were influenced by the ancient Egyptian nation, as Gamal Hamdan says: “Egypt was not the first human civilization and state before humanity knew the meaning of the state, but it is also the first dictatorship and authoritarian regime that history has known.” Marx and Engels used the Egyptian civilization alongside Asian civilizations in China and India to build their theory of the “Asian mode of production” which was then transformed into the “Eastern tyranny style” by Carl Auguste Wittwijel, the theory that explains the close connection between the origins of dictatorship with the rivers. The theory says that there is a ruling class that inhabits the center, and directly confiscates the surplus of the rural self-sufficiency communities, as a result of the state monopoly of the land, the irrigation system, and the military force.
The Egyptian state remained in successive forms in the Middle Ages, and its relationship with the people was tainted by the legacy of external colonialism and the accumulation by its rulers of internal tyranny. The relationship of the state did not differ, whether it was the state of Persians, Greeks, Ptolemies, Romanians, Copts, Muslims or Alawite state, then Clot Bey says: “The sun does not see misery or more misery than what exists in this earthly paradise, thanks to a system of rule based on the exploitation of the individual and organized robbery ".
A country before the states ..
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke (Communication sites) |
"In this case, there is no place for industry because its production is uncertain, and therefore there is no land culture, no navigation, no use of goods that can be imported by sea, nor a civilized building. There are no tools for moving, removing, and things like that require a lot of strength." And there is no knowledge of the face of the earth, and there is no reckoning for time, no arts, no speeches, no society. The worst of all is the constant fear and danger of violent death, and the isolated and poor, wicked, beastly, and short life of man. ”
(Thomas Hobbes)
Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an intellectual struggle erupted between philosophers about the extent of the legitimacy of the state as a representative of the people, and how a balance can be created between that authority represented in the entity of the state without depriving the rights and freedoms of its citizens. Among the most famous authors of this conflict were the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, author of "The Philosophen", the other English philosopher John Locke, and the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Hobbes assumed that humans under normal circumstances could not be controlled, as "everyone turns to fighting everyone", and human feelings are overwhelmed by constant fear, violent death, isolation and poverty. Therefore, in order to avoid these disasters, people must create a social contract. On the same idea, John Locke disagreed with Hobbes about the natural state of human beings, as John Locke emphasized that even in the absence of laws in the natural state, mankind possessed moral grounds. However, Jean-Jacques Rousseau then came contrary to the opinion of Hobbes and John Locke, when he believed that humans in the natural state were more peaceful and contented under ethical principles, and that those phenomena raised by Hobbes did not arise except by meeting people about inventions and the desire to increase production by sharing work .
The theory of the social contract, then, says that the law and the political system are not natural, but rather are the invention of human beings, where the social contract and the political system from which it arises is a means to reach an end, which is the benefit of the individuals covered by the social contract, i.e. citizens of that state.
Nature was the main reason behind the formation of the Egyptian state, and it was the biggest reason why the state remained indissoluble or fragmented
But while the theories of the social contract and the theory of force and naturalism were first put forward in the writings of philosophers beginning with Plato, who died in 347 BC, the state of the Pharaohs in Egypt was most covered by the writings of philosophers and described travelers in their attempt to study the Egyptian region, and with the abundance of writings, conflicts arose about Interpretation of the establishment of the Egyptian state.
Jamal Hamdan shows that conflict in the form of a question in which he says: "There is a question that arises: who is the former; the Egyptian nation or the Egyptian state? The origin in the states is that it is the product of the nation, meaning that the nation precedes the state, that is, it is the cause, and the state is the result, is the basis National or national, and the state is the political edifice that praises it. "
Gamal Hamdan was asked to explain the difference between the reasons for the establishment of the Egyptian state and its exclusivity from the rest of the country, explaining that "the state may degrade and fall, but the nation remains as a solid buried core that may jump again strongly, so the state is resurrected again to exist, and so forth, rise and fall The state then resurrected and re-created thanks to the law of the survival of the nation.
It was clear, then, that the history of the Egyptian state is full of this phenomenon of rise and fall, either for external reasons such as colonialism, or for internal reasons such as times of feudalism and national decline, but the Egyptian nation has remained immortal since the dawn of history until today, and the reason for that immortality is its unique nature, as he says The Greek historian Diodor of Sicily, in his description of Egypt, was "a country protected from all sides by nature," and the natural geography of Egypt was like the incubator of the state in all ages.
Pharaonic states took from the cities of the south the capitals of their state, to ensure their control over the course of the Nile, which means ensuring that all countries remain subject to
Hence the peculiarity of the Egyptian region, as mentioned by the Egyptian geographer Gamal Hamdan, as nature helped in forming the Egyptian nation before there was a state, despite the disappearance and fragmentation of huge countries such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Republic of Yugoslavia, the division of Sudan, and other empires, kingdoms and states Nature was the main reason behind the formation of the Egyptian state, and it was the biggest reason why the state remained indivisible or fragmented. Its land is a single solid block that is related to each other by force due to its geographical formation.
Between the nation and the state ... the struggle of the Egyptian character
"In spite of all of this, it remains in the end that the people did not settle and never surrender in the face of tyranny and the ferocity of absolute rule locally or colonially, neither did its positive resistance cease before the negativity, because the ancient Egyptian history recorded a long and busy struggle that was interrupted by popular uprisings that may be separated by intervening periods Patience and stalking, but it could turn into massive explosions and armed revolutions that define bloody, violent and class consciousness. "
(Jamal Hamdan)
The Egyptian geography not only affected the emergence of the state in Egypt, but was also the main reason for the formation of the first dictatorship state known to humanity, making the need for Egyptians to have a system that is like the regulator of the river, to ensure that water reaches all lands from south to north, a necessity. The state then used, whether pharaonic, royal, royal or republican, that authority to serve its personal interests, and the river turned into a weapon in the hands of the state to punish its enemies from the people, so the Pharaonic states took from the cities of the south as capitals of their state, to ensure the imposition of their control over the course of the Nile, which means Ensure that all countries remain subject to it. It is no wonder that Gamal Hamdan describes the lives of the Egyptians, saying that "there is nothing new under the sun of Egypt. Egypt in the year 1984 AD is politically like Egypt in the year 1984 BC."
The social system and the class structure were no longer different in Islamic Egypt than in Pharaonic Egypt or its successors from occupied countries. Theoretically the land is still the property of the state, the property of the Sultan
In this policy, the successive states on the Egyptian land were similar in that they were the only owner of the Egyptian land, meaning ownership of those who lived on it, which made the relationship of the Egyptian nation with the ruling state, whether occupied or local, a very special complex relationship, as that relationship formed over thousands of years of Repression by the state, which the people encounter with patience at one time and another at times of resistance. Writer and thinker Abbas El-Akkad describes this relationship by saying: "This is a nation with steady livelihoods and independent living. The ruler Salah does not care about it as well as the goodness of the earth, the sky, the symptoms and the atmosphere. She was afflicted with her beliefs and heritages, or appeared unfair to her for her livelihoods and facilities, for it is difficult for her to lead as the most difficult to lead a nation.
In this context, the first popular resistance movement in history has been recorded in the name of the ancient Egyptian people. The first revolution known to mankind was "Eppoire", when the Egyptians stopped paying taxes and plowed the land - because it was the property of the state - and attacked the state coffers, and because of the nature of the revolution My people, historians have put it as the first revolution humanity has known, even after its setback and failure. Also, during the Ramses III reign, the labor strike is the first in history, when the workers of "The Good Cemetery" went on strike because of hunger.
The history of the Egyptian people is old and large, extending with the resistance and social mobility against colonialism, both internally and externally. The popular history of resistance, class social upheavals and revolts against the ruling elite were very many in the ages that followed the Pharaonic times, and the social system and class structure of the people were no longer different in medieval Egypt, Since Egypt fell under Ptolemaic, then Roman, and Byzantine occupation, the dualism of "order and religion" established for the legitimacy of the Pharaonic Egyptian state remained, only the pharaoh changed from the son of the god or the god himself to an emperor.
The social system and class structure were barely different in Islamic Egypt than it was in Pharaonic Egypt, or what was followed by occupied countries, as Gamal Hamdan decides, as the land is still theoretically owned by the state, the property of the Sultan, as Al-Maqrizi says: They possessed it, "so the Egyptians turned from the slaves of Pharaoh to the serfs of the Sultan, and the pattern of eastern tyranny remained rampant and oppressed to the people, destroying his goods. (9)
Imam Muhammad Abdo describes a long period of Islamic rule for Egypt, saying: "Before the French army entered the commitment or feudal governments, the basis of this type of government was to divide the country between a group of princes each of whom owned a division that disposed of its land and the powers of its inhabitants, their bodies and their money." As he wants, he is their political, administrative, and judicial ruler and their master of their necks, and it is in the nature of this type of government to grow in him the assets of despotism and its branches.
In conjunction with the intensification of the state’s repression represented by the king and the princes, and the prevalence of tyranny and injustice against the people, the popular resistance movements did not interrupt or reside. Delta and Upper Egypt cities to the capital. It is true that most of these revolutions did not exceed merely "donations" and the deficiency of most of them revolted and failed to confront the power of the state, but these revolutions succeeded in breaking and restricting tyranny relatively and extracting important concessions from rulers and princes. (10)
Muhammad Ali came to mix the popular revolution with the military coup, and established a political, economic and social system that is a mixture of Pharaonic and Mamluk to establish a new version of Eastern tyranny, called "modern Egypt"
In July 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Egypt in a three-year military campaign, in which the French army suffered from the people's revolutions and assassinations of army leaders, until the Ottoman armies backed by Britain came, so the French campaign came out of Egypt as easily as it entered it, at the same time that It was entered by the Ottoman military Muhammad Ali.
"The habit has exploded from ancient times, the people of the country isolate the rulers, and this is something from time, until the caliph and the sultan. If he walks through them with unfairness, they isolate him and take him off." Muhammad Ali replaced him. That popular revolution that installed Omar Makram as its leader to confront the Ottoman governor Khurshid Pasha and his soldiers was a popular revolution. (11)
Imam Muhammad Abdo says: “What made Muhammad Ali? He could not live but was able to die. Most of the army’s strength was with him, and he was a ploy under the instinct, so he sought the help of the army and whoever used it from the parties to execute every head of his opponents .. So he started raising Asafel and high above them in the country and villages, until the esteemed people were degraded and the blame prevailed, and there are only machines left for him to use to collect money and collect soldiers in any way and in any way, thus achieving all elements of normal life from opinion, determination and independence of soul, so that all the Egyptian countries become one feudal for him and his children ". As Gamal Hamdan said in describing Muhammad Ali: "The last of the great Mamluks and the first of the new pharaohs," he brought the blending of the popular revolution with the military coup, and established a political, economic and social system that is a mixture of Pharaonic and Mamluk to establish a new version of Eastern tyranny, called "modern Egypt."
| 1919 revolution (communication sites) |
But the flame of the revolution remained burning in the Egyptian people during the era of the Alevi family, so the people tried to achieve their rights in many forms. The revolutions diversified and included all sectors of society until they reached their climax in a national class armed revolution led by Urabi in 1882, then a great popular revolution in 1919, then the popular revolution mixed Armed coup d'etat in the last paragraphs of the era of the state of Muhammad Ali in 1952. (12)
The state that followed the monarchy, which was then called the "Arab Republic of Egypt", was built on promises to achieve economic and social justice, so the relationship seemed to be a partnership between the people and the system or an application of the "social contract" theories. A populist social consensus was held with two main components: on the one hand, the regime in Egypt promised an equitable distribution of wealth in a manner that increases the share of poor and low-income population groups and allows them through educational and employment media to promote social development, and on the other hand, this popular majority is committed to supporting the government completely, and abstaining From demanding public freedoms such as the freedom to express opinion and the right to control rulers through the state's legal tools represented in parliament and the judiciary, or participation in political life, thus closing the political field in Egypt. (13)
But soon this modern republic turned and turned on its promises, transforming into the primitive form of the Pharaonic rule with a slight difference that the state's discourse directed to the people completely contradicts its policies, until Gamal Hamdan called it the "modern Pharaonic", but it was more dangerous to the Egyptian nation than The previous one, where the watershed that shook Egypt’s position, size and capabilities, was armed by the people’s ignorance of its country, the product of centuries of tyranny and ignorance, until Egypt reached that challenge that it lost, and the neck of the bottle that Egypt did not leave since 1967, the year of the publication of the book “The Personality of Egypt”, Let Hamdan define Egypt's problem, saying:
"The real danger to Egypt stems from within it, it is Egypt itself, more than others and strangers, is the oppression and impotence of the ruler on the one hand and the reaction of the people or its negativity on the other side, is the issue of dictatorship against democracy, that is the eternal challenge that the Egyptian people have always faced to prove Himself, His Presence and Sovereignty. "