The return
As old as the city which they founded, the Greek link with Alexandria was reestablished in a big way during the 19th Century. Euthimios Soulogiannis provides a brief account of Egyptiot history
Greeks have always been associated with Alexandria. But in modern times, Mohamed Ali's accession to power proved a powerful influence in attracting a Greek community. Greek soldiers who had come with Napoleon remained under Mohamed Ali, becoming the first begetters of Egypt's modern Greek colonies. Laying down their arms, they became traders, immigrants scraping together a living. There were also the Greek slaves brought back to Egypt's bazaars by the armies of Ibrahim Pasha -- Mohamed Ali's son -- who assisted the Ottoman armies in their war against the nationalist Greek rebels in the Pelopponese.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate had been in Alexandria since the 1st century AD, but was somewhat comatose by the time of Napoleon's invasion. And other Greek institutions in Alexandria also preceded the Greek influx of the early 19th century. These were religious in kind, and generally linked to the Patriarchate. They included the monastery of St Sabbas and the Greek hospital and school. Their survival was the work of a small number of Greeks -- more exactly Greek-speakers -- the remnants of a community that had lived in Alexandria since the Middle Ages. The appearance of several thousand Greeks in Alexandria, the majority of them from the Aegean and Ionian islands or mountainous mainland Greece, predictably gave a new lease of life to the Patriarchate.
The first Greek immigrants of the 19th century were mostly traders. And the first official Greek community of that period was founded in Alexandria, in 1843. Schools were set up and a hospital, an old peoples' home, churches and other related institutions created, mostly thanks to donations from prominent families. This philanthropic activity has ensured that, even today, when the Greek population of Egypt is dwindling, Greek communities still survive in Alexandria and elsewhere.
From these humble beginnings, the Egyptiot community went on to become, at its peak, the largest and most influential minority in Egypt, with a record of outstanding cultural and commercial achievement lasting some 160 years.
Constantin Cavafy (1863-1933), sometimes called the "poet of the world," owes much of his fame to his cosmopolitan upbringing in Alexandria. Indeed, most of the prominent Egyptiot literateurs also lived and wrote in Alexandria, among them Glaukos Alithersis, Timos Malanos, and Manolis Gialourakis.
The Egyptiot contribution to the Egyptian economy was also a highly significant one. Of course, it was made possible by Egyptian manpower. The collaboration lasted through the second half of the 19th century and intensified in the first half of the 20th century. The Greek contribution includes new agricultural methods, new imports, and new irrigation systems.
This was not exclusively a colonialist class. Demands for workers' rights were already being heard by 1901, and some of the first activists were Greek. Thus we find the Greek ambassador to Egypt reporting on the 1883-1913 period: "the prejudice of the various factory bosses, combined with other reasons, have led to strikes by Greek workers in both Cairo and Alexandria." Less honourably, perhaps, the archives also show that the Egyptian police would often request -- and receive -- the Greek embassy's permission to exile strike-leaders to Greece.
The Egyptiots also had a long-standing trades union tradition. This is often attributed to the clause in Islamic law requiring that Christians be organised into associations and inhabit separate areas. Traditionally, Greeks lived in Fustat, Haret Al-Rum and Hamzawi. The associations, called asnaf, maintained charitable foundations linked to the Greek Orthodox Church.
Mohamed Ali's land reforms, and the accompanying simplification of property transfer, helped create a new class of Greek landowners; it was obviously in their interest to maximise output, and they put their minds to improving methods of cultivation. During the golden age of wool-farming, a number of new varieties were originated by the Egyptiot community.
Even as late as 1956, when the turbulence of the Egyptian Revolution had subsided and the Greek communities were beginning their mass exodus, Greek pilots were the only foreign operators working in the Suez, continuing to steer ships through the Canal -- to the great irritation of the British!
In short, the presence of the Egyptiot community made no small contribution to their adopted country during the 19th and 20th centuries, while helping to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship that has lasted to the present day.
The writer is a historian of diaspora Greek community and a researcher at the Athens Academy.
