The depth of the echo

By Naguib Mahfouz

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Recently a foreign journalist who was with me started talking about the liberation of Sinai and Egypt's long experience of invaders. I felt it necessary to reply. Egypt has a unique place amongst the nations of the world. It is the home of the world's oldest civilisation. Invaders came with their armies or arrived in their fleets, but Egypt invaded them through her civilisation, a civilisation that was always older and more deeply rooted than the culture of her invaders.

Egypt was able to absorb everyone who came to attack her: invaders would come to resemble Egyptians, adopting Egyptian customs and religious practices. Take the Ptolemies, whose royal line ended with Cleopatra. They invaded then turned into Egyptians.

This wasn't just the case in ancient history: it took place in contemporary Egypt as well. Look at the Albanian soldier Mohamed Ali, who travelled to Egypt where his descendants then ruled for 150 years until King Farouk was banished following the 1952 Revolution. Who can say they weren't Egyptians? Mohamed Ali was the man who led Egyptians out of history's shadows into the light of modern life. When the people overthrew King Farouk at the end of his reign, it wasn't because he was a foreigner, but because of the corruption of his rule.

This, then, is Egypt: a land with a special magic that cannot be described by one who has never felt its power. Egypt contains the span of human history and cradled every civilisation on earth in its maternal embrace. She is the mother of all civilisations.

Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.