The Armenian community of Egypt during the nineteenth century : an inner view.

Abstract

For the duration of the nineteenth century, Egypt witnessed a steady stream of Armenian immigrants drawn to it, at first, by the country’s unparalleled economic expansion and, towards the end of the century, seeking it out as a safe haven from the difficulties which, as a community, they were experiencing in the Ottoman Empire. Besides providing an overview of the community’s economic and political placement, the thesis considers the community from within. That is, it analyzes its internal communal organization, its ecclesiastical structure, its communal modes of politics, as well as the various aspects relating to its distinctive educational, intellectual and general cultural manifestations. After a brief preface in which the purpose for writing this thesis is presented, chapter I traces the Armenian historical connection with Egypt in time. Chapter II presents the contribution of principal Armenian personalities to building up state structures in modern Egypt. Chapter III and chapter IV successively provide an analysis of the community’s cultural and economic input. Finally, chapter V investigates in some detail the changing social and political morphology of the Armenian community as it existed at the dawn of the twentieth century By this exercise in micro analysis, the thesis projects an account, not merely of individuals, however prominent their role may have been, but of a small diasporic community as it structured for itself a distinctive mode of existence and at the same time interacted with, and influenced, the broader human mosaic of contemporary Egyptian society.