Summary
Nabil ‘Abd al-Hamid Sayyid Ahmad, an ‘Ayn Shams doctorate and Minya University professor whose three books develop Anis Mustafa Kamil’s “Jewish capitalism” line from Egyptian archival files, in The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 4129-4187).
Details
- His research is based on the Department of Corporations (Maslahat al-Sharikat) files and other archives; his most recent volume is prefaced by the Center for the Documentation and History of Contemporary Egypt, and his first and third books were published by the state-owned General Egyptian Book Organization (Chapter 9, notes 21–22) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 4163-4187).
- He extends the organicist conception to its limit, expressing sympathy for the Muslim Brothers’ refusal to distinguish Egypt’s Jews from Palestine’s (and later Israel’s) Jews: “reality proved that it is difficult to distinguish between a Zionist Jew and one who is not” (Chapter 9, notes 14–15) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 4129-4162).
- He joins ‘Ali Shalash in refuting Ada Aharoni’s contention that Jews could obtain citizenship only through bribery, asking why the wealthy family of Inbal Mosseri [as printed, for Inbar] did not use their money to obtain citizenship (note 24) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 4163-4187).
- He attributes the Tractor and Engineering Company’s success to “masterful Jewish thinking and proper planning” (note 26) and links Jewish capital with Zionism by the unsupported claim that Jewish profits left Egypt “in intricate ways so that most of them contributed to building the state of Israel and thus harmed the national economy, security, and safety of Egypt” (note 28) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 4163-4187).
Related pages
The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, Anis Mustafa Kamil, Ada Aharoni, Colonial Capitalism