Summary
Yusuf ‘Aslan Qattawi (Cattaui) Pasha (1861–1942), president of the Sephardi Jewish Community Council of Cairo from 1924 to 1942 and the most visible Egyptian Jew of the interwar era, presented in The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry as the exemplary case of the Jewish haute bourgeoisie’s Egyptianism: a monarchist, business-oriented nationalist who led his community in a consistent non-Zionism (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 575-612).
Details
- He studied engineering in France, worked for the Ministry of Public Works, studied sugar refining in Moravia, and became a director of the Egyptian Sugar Company and president of the Kom Ombo Company, which developed and cultivated sugar on 70,000 acres of desert land in Aswan Province; from this base the Qattawis built industrial, financial and real estate enterprises with the Suarès family and others (Chapter 2, note 52) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 575-612).
- Tal’at Harb, “the apostle of Egyptian economic nationalism,” began his career in the employ of the Suarès and Qattawi families, first at the Da’irah Saniyeh Company and then as managing director of the Kom Ombo Company (Chapter 2, note 53). Qattawi and Yusuf Cicurel collaborated with Harb on the Executive Committee of the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce and the Commission on Commerce and Industry, and in 1920 both joined him as founding directors of Bank Misr, Qattawi as vice-president of the board (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 575-612).
- The Qattawi family claimed residence in Egypt since the eighth century, and Yusuf ‘Aslan “identified himself as an Egyptian of Jewish faith”; under his leadership the Cairo Sephardi Jewish Community Council adopted a consistent non-Zionist position (Chapter 2, note 54). Though his grandfather apparently acquired Austrian citizenship, he “must have been an Egyptian citizen because this was a condition for membership on the board of Bank Misr”; his French education was a prestigious symbol of modernity, not a marker of otherness (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 575-612).
- He received the title of pasha in 1912, was an appointed deputy for Kom Ombo from 1915 to 1922, was elected by his parliamentary colleagues to the committee that drafted the 1923 constitution, served as a minister in the promonarchist governments of Ziwar Pasha in 1924–25 (resigning because he maintained a respectful personal relationship with the Wafd leader Sa’d Zaghlul), and was appointed to the senate by King Fu’ad in 1927. His wife, Alice (née Suarès), was chief lady in waiting to Queens Farida and Nazli. “Though he was a monarchist and never supported the Wafd, Yusuf ‘Aslan Qattawi considered himself an Egyptian patriot” (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 575-612).
- With Yusuf Cicurel Bey he is named among the leading Jewish business figures who, like their Muslim and Coptic compatriots, were wary of Sa’d Zaghlul and the Wafd’s populism during and after the 1919 uprising, but “regarded themselves as nationalist Egyptians” (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 198-210).
- His sons ‘Aslan Bey (1890–1956?) and René Bey (1896–?) succeeded him in politics and business; in 1938 ‘Aslan took his father’s senate seat and René was elected deputy for Kom Ombo, both holding their positions until parliament was dissolved in 1953. René inherited the community leadership, encouraged the Association of Egyptian Jewish Youth, whose 1935 manifesto proclaimed “Egypt is our homeland, Arabic is our language,” was elected council president with al-Shams’s support in 1943 and served until 1946, sent with Edwin Goar the November 1944 “Note on the Jewish Question” to the World Jewish Congress arguing that Palestine could not absorb all the European Jewish refugees, demanded Léon Castro close the Zionist youth movements’ camps, and resigned in August 1946 when he could not impose his will on the council’s Zionist elements (Chapter 2, notes 55–58) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 575-612).
- The Qattawis’ intercommunal business alliances were common among wealthy bourgeois Jewish families — the Adès, Aghion, Goar, Mosseri, Nahman, Pinto, Rolo and Tilche families are named alongside them (Chapter 2, note 59) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 575-612).
Related pages
The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, Les Grands Magasins Cicurel et Oreco, Karaites