CHAPTER 2
Reconstructing a National Past
Radwa ‘Ashur’s Revisionist History of the Downtown
It was a dangerous event . . . and horrific. Suddenly, and in the middle of the afternoon, and right in front of the police, a fire was lit deliberately. In al-Opera Square, in one of the most famous casinos of Egypt: Casino Badia. And the fire fighters rushed in with their cars and hoses, but when they tried to put out the fire, some people prevented them from doing so and ripped apart the hoses and consequently the flaming of the fire increased. And some thought, among them, the security guards, that it was merely an accident, and when they were able to put out the fire in the casino they breathed a sigh of relief and reported to their bosses: “Everything is okay effendum. It is over. The situation couldn’t be ‘better’.” But while a message of reassurance was reported to the interior minister, a fire was breaking out in Cinema Rivoli, then it was set in a third place, then a fourth, then a fifth, then a tenth, then a hundred . . . then seven hundred! It was something terrifying; what was between the hours of twelve thirty and just about seven thirty, the fire devoured 700 shops. Among them the biggest stores in Egypt and the largest hotels, and the most splendid cinemas and places of entertainment.
The fire ate the heart of Cairo.
The country lost tens of millions of Egyptian pounds. And scores were killed and injured.1
Introduction
n January 25, 1952, the mass killing of fifty Egyptian policemen and the wounding of one hundred others at the hands of the British at the barracks of Isma‘iliyya near the Suez Canal set off a flurry of events
in the capital. Workers’ unions in Cairo boycotted British establishments, the airport was brought to a standstill, a strike began in the barracks of Bulaq in Cairo, which eventually turned into a demonstration where three hundred men
walked toward Cairo University in Giza (the starting point for a number of demonstrations in the past). There the mass of demonstrators joined a num- ber of other groups (Wafdists, Muslim Brothers, Socialists, and Communists) who had convened a meeting in light of what was being called a “massacre” in Isma‘iliyya. The police who were sent to quell the unrest, instead of breaking up the group, joined them. They marched alongside the other demonstrators to the cabinet offices to demand the right to fight the British at the site of the canal. The group started marching by eight in the morning. In another part of town, a number of demonstrators marched from al-Azhar Square in the heart of old Cairo through the downtown toward ‘Abdin Palace. Once there, they veered toward the opera house, where they were met by more demonstrators.