Melhem and Cook on Egypt

There's a big historical post coming later this evening. Meanwhile, I wanted to call your attention to two excellent posts on Egypt. My old friend Hisham Melhem, Washington Bureau Chief of Al Arabiya, has a perceptive and eloquent piece called "Whatever is the Matter with Egypt?"  Another perceptive Egypt-watcher, Steven A. Cook at the Council on Foreign Relations has responded with a (somewhat) dissenting post at the From the Potomac to the Euphrates blog, "Whatever is the Matter with Egypt? Nothing All That New." 

Both are well worth a read.

"Their Lonely Graves are by Suvla's Waves": Doubling Down to Make it Worse: Suvla Bay, August 6-7, 1915

The Plan

On April 25, 1915, you will recall, the British and French allies landed troops (mostly Australians and New Zealanders) at ANZAC Cove and Sud al-Bar on the Gallipoli peninsula. More than three months later they were still trapped on narrow beaches under fire from Ottoman artillery and hemmed in by Turkish infantry entrenched on rocky ridgelines. A maneuver intended to sidestep the stalemate in the trenches of the Western Front had instead replicated it, but with most of the carnage limited to the Allied side. A military situation such as this suggests to a sane strategist two options: 1) find a way to outflank the enemy, or 2) cut your losses and withdraw from an unwinnable situation.

What did Britain do?

What part of "Gallipoli 1915" did you not understand? Let's land more troops in the same impossible positions! It worked so well on the Western Front. But the August landings added a few new twists: giving command to a general who had never commanded in battle, and landing in darkness. What could possibly go wrong?

The landings were intended to assist a breakout by the ANZACs from ANZAC Cove by having the ANZACs attack from their position against the Sari Bair mountainous ridge as additional troops landed at Suvla Bay just to their north. Another attack was to be launched from Cape Helles. The map above shows the intended plan. The new troops being landed at Suvla Bay were the IX Corps consisting of two brigades  (the 30th and 31st) of the 10th (Irish) Division and all of the 11th (Northern) Division (32nd, 33rd and 34th Brigades). These were "New Army" units formed at the outbreak of the war,  The 11th was to go ashore the night of August 6 and the 10th to follow the morning of the 7th. But little went according to plan.

Stopford

The theater commander, Sir Ian Hamilton, had asked for an experienced general from the Western Front, but those considered were junior in seniority to the 10th Division  commander and could not be considered. Instead Lord Kitchener chose Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stopford,who had fought at Tel el-Kebir back in 1882, and risen through the ranks in mostly staff and adjutant and headquarters positions. The younger son of an Earl, Stopford, despite high rank, had never commanded a large force in battle. He had retired in 1909, but returned to active duty for the war.

In a war marked by disastrous British generalship, Stopford was unusually bad.

The Ottomans knew new landings were coming, but didn't know where. They reinforced the Asian shore and other parts of the peninsula, but as the British prepared to land 20,000 troops at Suvla, only some 1,500 Turkish troops faced them. Stopford still managed to fail.

Late on August 6, the ANZAC forces launched assaults against positions at Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair in a new attempt to break out and also provide a diversion for the troops landing at Suvla Bay. (Though the Suvla troops were English and Irish, "Suvla" would become a notorious term among the ANZACs, who considered that they were sacrificed to cover the British landings.) (The final scene of the 1981 Mel Gibson film Gallipoli portrays the ANZAC August offensive, and does so in a rather anti-British way.)

Two brigades of the 11th were to go ashore south of Nibrunesi point while the 34th Brigade was to land in Suvla Bay proper, with the Irish brigades to follow. Landings were to begin at 10 pm after Australian breakout was under way.

It began with a success, if a Pyrrhic one. Two companies of 6th Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, drove the Ottomans off the small hill known as Lala Baba, but with the loss of a third of the men and most of the officers killed or wounded.

The 34th Brigade landing in Suvla Bay was a disaster: many had to wade ashore in neck-deep water while under Turkish fire. Stopford had decided to remain aboard HMS Jonquil, and soon went to sleep.

The Reality: Situation August 7

The landings had begun in darkness. When the moon came up, Turkish snipers began to fire. The beaches were a confused jumble of men, many landed in the wrong place, or left without orders. The Irish brigades came ashore and added to the chaos. Drinking water was in short supply. IX Corps is said to have taken 1,700 casualties in the first few hours, more than the total number of Ottoman forces opposing them. The German commander of the Ottoman troops on Gallipoli ordered two divisions to reinforce the Suvla front on the 7th. Stopford had still not come ashore. Nevertheless, he signaled Hamilton that he was going to "consolidate his position."

Sir Ian Hamilton dispatched aides to the front and then came himself. Overnight on August 8-9 he ordered an assault on the ridgeline; the Turkish reinforcements had now arrived and made mincemeat of the 32nd Brigade.

Mustafa Kemal, Gallipoli, 1915

As the British chain of command remained in chaos, Liman von Sanders replaced the local Turkish commander in the Suvla-Chunuk Bair sector with the commander of the 19th Division. This was Mustafa Kemal, the future Atatürk.

If  Liman von Sanders now had the right man in command, the British did not. It was not until the 14th that Hamilton communicated to Lord Kitchener the need to replace the Suvla commanders.  On the 15th Stopford was recalled and replaced with Sir Julian Byng. The 11th Division Commander was also replaced, and the 10th Division Commander resigned his command rather than serve under Stopford's temporary replacement. Meanwhile, the Australians and New Zealanders were heavily engaged in the Chunuk Bair region, receiving no relief.

The disaster at Suvla would find many echoes in later memory. Though the only Australians at Suvla proper were a bridging engineer unit, Eric Bogle's antiwar And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda refers to Suvla Bay, perhaps in the sense that Chunuk Bair was part of the campaign. The 1981 movie Gallipoli would contain a reference to the English drinking tea on the beach at Suvla while the Australians are thrown into battle.

The Irish also, like the ANZACs, would in years to come show ambivalence about whether their worst enemy at Gallipoli was the Turks or the British. Suvla is also invoked twice in the Irish rebel song The Foggy Dew, by Canon Charles O'Neill, about the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, referring to the Irish Division at Suvla and Cape Helles (Sud El-Bar):

Right proudly high over Dublin town
They hung out a flag of war.
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky
Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.

And from the plains of Royal Meath
Strong men came hurrying through;
While Brittania's sons with their long-range guns
Sailed in from the foggy dew.

'Twas England bade our wild geese go
That small nations might be free.
Their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves
And the fringe of the grey North Sea.
But had they died by Pearse's side
Or fought with Valera true,
Their graves we'd keep where the Fenians sleep
'Neath the hills of the foggy dew.

Here's a version by Sinead O'Connor and The Dubliners, illustrated with scenes taken from the 1996 Liam Neeson film Michael Collins:

On the Eve of Egypt's Big Day

After all Egypt has gone through in recent years, Egyptians could probably use something to celebrate, and celebrate they will, though not everyone is on board. Tomorrow the "new Suez Canal" project will be dedicated. It's a genuine accomplishment, however much it is being overhyped. For those who know Arabic, here's a selection of Thursday's early edition newspapers, both state-owned and private (Hat Tip to Thomas Gorguissian of Al-Tahrir):

Two Interesting Takes on Chinese Migrants in Egypt

Since my daughter is ethnically Han Chinese, I have a certain interest, in addition to the natural interest as a historian and cultural observer, in the Overseas Chinese experience. When I first lived in Egypt in 1972 I knew of only two Chinese restaurants. There may have been some in Heliopolis or Maadi but the two downtown were not great, and the menus avoided pork dishes (though there may have been separate menus for Chinese patrons even then.) Today Chinese restaurants and even delivery are commonplace in Cairo, but also of interest is a growing ethnic Chinese population working in Egypt.

First, note a current New Yorker article by David Hessler, "Learning to Speak Lingerie: Chinese merchants and the inroads of globalization" about Chinese lingerie sellers in Egypt.  This in turn led me to this 2013 documentary about Chinese workers in Egypt, some of them Uighurs and other Chinese Muslims, and many of them undocumented:

The Khedive throws a Party: As Egypt Prepares for Grand Opening of Enlarged Suez Canal, Let's Remember 1869

As I've noted in a couple of recent posts this is the week Egypt is celebrating the dedication of the "New Suez Canal,"consisting of a newly dredged channel and a widening and deepening of the existing Canal, to permit increased traffic and two-way traffic in sections. It looks to be a much-hyped celebration, but it will be hard pressed to match the extravagant party staged by Khedive Isma‘il on the opening of the original Canal in 1869.

Cairo Opera in 1869

In the 1860s, Isma‘il had embarked on a spending spree, partly funded by European loans. As the French were working (with local laborers of course) to build the Canal, Isma‘il embarked on an ambitious plan to rebuild Cairo, or more precisely to build a European-style city in the reclaimed floodplains to the West of the traditional city. He also was granted the right by the Ottoman Sultan to use the title of Khedive rather than Wali. The new Isma‘iliyya quarter, what we think of today as downtown Cairo, consisted of grand, Parisian-style avenues and boulevards scattered with parks and squares, European hotels, an Opera House, several palaces, and more. The architecture was mostly French or Italianate. The Opera House was opened on November 1, 1869, just before the Canal dedication. (Most people think the first performance was the debut of Verdi's Aida, which was indeed commissioned for the occasion, but was not yet ready, so Rigoletto was performed instead. Aida had its debut in 1871.) This original Cairo Opera on what was called Opera Square next to the Ezbekiyya Gardens burned in 1971, The present Opera House on Gezira was built in 1988.

In addition to a European city and a European Opera, Isma‘il invited the Crowned heads of Europe. The French under De Lesseps were building the Canal, so France had pride of place. Napoleon III was busy (the Franco-Prussian War would break out the following year), so he sent his Empress, Eugénie, to preside. These distinguished guests would need places to stay. (The Khedive did not invite Muslim sovereigns such as the Shah of Persia or the Sultan of Morocco, however.) Other guests included painters, scholars, musician, and novelists.

Gezireh Palace after becoming a Hotel

The New Hotel (later the Continental Savoy) opposite Ezbekiyya was taken over for many of the guests, but it would not do for Royalty, so the Khedive had built a palace especially for them, just across the Nile in the Zamalek area of Gezira. This, the Gezira Palace, was where Eugénie and others were quartered. It later became a grand hotel, first called the Gezira Palace and Later the Omar Khayyam. Today the original palace forms the central core of the much-expanded Cairo Marriott Hotel and Omar Khayyam Casino. The video shows the interior in its later incarnation as a grand hotel.

Pavilion at Ismailia (Illustrated London News)

But the celebrations would not be confined to Cairo. The guests of honor were given a boat tour up the Nile and then transported to the city of Ismailia for the Canal opening. On November 17,  after a Muslim cleric and a French priest blessed the Canal at Port Said, a parade of ships sailed and steamed through the Canal to formally open it. The Empress declared it open and the guests banqueted in the desert.

The Empress on Camelback

The ceremonies brought Egypt much world attention, but there was a downside. The Khedive had borrowed heavily from Europe, and the debts were to accumulate. Ironically, though the French built the Canal, the first toll-paying ship through it was British, and the Canal would become a lifeline to British India. By 1875, with Egypt indebted and France weakened in the Franco-Prussian War, Britain acquired the shares of the Suez Canal Company. In 1879 Isma‘il was deposed in favor of his son, and in 1882 the British occupied Egypt. Isma‘il's big party was over.

Suez Openings, Then and Now

I will be talking more this week, as Egypt celebrates the grand opening of the new, enlarged Suez Canal, about the original celebrations staged by Khedive Isma‘il in 1869. Admittedly, Isma‘il's big party bankrupted Egypt and eventually brought about the British occupation. The current government is inviting plenty of world leaders seeking to emulate Isma‘il's invitation to the crowned heads of Europe. Below, a painting of the Ottoman Sultan, Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria-Hungary and Empress Eugénie of France at the opening ceremonies.

Most crowned heads today are figureheads, outside the Arab world, and there have been at least a few missteps in the ramp-up to the opening ceremonies.  

MadaMasr has a list of "Five Mishaps in Promoting and Securing the New Suez Canal" (so don't attack me as the snark is theirs). One of the "mishaps" listed are these, uh, somethings in front of the Mugamma‘ in Tahrir Square:

OH MY GOD WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS? Giant inflated Teddy Bears? WHY? Social media has compared them to the marshmallow man in the first GhostBusters film or the character in the horror film Chucky.

I hope these ... rather disturbing things are indeed, in MadaMasr's term, a mere "mishap."

In contrast I might note this, which if somewhat over the top,  at least looks delicious if fattening:

As Egypt Prepares to Open Expanded Suez Canal, Did You Know the Ship That Led the Way in the Original Opening of the Canal in 1869 is Still in Commission?

Khedive Isma‘il

Next week Egypt will be opening its "New Suez Canal," a major expansion project that includes  a newly dredged second channel in the middle section and a widening and deepening of the old canal elsewhere, and with plans for additional improvements. It will make two-way traffic feasible for more of the Canal's length and should greatly increase toll revenues and improve transit times. They're planning major ceremonies, though they'll have to go some to outweigh the spectacle staged by the Khedive Isma‘il at the grand opening of the original canal in 1869, which ultimately helped bankrupt Egypt and bring on 70 years of British occupation. I'll write more about the Khedive's big party next week, but I thought I'd drop a factoid now to bait your interest: the first ship through the Canal in 1869, leading a procession of royal yachts through the new waterway, is still in Egyptian service and under commission. She is also one of the largest yachts in the world and by some accounts the oldest steam vessel still in service, 150 years after launch. I don't know if she'll lead the new celebrations, but I hope so.

HM Yacht Victoria and Albert

During the American Civil War, the Union Blockade kept Confederate cotton from world markets, and the British textile mills turned to Egyptian cotton as a substitute. Isma‘il, acting as if this prosperity were permanent embarked on a spending spree, rebuilding Cairo, working on the Suez Canal with French help, etc. In 1865 a new Khedivial yacht was launched by Samuda Brothers on the Thames and named Mahroussa ("guarded," or "protected," a traditional soubriquet of Cairo or, sometimes, of Egypt). She was designed on the same lines as Queen Victoria's Royal Yacht, HMY Victoria and Albert, and had twin paddlewheels in her original configuration.

The Opening Procession, 1869

869Unsurprisingly,  Isma‘il had the Khedivial Yacht lead the opening procession through the Canal.On short notice I haven't found a photo of what she looked like when she still had her paddlewheels but it was modeled on Victoria and Albert, shown above. I hope to find an earlier image soon.

Isma‘il Pasha

Ironically, when Isma‘il was deposed in favor of his son Tawfiq in 1879 it was Mahrouusa  which took him into exile, and in another irony, when king Farouq was exiled in July 1952, he also sailed away on Mahroussa.

In the intervening years she had been much changed. In 1872 40 fet were added to her length, and another 16.5 feet in 1905, when her paddlewheels were replaced with triple screws. Soon after Farouq's abdication she was renamed Al-Hurriya (freedom), often spelled Horreya in Western registries. In the past 60 years she has been occasionally used as a Presidential Yacht and otherwise as a training vessel. She visited the US at least once, in 1976 for the American Bicentennial.

Still in commission and moored at Alexandria, she is taken out two or three times a year, usually for only a day or so at a time, which seems about right at the venerable age of 150. Wikipedia claims that during a visit in 2000 President Mubarak restored her original name Mahroussa, but most reports still call her Hurriya.

Today

A Great Nasser Picture

I don't have a date or a context for this photo of Nasser playing chess, but can anybody picture subsequent Presidents being photographed in a way that made them look like they didn't know what to do next? Sadat, Mubarak, or Sisi would all be grand masters. Anybody know the backstory here?

So We're Told Mullah ‘Omar Died Two Years Ago ...

It was widely reported today that Mullah ‘Omar, the rarely seen, one-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban, died in 2013 in a Pakistani hospital; Afghan officials have indicated that Pakistani officials confirmed this to them recently.

Given the memory of Usama bin Ladin's hide-in-nearly-plain-sight final years, this raises some questions: Was his sanctuary in Pakistan officially authorized, or otherwise?

Or will we ever find out?

"Khalli Balik min Zouzou" Online

Yesterday's post made reference to Suad Husni's 1972 film Khalli Balik min Zouzou. I have now learned the entire film is available on YouTube. If you know Arabic and have a couple of hours to spare, here it is. Note that the dress of university students at that time would be quite different today.

A Follow-Up on the Reda El-Fouly Case

Here's a follow-up to my Friday post about the arrested belly dancers. particularly the case of Reda El-Fouly. Veteran Egypt hand Jane Gaffney has passed on some additional notes and given me permission to quote them here:

[A mutual friend] was over last night and we caught said "belly dancer" trying to defend herself on Wael Ibrashy's talk show 10PM.  Also present was her accuser, seemingly a member of the public who took offense at the lady's work. She tried to use her government license to practice her trade as evidence that her work was professional, not criminal. El Fouly also claimed that SHE had not posted the videos on YouTube and had no means to have them taken down. As you know, anyone in Egypt can lodge a complaint with the prosecutor's office and if this officer of the court finds that the case has merit, the government pursues a criminal case.  From Yousef Chahine to Adel Imam, many an artist or writer has found him or herself in this predicament.

But here's the kicker: While "Hands Off" was condemned, the real outrage it seems among many Egyptians is her rendition of a song-and-dance number performed by the late beloved Suad Hosny in the wildly popular 1970s film, Khalli Balik min Zouzou, a light-hearted tale of a college girl who captures the heart of the most handsome guy on campus.  Jealous co-eds conspire for him to find out that after school, she performs along with her mother, a professional belly dancer at weddings.  Hosny's song, Ya wed, ya ta'il, was cute and her dancing very modest.  Ibrashy's is also a call-in show, and among the callers was none other than the late performer's sister, who lambasted El Fouly for dishonoring her sister and a song that is emblematic of 1970s youth culture in the form of an innocent love story.

 And furthermore:

I forgot to mention one thing about the good lady [but it is too snarky to put into your blog?][My answer: no.] In addition to her horrible outfit on the talk show, she had blue eyes that looked fake!  Blue or green tinted contact lens are all the rage among Arab entertainers these days [along with hair extensions and bad nose jobs.]  This is likely the latest "Turkish drama" effect!  Turkey, I read somewhere, has the highest rate of green eyes in the world.

The lenses are also, it seems, a big fad among American teens in some places.  They are dangerous, because they are purchased without a doctor's exam/advice.  The worst of them are bigger than the normal eye, which can seriously harm the surface of the eye. I saw one Kuwaiti actress with what were clearly these outsized lenses.  Ah, what price "beauty?"

Now, the Suad Husni/Khalli Balak min Zouzou connection is very interesting. The late Suad Husni was one of the most popular actresses in Egyptian history. I have blogged before about the mysteries surrounding her death in London in 2001. Her 1972 film  Khalli Baliak min Zouzou (Watch Out for Zouzou) is perhaps her most famous film, and the song referenced above its most popular song. So this may account for some of the outrage. Don't mess with the sweetheart of Egyptian cinema. (The film also included the aging Tahia Carioca, in fact.)

Suad's rather restrained dance in Khalli Balak min Zouzou:

Video of Beirut in the 1920s

Via the blog Hummus for Thought, here's a video (silent, with French title cards), showing Beirut in the 1920, during the French Mandate:

Turkey Bombs Both the PKK and ISIS: What a Tangled Web . . ., .

The good news of the past few days seems to be Turkey's new aggressiveness against ISIS in the wake of the Suruç bombing. But this is the Middle East, and Turkey is also bombing the PKK inside Iraq, where he PKK has been actively fighting ISIS, while the PKK's Syrian affiliates, the PYD and their YPG military wing, have been successfully pushing ISIS back in Syria. Certainly, too, many Kurds suspect the proposed "safe zone" inside Syria might be rendered not just ISIS-free but PYD-YPG free as well.

The multi-factored equation in northern Syria and Iraq has now taken on a whole new dimension. Turkey is now fighting against both sides in a conflict. If they were to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter, I wonder if he United States would be obligated to bomb itself?

I'm just kidding, but the tangled web of allegiances is so complex that before pulling on one string, one needs to compute what others will be affected. In military terms, a true Coyote Foxtrot.

A Bad Year for Belly Dancers as Egypt Charges Two More for "Inciting Debauchery"

 It's proving to be a difficult year for belly-dancers in Egypt,  two years after the Muslim Brotherhood lost power.. Late this week two more were charged with "incitement to debauchery" (التحريض على الفسق) (link is in Arabic; for English accounts see here), based on videos they had posted. Just a short time ago (though I didn't mention it here) another dancer and her manager were charged with the same crime, and earlier, the dancer Safinaz (also known as Safinar) was sentenced to six months in prison for "insulting the Egyptian flag"; that sentence was recently upheld by a court.

Safinaz' Flag Outfit

I had posted about the Safinaz case in March; be sure to read the two comments by commenter "anonymous," on the political context.) Insulting the flag is a crime in Egypt, and I guess incitement to debauchery must be, too, though I don't know what the legal definition may be. (American courts would call it "unconstitutionally vague," but in Egypt vagueness may be the intention.)

Earlier this month, dancer Reda El-Fouly was charged with incitement to debauchery, along with her partner Wael Elsedeki (who some reports say has fled the country), posted a YouTube video  that soon went viral; she's facing a year in prison. The video, Sib Eddi (Hands Off) is suggestive but pretty mild by Western music video standards; yes, she shakes her assets in a low-cut dress and teases the viewer, including closeups of bouncing cleavage, but nothing that couldn't play even on puritanical US broadcast TV:

بالصور.. القبض على الراقصتين شاكيرا وبرديس بتهمة التحريض على الفسق http://www.youm7.com/story/2015/7/22/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A8%D8%B6-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%B5%D8%AA%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B6-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-/2273672#.VbKpPPmRbnf

بالصور.. القبض على الراقصتين شاكيرا وبرديس بتهمة التحريض على الفسق http://www.youm7.com/story/2015/7/22/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A8%D8%B6-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%B5%D8%AA%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B6-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-/2273672#.VbKpPPmRbnf

OK, it's suggestive (and the still is focused right down her cleavage), and the cleavage closeups  are meant to titillate (pun intended), but there's no nudity. It's a tease. Mild by Western standards, but is this really a belly dance, or a shake-your boobs-at-the camera-dance? The true Eastern Dance or raqs sharqi is about controlled movement of the whole body, by all means including but not limited to the breasts.The video is not a crime punishable by law in my view (though Egyptian prosecutors disagree) but it may be a crime against a longstanding tradition of genuine artistry and control.

Now, before I discuss the two latest arrests, let me pause to note that to call this "belly dancing" in the land of Badia Masabni and Tahia Carioca suggests the debasement of the art in modern times. I've touched on the classical age of belly dancing before, and posted videos showing the classic works by great artists of the 1940s and 1950s such as Tahia Carioca and Samia Gamal (or even better, Tahia Carioca and Samia Gamal together) not to mention the masters of the 1960s through the 1980s such as Nagwa Fuad and Fifi Abdou, dancers who really put the belly in belly dancing with amazing muscular control, rather than dancing around bouncing halfway out of a low-cut dress. Reda El-Fouly is weak tea indeed, by those standards. Incitement of debauchery? Nah, not really. (If this is illegal, why is superdiva Haifa Wehbe, who regularly shakes her generous assets, not doing hard time?) El-Fouly is relying on a single (well, obviously double) asset rather than the coordinated skill of her whole body. Compare this video to the Fifi Abdou clips above. There may be a belly dancing Gresham's Law at work here. I don't think either the classics or El-Fouly clips "incite debauchery," but the former are erotic and the latter just suggestive unless you're a horny 17-year-old male, in which case you consider everything, including moss on a north-facing rock, somehow sexy and masturbate to it.

End of rant. The two arrests this week were of two dancers who go by the names of Bardis and "the Egyptian Shakira" (obviously to distinguish her from the international singing star). They were arrested at a club, or two separate clubs depending on the report, in the Giza neighborhood of Mohandeseen, but again for videos posted online. Here's a news clip of them being loaded into a paddy-wagon

They were initially ordered held for four days, but may be sentenced to much longer. It isn't clear what videos produced the objections in these two cases. Some of their dance videos can be found on YouTube, though I don't know if they're the offending ones. You can search for them if you like, but if you;re in it for the art search for Samia Gamal or the others mentioned earlier instead or check out the links above. I may not consider their dancing up to snuff, but I don't really think jailing young women for dancing what was once a respected (if now declining and somewhat debased) art form is really Egypt's biggest problem right now.

The Coups of Summer, Revisited

Back in 2010, I did a post called "Summertime Arab Coups of he 50s, 60s, and  70s: Was it the Weather?" As we noted yesterday, Egypt's coup in 1952 was on July 23; in 1958 the Iraqi Monarchy was overthrown on July 14. While noting that coups were no longer common in the Arab world (except for Mauritania, which upholds the tradition) one has to wonder why coups were so common in the hottest months:

This is not as frivolous as it sounds. Last year the North African blogger who calls himself The Moor Next Door took the time and trouble to actually do spreadsheets and graphs of all Arab coups and attempted coups, and sure enough, he found a lot in the summertime: in fact, he found seven in July and five in August. These were by far the most except for the outlier November, which also had seven. (See his post here; a spreadsheet of coups here; and graphs of the data here.)

It does make you wonder. The Free Officers' coups in Egypt and Iraq are not alone: the Ba‘athist coup of July 17, 1968 was the key to the long rule of Saddam Hussein; in Syria, Husni Za‘im was overthrown in August 1949; in July 1963 a Nasserite counter-coup was put down bloodily; in Iraq Bakr Sidqi, who launched the first modern Arab coup in 1936, was assassinated in August 1937; a July 1971 coup in Sudan succeeded until Egyptian troops intervened to restore Ja‘far Numeiri; Sultan Qaboos of Oman deposed his father in July 1970; and so on. Mauritania, the only Arab country that still has coups these days, has had them (among others in other months) in July 1978, August 2005, and August 2008.

 But at the time, I was limiting myself to the Arab world. If we expand to the rest of the region, the "Operation Ajax" Anglo-American backed coup against Mohammed Mosaddeq in Iran in 1953 occurred on August 19. The 1960 coup in Turkey was on May 27 and the 1980 coup on September 12, nicely bracketing the summer.

And of course, returning to the Arab world, we have the Definitely-Not-a-Coup of June 30-July 3, 2013.
So I return to the earlier question, was it the heat, or what?

What Did and Did Not Happen on July 23, 1952

I've posted about the Egyptian coup/Revolution of July 23, 1952 every year since this blog began and don't want to repeat myself over much, but I thought I'd note for the record that not everything happened at once. Most modern Egyptian coverage of course focuses on the roles of Nasser and Sadat, although Egypt's first President Muhammad Naguib, has been rehabilitated from the "unperson" status to which he was subjected during the Nasser years.

‘Ali Maher Pasha

But if you look at the front page of al-Ahram above, you will note that neither Nasser nor Sadat nor even the Free Officers  as a whole are shown, but General Naguib standing next to a man with a mustache. That man is ‘Ali Maher, a civilian politician the Free Officers named as Prime Minister. ‘Ali Maher Pasha (the old honorific titles would go soon, but the headline refers to Nagub as Naguib Bek as well) had served as Prime Minister in the past, and the Army was not yet ready to govern directly, though Naguib became Minister of War and Navy.

Ex-King Farouq holds King Ahmad Fuad II

As I've noted here many times, the Free Officers also did not abolish the monarchy  right away. King Farouq was forced to abdicate on July 25 in favor of his six-month-old son, Ahmad Fuad II, who thus became Egypt's last King. Now living in Europe and in his early 60s, he still visits Egypt quietly from time to time.

The Regency Body: ‘Abd al-Mon‘eim, Barakat, Muhanna

Farouq sailed into exile on the royal yacht on July 26, taking the infant King Ahmad Fuad II with him, with sovereignty nominally vested in a three-man Regency Council appointed August 2,consisting of Prince Muhammad ‘Abd al-Mon‘eim, a son of Khedive  ‘Abbas Hilmi II and a collateral member of the Royal Family, Bahi al-Din  Barakat Pasha a former Speaker of Parliament, and Col. Rashad Muhanna, as the Free Officers' representative. This Regency Body (not formally a Council), would be short-lived.

Both the retention of the monarchy and the appointment of Maher were largely cosmetic, aimed at presenting the officers as reformers rather than revolutionaries, and the fig leaves were soon discarded, and at not giving Great Britain an excuse to intervene. (The Free Officers were in close touch with the Americans, as well.)

The Prince Regent

On September 7, the Regency Body was dissolved, and Prince ‘Abd al-Mon‘eim was named Prince Regent.

Ten days later, on September 17, ‘Ali Maher Pasha was also forced out, and General Naguib became the Prime Minister. By now it was cear that the Free Officers' Revolution Command Council (RCC) were running things, with Naguib at their head.

On June 18, 1953, nearly 11 months after the coup, the RCC announced the abolition of the monarchy, and Ahmad Fuad II's nominal rule was ended and Egypt declared a Republic. Naguib became Egypt's first President, while also retaining the titles of Prime Minister and Chairman of the RCC.

Nominally, holding those three titles gave Naguib much power, but the RCC took decisions by majority vote. Naguib, the only general officer in the group at the time of the coup and a man in his 50s, saw many things differently from a collection of colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors in their 30s. The younger men tended to align with Col. Gamal ‘Abdel Nasser, now a Deputy Prime Minister.

The rest of the tale is fairly well known. By February 1954 Nagub sought to demand real power and was briefly ousted by the RCC. The crisis was resolved after popular protests and Naguib was restored to the Presidency, but with Nasser as his Prime Minister and Chairman of the RCC. Nasser now held the real power and Naguib was mostly a figurehead from then until November of 1954, when he resigned. As the Nasser era evolved and propaganda intensified, Nasser was increasingly portrayed as the sole author of the coup. Though Naguib was rehabilitated in the end and now has a subway stop named for him, the roles of ‘Ali Maher, the Regency Body, and the Prince Regent are largely forgotten.

Naguib and the RCC, 1952

A Historical Mystery: What Movie(s), at What Theater, Did Anwar Sadat Attend the Evening of July 22, 1952?

As many of you will be aware, tomorrow, July 23, will mark 63 years since the Naguib/Nasser coup against King Farouq in Egypt.  It will be the seventh July 23 since I began this blog in 2009, and even a historian of Egypt starts to run out of ideas without repeating himself. I've read most though probably not all of the Free Officers' memoirs, but there are still some lingering mysteries. One involves the evening of July 22, the night before the coup, so I'll post it today rather than tomorrow.

Anwar Sadat's memoirs (or at least some of them; he retold his life several times), those of his wife Jehan, and most other standard accounts of the coup agree on one thing: Anwar Sadat, later Egypt's third President, nearly missed the coup because he was at the movies when his co-conspirators were trying to locate him. I am not the first person to wonder: what movie or movies were they watching, and at what theater? (Let me warn you now: at the end of this post, neither one of us will know the answer for certain.)

I can't answer the question, because Sadat, the old revolutionary and underground conspirator, never told us more than he wanted us to know, and he often told different stories, In the summer of 1981 on his last visit to Washington before his assassination, US media reported (I don't have the citation at hand but remember the event) that Sadat reportedly told President Ronald Reagan that he'd been attending one of Reagan's movies. I thought then and think now that Sadat, who had been lionized in the US media for the peace with Israel and was probably more popular in Washington than Cairo, was flattering Reagan and again rewriting his autobiography, though I suppose I could be wrong. Anyone with access to Egyptian newspaper files from 1952 who can check the cinema listings for July 22 might be able to confirm if any Reagan movies were playing that night.

The Sadat Autobiography Problem

I've never bothered because Sadat retold his life several times and each time told it a bit differently. I have sometimes wondered if by that summer of 1981, when he was lionized in America but jailing former allies in Egypt, if he was even certain of the truth of what happened in 1952: it's well known (ask NBC's Brian Williams) that if you keep telling the same story often enough you will believe it yourself.

In the 1950s when Sadat was editor of the popular revolutionary paper al-Goumhuriyya, he wrote his first round of memoirs: Al-Qissa al-Kamila min al-Thawra (The Complete Story of the Revolution, 1954), which must not really have been complete since in 1955 he wrote Safahat Majhula (Unknown Pages [of the Revolution]); and in 1957 the English-language account Revolt on the Nile, which is not in fact a translation of either of the Arabic works but does not contradict them. Then in 1958 came  Ya Waladi Hadha ‘Ammak Gamal: Mudhakirat Anwar al-Sadat (My Son: This is Your Uncle Gamal: The Memoirs of  Anwar al-Sadat).

That amounts to four memoirs of himself or the revolution in the Nasser era: the mere title of the last (the one I've never seen) indicating Sadat, as Editor of al-Goumhuriyya, was doing his job as a sycophantic propagandist for Nasser. Then. in 1978 after his trip to Jerusalem, came his official autobiography, called in Arabic Al-Bahth ‘an al-Dhat and in English, where it was a bestseller, In Search of Identity.

That's still not all. Sadat often retold stories of his life in speeches and, before his death in 1981 was retelling his life in a weekly feature in his National Democratic Party's weekly magazine Oktober. I have some of these in a file but not all, and have no idea if they were ever compiled.

Sadat may have come to believe his own retellings, or they could have been true and those written in the Nasser era mere sycophantic propaganda. Or, as I suspect is true of many political memoirs, they could be a melange of truth, self-justification, recycled and improved memories, inventions, and just plain bullshit. I'm guessing the Reagan tale falls in that last category, but may be wrong.

But to Return to July 22 . . .

Most biographical and autobiographical accounts agree that Sadat returned from deployment in Sinai, taking the train to Cairo because he had learned the coup was imminent. As no one from the Free Officers met him, he resolved to go with the family to the cinema. There is some confusion about who was along. Earlier accounts said his wife and children; In Search of Identity said his wife; Jehan Sadat's autobiography says her parents were invited and implies they attended. Sadat was late returning home, various accounts putting it at 11 or 12 pm.

Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, whose Autumn of Fury appeared after Sadat's assassination and repeats every scurrilous rumor he could find about the man who imprisoned him, alludes to an alleged tale that Sadat got into a public argument at the cinema, implying he was creating a public alibi if the coup failed, though even Heikal doesn't go so far as to insist the tale is true. There is no question that Sadat did join the plotters later that night, and broadcast the first announcement on he radio the next morning.

Many accounts suggest that the cinema in question was one of the outdoor "summer cinemas" common in Cairo in the days before widespread air conditioning. These open-air theaters (like American drive-ins but with folding chairs instead of car parking) were summer-only, opened at sundown, and ran two or three features, usually not first-run films. There were once dozens around Cairo. (A 2006 Egypt Today article by film director Mohamed Khan remembered these as well as the indoor downtown cinemas of the classic era; that site is no longer online, but you can find the text through the Wayback Machine, here.)

A few years ago a mailing list of old Cairo hands to which I belong was waxing nostalgic about these outdoor cinemas when an Egyptian contributor expressed the opinion that Sadat had attended either the old Cinema Rio in the Bab al-Luq/Midan Falaki neighborhood, or one of two open-air theaters on Manyal Roda, the names of which I don't recall, and I can't now find the post. (Anyone knowing please chime in in the comments.) I have no idea if that has any basis in fact, but I do remember the Cinema Rio, which was still in business in the 1970s. Back in 2011 CairObserver posted photos of the ruined hulk of the Rio today, for those who remember its glory days.

Does it matter which theater Sadat attended, or what film(s) he saw? Perhaps not in the greater scheme of things, but given the fact that Sadat nearly missing the revolution is a key bit of mythology about the 1952 coup, the inconsistencies in the accounts (and the story he told Reagan), it's an interesting little historical question. Anyone with answers, please comment below.

Theodore Bikel, 1924-2015: Folksinger for the Ages

A rather long post is coming this afternoon. Meanwhile: When the irreplaceable folk singer Pete Seeger died early last year, I ran a couple of posts about Seeger and the Middle East. One of these was to note a collaboration, as I described it then: "Pete Seeger, that other great [Jewish] folksinger Theodor Bikel, and Palestinian-Israeli poet Rashid Hussain sing about peace in Hebrew on Seeger's Rainbow Quest show in 1965. The song is "Hineh Mah Tov," meaning "How good and pleasant it is to sit as brothers together" (taken from Psalm 133). Unfortunately it's audio only."

The great Theodore Bikel has now left us at the age of 91, He could reportedly sing in 21 languages and was a great raconteur in several of them, so I must repeat it, again crediting my Managing Editor Jake Passel for introducing me to this:

Multiple Takes (Mostly Favorable) on the Iran Deal

With opponents of the Iran nuclear agreement being quite vocal right now,  I thought I'd collect some of the more reasonable discussions, especially by Iran experts and Israelis who back the deal.

• The Iran Project, "Statement by National Security Leaders on the Announcement of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action."
•  Robin Wright, The New Yorker, "Tehran's Promise: The revolution's midlife crisis and the nuclear deal."
• Shibley Telhami, Reuters, "Netanyahu steered U.S. toward war with Iran – the result is a deal he hates."
•  Americans for Peace Now, "Israeli Nuclear/Security Experts on the Iran Deal." I had already bookmarked many of these individually, such as Avner Cohen and Chuck Freilich, but the APN offers a great selection of quotes and links to Israeli supporters of the deal.
• Anthony H. Cordesman, "The Iran Nuclear Agreement and Conventi0onal Arms Transfers in the Gulf." Cordesman focuses not on the nuclear aspects but on the existing dominance of GCC arms purchases in the conventional sphere.

Finally, if all the heavy reading starts to get to you, Lebanese satirist karl Sharro explains it all at The Atlantic: "The Confused Peron's Guide to the Iran Deal: How the Arab Street Views the Agreement, in One Simple Diagram." [I'll let you click through to see the one "simple" diagram, but the fifth paragraph quoted below summarizes it in one extremely run-on sentence]:

In recent days, some Arab leaders have warned darkly about the consequences of the new nuclear agreement with Iran. But how controversial is the deal in Arab countries, really? How do Arabs feel?

As ever in situations like this, the media has proven indispensable in capturing what the “Arab Street” thinks about the deal. In The Independent, Robert Fisk went a step further and tried to imagine what Arabs think based on his long experience in the region, arguing with typical nuance and subtlety that “the Arabs at least will suspect the truth: that the Americans have taken the Shia Muslim side in the Middle East’s sectarian war.”

To investigate these portrayals of the Arab view of the deal, journalists affiliated with the Institute of Internet Diagrams spent hours in the legendary Arab Street itself. As every foreign reporter in the region knows, the best way to get to the Arab Street is to get in a taxi anywhere in the Arab world and ask to be driven to “the street.” (Don’t say the “Arab Street,” because it’s assumed.) 

The Arab Street is not as grand as you might imagine. It’s quite narrow and crowded, but it’s full of life, and the scent of spices wafts across it at regular intervals to ensure foreign correspondents are in the right frame of mind. Head straight to the busiest café; booking a table in advance will give customers time to put on traditional clothes for a more authentic feel.

Word on the Arab Street is that Barack Obama signed a nuclear deal with Iran so that he can extract concessions over Syria in return for Iran being allowed to control Iraq and for which it has to rein in the Houthis in Yemen to pacify the Saudis and simultaneously restrain Kurdish ambitions thus easing Turkey’s anxiety about Kurdish independence as an incentive for it to cooperate regionally allowing both Saudi Arabia and Turkey to come on board with Obama’s plan for Israel/Palestine which will also appease Egypt allowing it to play a bigger role in Libya to control the southern shores of the Mediterranean reducing migrant flows into Europe to ease the pressure on Greece and Italy for which Europe agrees to soften its stance against Russia allowing for a solution in Ukraine that allows NATO to maintain a presence in the East without threatening Russia which will be rewarded by removing the international sanctions against it allowing it to increase its trade with Europe.

Is Saudi Arabia's Hay'a Outlawing Rainbows?

Saudi Arabia's powerful Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, popularly known as the Hay'a ("Committee") or the Religious Police, is apparently determined to ban rainbows.
As Brian Whitaker notes at al-Bab:

Recent night-time pictures of the White House illuminated in rainbow colours, plus millions of rainbow-tinted profile photos on Facebook, have alerted Saudi Arabia's religious police to a previously unrecognised peril in their midst: the discovery that "emblems of homosexuality" are on public display in the birthplace of Islam.

But fear not. The haia (or the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, as it is officially known) is swinging into action to obliterate them.

The first casualty appears to be Talaee al-Noor International Schools in Riyadh, whose building proved a bit too gaily painted for the religious police:

It has now been repainted in the colour of a blue rainbow-free sky.

Strictly speaking, the offending colours were not quite those of the customary rainbow flag or, for that matter, an actual rainbow, but they seem to have been close enough to set alarm bells ringing. According to one of the haia's Twitter accounts, the school (which it hastens to point out is a "foreign" one) has been fined 100,000 riyals ($26,650) for "placing the emblem of the homosexuals" on display.

It adds that the person in the school who was responsible for the emblem has been taken to prison to await prosecution.

Whitaker illustrated his piece with a picture of a rainbow-colored Qur'an, which apparently is real and has proven popular in Southeast Asia.

Suruç and the Turkish Political Stalemate

The Suruç bombing in Turkey, which killed 31 has exacerbated the uncertainties about the country's political future, since there is still no coalition in sight and the possibility of new elections remains an option. The opposition to the AKP is already blaming that party's alleged tolerant attitudes toward the Islamic State for the Suruç bombing, and clashes between police and pro-Kurdish demonstrators in Istanbul after Suruç are a reminder that the fighting between Kurdish factions in Iraq and Syria against ISIS can have repercussions inside Turkey. With no clear coalition in sight weeks after the June 7, the Turkish government's freedom of action is also limited. Turkey's rather ambivalent attitude toward the Islamic State may be coming home to roost.

ISIS' "Archaeology Book Club Reading List"

The Conflict Antiquities blog has for some time now been documenting (and occasionally debunking) allegations of the Islamic State destruction of antique sites and also its efforts to sell on the international black market those antique artifacts small enough to transport.

Now it offers evidence that appears to show that Islamic State fighters have been systematically collecting a reading list on Syrian antiquities and especially ancient coins: "Islamic State archaeology book club reading list – deliberately acquired and transported in conflict."

‘Id Mubarak wa Sa‘id!

May peace and happiness embrace my Muslim readers and the Muslim world among the blessings of ‘Id al-Fitr. ‘Id Mubarak wa Sa‘id!

Whatever You Think of the Iran Deal, Why are so Few Mentioning that Today was the 70th Anniversary of the Trinity Test?

Seventy years ago today, on the appropriately named Jornada del Muerto of New Mexico, the world's first nuclear explosion, codenamed Trinity, burst, in Robert Oppenheimer;s words, "brighter than a thousand suns." As we still wrestle with putting that genie back into its bottle, it seems worthwhile noting the anniversary.

‘Id al-Fitr Expected to Begin Tomorrow

Today is the 29th or Ramadan; by astronomical calculation ‘Id al-Fitr is expected to begin tomorrow for most countries in the Mideast and the West, though those countries which require  visual sighting of the new moon, or due to time zone differences, may begin a day later and tomorrow will be considered the 30th of Ramadan rather than the 1st of Shawwal. (But there are reports the new moon has been seen in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia already.) It appears most mosques in the US are beginning the ‘Id tomorrow, so let me wish ‘Id Mubarak in advance to my Muslim readers.

Islamic State's "Sinai Province" Claims Credit for Setting Egyptian Naval Vessel Afire

An Egyptian Naval patrol boat has been set afire after being hit by an apparent missile in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sinai. The Islamic State's affiliated "Sinai Province" (wilayat Sina') has claimed responsibility. See reports here, here, and here. Official reports said the crew were evacuated by other vessels without casualties.

The attack comes as Egypt announced it had completed dredging of the new channel in the Suez Canal and prepares for its grand opening, adding to fears of a possible attack on the Canal.. It also came as the Interior Ministry fired the Director of Security for Cairo Government, apparently due to recent attacks and bombings in the capital.
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For Those Who Actually Want to Read the Iran Deal Before Expressing an Opinion . . .

. . . you can find the text here.

July 14, 1915: Sharif Hussein of Mecca Writes a Letter to Sir Henry McMahon and Begins a "Correspondence" with His new Pen Pal

Sharif (Later King) Hussein

A century ago today, Sharif Hussein of Mecca wrote a letter in Arabic to Sir Henry McMahon, British "High Commissioner" (but effectively, Viceroy) in Egypt.

This was somewhat unusual, since Hussein was the traditional ruler of Mecca under the Ottomans, who were at war with Great Britain.

McMahon (Seven Pillars)

If you have ever taken a course on the Modern Middle East or the Arab-Israeli Conflict you will have had to study the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence (if you studied in Britain you may know it as the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence). Most of the controversy arises from an October 24, 1915 letter in which Sir Henry spelled out the exceptions Britain was making to the promise of Arab independence. (The Sykes-Picot Agreement would undermine it anyway, but did they include or exclude Palestine?) But that's a tale for another day, which most of my readers probably already know. The Correspondence led directly to the Arab Revolt in 1916, and whether Britain betrayed the promises made to Hussein became a major topic of postwar debate.

But the Correspondence began with Hussein's first letter, dated a century ago today. (Note that McMahon was a product of the Raj, not an Arabist, and the McMahon Line between India/Pakistan and Afghanistan, and India and China, are named for him. The McMahon letters to Hussein were probably mostly produced through Oriental Secretary Ronald Storrs and the British Foreign Office, though McMahon signed them.) The whole correspondence can be found a number of places online, such as here.

The first letter, proposing an alliance, in full except for the florid Arab greetings:

Whereas the whole of the Arab nation without any exception have decided in these last years to accomplish their freedom, and grasp the reins of their administration both in theory and practice; and whereas they have found and felt that it is in the interest of the Government of Great Britain to support them and aid them in the attainment of their firm and lawful intentions (which are based upon the maintenance of the honour and dignity of their life) without any ulterior motives whatsoever unconnected with this object;

And whereas it is to their (the Arabs') interest also to prefer the assistance of the Government of Great Britain in consideration of their geographic position and economic interests, and also of the attitude of the above-mentioned Government, which is known to both nations and therefore need not be emphasized;

For these reasons the Arab nation sees fit to limit themselves, as time is short, to asking the Government of Great Britain, if it should think fit, for the approval, through her deputy or representative, of the following fundamental propositions, leaving out all things considered secondary in comparison with these, so that it may prepare all means necessary for attaining this noble purpose, until such time as it finds occasion for making the actual negotiations:

Firstly.- England will acknowledge the independence of the Arab countries, bounded on the north by Mersina and Adana up to the 37th degree of latitude, on which degree fall Birijik, Urfa, Mardin, Midiat, Jezirat (Ibn 'Umar), Amadia, up to the border of Persia; on the east by the borders of Persia up to the Gulf of Basra; on the south by the Indian Ocean, with the exception of the position of Aden to remain as it is; on the west by the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea up to Mersina. England to approve the proclamation of an Arab Khalifate of Islam.

Secondly.- The Arab Government of the Sherif will acknowledge that England shall have the preference in all economic enterprises in the Arab countries whenever conditions of enterprises are otherwise equal.

Thirdly.- For the security of this Arab independence and the certainty of such preference of economic enterprises, both high contracting parties will offer mutual assistance, to the best ability of their military and naval forces, to face any foreign Power which may attack either party. Peace not to be decided without agreement of both parties.

Fourthly.- If one of the parties enters into an aggressive conflict, the other party will assume a neutral attitude, and in case of such party wishing the other to join forces, both to meet and discuss the conditions.

Fifthly.- England will acknowledge the abolition of foreign privileges in the Arab countries, and will assist the Government of the Sherif in an International Convention for confirming such abolition.

Sixthly.- Articles 3 and 4 of this treaty will remain in vigour for fifteen years, and, if either wishes it to be renewed, one year's notice before lapse of treaty is to be given.

Consequently, and as the whole of the Arab nation have (praise be to God) agreed and united for the attainment, at all costs and finally, of this noble object, they beg the Government of Great Britain to answer them positively or negatively in a period of thirty days after receiving this intimation; and if this period should lapse before they receive an answer, they reserve to themselves complete freedom of action. Moreover, we (the Sherif's family) will consider ourselves free in work and deed from the bonds of our previous declaration which we made through Ali Effendi.