Port Said and Ismailia as Desert Marvels: Delusion and Frustration on the Isthmus of Suez, 1859-1869

Abstract

In April 1859, one hundred and fifty laborers gathered on Egypt’s northern shore. When pickaxes first hit the land to be parted from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, not only was the Suez Canal initiated, but the coastal city of Port Said was also born. Two more cities, Ismailia (1862) and Port Tewfik (1867), were later founded along the waterway. This article analyzes the ways in which the environment of the isthmus of Suez changed upon the digging of the canal as well as the ideas that germinated around such changes. By relying on published memoirs, travel accounts, and archival documents, I explore how Western contemporaries viewed the isthmus desert and constructed narratives around the urbanization and the peopling of the area. I argue that they sanctioned the myth that Western initiative alone could transform the isthmus sands into flower gardens, thus disregarding realities on the ground.

Revitalizing Urban Governance: Integrating Smart Growth and Decolonial Perspectives for Municipal Empowerment in Shaping Growth Across Egyptian Desert Landscapes

“…Additionally, during the early stages of their growth, both cities operated independently of any municipal jurisdictions associated with state municipal jurisdictions. Port Said was established in 1859, while Ismailia was transformed from an old village into a city in 1864 (Carminati, 2019). The planning of both cities revealed a colonial influence, particularly evident in the design of the European neighbourhoods and Arab quarters.…”

Suez: A hollow canal in need of peopling. Currents and stoppages in the historiography, 1859–1956

“…A “myth of Suez” as a universalist utopia of a unified and reconciled modern world thus came to life, as Sarga Moussa aptly points out. Founded on the apparent triumph of technological progress, “it poorly camouflaged the political, economic, and social asymmetries that would lead to the weakening of the Egyptian state, and then to its notorious colonial history” (Carminati, 2020; Moussa, 2019, p. 66).…”

“…Not coincidentally, it happened to be reprinted by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture through the government press in 2015. In August that year, President Abdel Fattah El‐Sisi's regime inaugurated the so‐called “new” Suez Canal with a symbolic display of singing children, military uniforms, international guests, and the revived khedivial yacht Al‐Maḥrūsa along with pharaonic iconography (Carminati, 2020, p. 45, 2019; Searight, 2016, p. 99). Rather than critical infrastructure bent to dramatically improve global trade, the Canal expansion appears to be part of Sisi's plan to attract additional foreign investment and boost the economy at the cost of trampling human rights and the environment (Hazekamp et al., 2016, p. 22).…”

“…Founded on the apparent triumph of technological progress, "it poorly camouflaged the political, economic, and social asymmetries that would lead to the weakening of the Egyptian state, and then to its notorious colonial history" (Carminati, 2020;Moussa, 2019, p. 66).…”

An Unhappy Happy Port: Fin-de-siècle Port Said and Its Connections and Disconnections of Water and Iron

“…54 Western contemporaries often approached the canal region as an isolated desert that French genius and the Suez Canal Company's technological innovations had turned into a hospitable and lush corridor. 55 In this view, Port Said amounted to a sheer European enclave; 56 no more than the creation of a company under a "universal" name, but mostly foreign and distant from Egypt's governmental purview and population. 57 Some in Egypt as well may have deemed this area marginal and under the full control of foreigners.…”