Table Of ContentNASSER'S
BLESSED MOVEMENT
STUDIES IN MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY
Bernard Lewis, Itamar Rabinovich, and Roger Savory
GENERAL EDITORS
THE TURBAN FOR THE CROWN
The Islamic Revolution in Iran
Said Amir Arjomand
LANGUAGE AND CHANGE IN THE ARAB MIDDLE EAST
The Evolution of Modern Arabic Political Discourse
Ami Ayalon
IRAN'S FIRST REVOLUTION
Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909
Mangol Bayat
ISLAMIC REFORM
Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria
David Dean Commins
KING HUSSEIN AND THE CHALLENGE OF ARAB RADICALISM
Jordan, 1955-1967
Uriel Dann
EGYPT, ISLAM, AND THE ARABS
The Search for Egyptian Nationhood, 1900-1930
Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski
EAST ENCOUNTERS WEST
France and the Ottoman Empire in the Eighteenth Century
Fatma Miige Gogek
NASSER'S BLESSED MOVEMENT
Egypt's Free Officers and the July Revolution
Joel Gordon
THE FERTILE CRESCENT, 1800-1914
A Documentary Economic History
Edited by Charles Issawi
ESTRANGED BEDFELLOWS
Britain and France in the Middle East during the Second World War
Aviel 'Roshwald
OTHER VOLUMES ARE IN PREPARATION
NASSER'S
BLESSED MOVEMENT
Egypt's Free Officers
and the July Revolution
JOEL GORDON
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1992
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York Toronto
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi
Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town
Melbourne Auckland
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1992 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gordon, Joel.
Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and
the July revolution / Joel Gordon,
p. cm. — (Studies in Middle Eastern history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-506935-8
1. Egypt—Politics and government—1952 I. Title.
II. Series: Studies in Middle Eastern history (New York, N.Y.)
DT107.83.G67 1991
962—dc20 91-16836 CIP
246897531
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Acknowledgments
I conceptualized this book as a study of the historical revisionism of a
foundational revolutionary period in Egypt's national history. Anwar al-
Sadat had dominated Arab politics throughout the period of my university
education. In 1979 I saw his larger-than-life-sized portraits all over Cairo.
When I returned in 1982, eight months after his death, most billboards
had come down, some, but not nearly all, replaced by more sedate por-
traits of Hosni Mubarak. Egypt seemed changed in many ways. I sensed
something larger than one leader seeking to establish his own identity.
Egyptians appeared to be looking backward as much as ahead, some to
Nasser but many to figures and symbols of the prerevolutionary ancien
regime. When I returned to Egypt to commence this study in 1984, I no
sooner alighted in central Cairo than a picture of Muhammad Nagib
jumped out at me from a curbside book display, with a title proclaiming "I
was President of Egypt!" Closer examination revealed scores of books and
magazine articles on the origins of the revolution by other participants,
winners and losers. On building walls I saw posters of Nahhas Pasha; across
from my apartment an old villa was being whitewashed and converted into
Wafd headquarters. As I describe in the prologue, not one but a variety of
revisions of Egypt's recent revolutionary past were being proffered—and
debunked—simultaneously.
This book originated as a doctoral dissertation in a not-too-distant past.
My understanding of Egypt has been shaped in large part by my graduate
mentor, Richard Mitchell. To Dick I brought my initial, confused impres-
sions of what I had seen in 1982—1983. Old-regime Cairo enchanted me, and
having grown up in Cook County, Illinois, I found the politics of the pashas
familiar, so I thought to look at the fall of the parliamentary regime. Dick
urged me to explore the early years of the revolution in detail. He had been
in Egypt in the early 1950s and insisted the officers' consolidation looked, in
retrospect, so crafted that the the possibilities, the hopes and fears, the
spontaneity of the revolutionary moment had been forgotten. I set out to
explore that spontaneity, and in so doing to analyze both the fall of an old
order and rise of the new. Dick died in Cairo a year later; he did not live to
read, question, or challenge my perspective on events that had so influenced
vi Acknowledgments
his own understanding of Egypt. But his formative influence, as on so many
fellow students, remains indelible, and I hope he would approve.
Many others, in many ways, deserve thanks for their assistance, criti-
cism, and inspiration. The final interpretations are mine, as are most transla-
tions and transliterations, but the stamp of others is present, and I think my
work better for it. Very special thanks are due C. Ernest Dawn, who intro-
duced me to Middle Eastern history as an undergraduate and has remained a
constant supporter and friendly critic, and whose recognition of me as a
colleague has meant the most to me. Wilfrid Rollman, who read this in
roughest form and helped me find a few diamonds in it, taught me to "wait
until the buckets are at eye level" and convinced me that the pashas were,
after a fashion, ward bosses in fezzes. One line borrowed from Mayor Daley
is for him. Juan Cole pushed me to ask broader questions, to look beyond
specific time and place, beyond the level of politics and politicians. Nathan
Brown and Robert Vitalis, my shilla in Dar al-Kutub, read this in its most
primitive scratches, filled the margins with commentary and a few well
pointed barbs, and rooted for me during early conference presentations.
Charles C. Stewart, James Jankowski, Donald Reid, Marvin Weinbaum,
Andrew Ehrenkreutz, and Bradford Perkins all asked tought questions, and
lent expertise, encouragement, and advice at one step or another. Ralph
Coury and Carl Petry made the old regime come alive. Paul Woodward
shared in exploring the back alleys of the Gamaliya, the good and bad times
of roughly a decade, and ceaselessly corrected myfusha.
A Fulbright-Hays fellowship funded my research in Egypt and England.
The American Research Center in Egypt helped facilitate that research and
offered a base of operations. The Center for Near Eastern and North African
Studies and Department of History at the University of Michigan funded
preliminary research and writing. Gary Porton and Tadahisa Kuroda each did
their utmost to encourage and enhance my writing when I held visiting
teaching positions under their direction at the University of Illinois and
Skidmore College. Staff members of Dar al-Kutub in Cairo, the Public Rec-
ords Office in Kew Gardens, and the National Archives in Washington,
D.C., and John Eilts, then Near Eastern librarian at the University of Michi-
gan, and Elizabeth Barlow of the Near East Center deserve thanks for count-
less instances of assistance. At Oxford University Press, Nancy Lane, Paul
Schlotthauer, and David Roll have guided this to print with what seems to
me remarkable ease.
I am in great debt to the many informants who welcomed me into their
homes and offices and who were willing to share with me some of their time,
memories, and insights into Egypt's recent past. It is their thoughts and
descriptions of events that allowed me to write with greater confidence about
a period which they, not I, experienced. Several are no longer living, and I
feel fortunate to have met and shared some time with them. No doubt some
of my informants will disagree with at least some of my conclusions. I only
ask their trust that I tried to listen to each with an open mind and weigh their
words with care before writing any of my own.
Acknowledgments vii
I have also learned much from Egyptian scholars. During my stays in
Egypt I attended a weekly seminar on modern Egyptian history at 'Ayn
Shams University, and in one session, memorable at least to me, was able to
present some of my ideas before Egypt's most eminent professors. I am
grateful to them for encouraging a khawaga to study their history.
Away from the strict bounds of academia: Thanks to 'Amm Salih for killing
the rat, and to 'Amm Ibrahim for that most Egyptian gesture of hospitality:
handing me a glass of water to drink on my departure, "'ashan tigi tani."
Soon, God willing. I hope I can climb the pyramids at age seventy with the
same zest as my cousin, Bernie Sevin. My parents, Aaron and Ellie Gordon,
have been constant in their support, and model teachers. I have much to
thank them for, not least the love of books and travel, a sense of compassion
and humor, and learning to appreciate the muezzin's call at daybreak. I have
been most fortunate to share a bit of the Middle East with my sister Becky,
and with my brother David under the big top, a part of this country I
otherwise would never have seen.
JoAnn D'Alisera told me early on she was the best thing that ever hap-
pened to me. I'm still not sure how she knew so soon. She has given me
more than she'll ever know, or I can ever express. This book is for her. Ana
lik 'ala tul.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania J. G.
August 1991
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A Note on Transliteration
Transliteration is according to the Library of Congress system, but, after
Lawrence, I have taken some liberties. The symbol' represents an ayan, and
an alif in middle or final position. I have chosen to avoid cumbersome
diacritical marks. Several names (Nasser, Farouk) are rendered as in common
usage. Personal names of people and places in which the letter jim occurs are
rendered to reflect Cairene Egyptian dialect by g in the text, including any
text in end notes, and the index. This is purely a personal decision. For two
years I lived as "Goel," and to my ears and eyes Nasser can only be Gamel,
his rival Nagib. For reference citations in the notes and bibliography, how-
ever, I have resorted to j; Nagib in the text becomes Najib. Journal and book
titles retain the j throughout.
