Rushdi Said-Science & Politics in Egypt - A Life's Journey-The American University in Cairo Press (2004)

Science and Politics in Egypt
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Science and
Politics in Egypt
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Science and
Politics in Egypt
A Lifes Journey
Rushdi Said
The American University in Cairo Press

Cairo - New York
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The American University in Cairo Press

113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
www.aucpress.com
Copyright 2004 by Rushdi Said
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,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Dar el Kutub No. 7951/04
ISBN 977 424 861 9
Designed by Fatiha Bouzidi/AUC Press Design Center
Printed in Egypt
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Dedicated to my grandchildren
Nadia, Mariam, and Adam Said,
and Nefret, Ramsey, and Isis Hanna
So that they may know how they came to be born
and raised in the United States
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Contents
Illustrations
Preface
ix
xi
1 Roots
The Search for Roots
1
12
2 The Formative Years

Events That Shaped My Formative Years
The 1923 Constitution and the Wafd Party
World War II and the Revolution of 1952
The Rise of the Religious Right in Egypt
21
31
31
39
41
3 Ventures in Science: My Years at the University

and the Mining Organization, 19411978
The Beginnings of My Practical Life
The University
The Mining Organization
The Geological Survey and Mining Authority
Assessing the Ore Deposits
Toward a New Mining Industry
Exiting Public Ofce
47
47
51
73
81
99
101
121
4 Ventures in Politics, 19611976

My Years in Parliament
The Interparliamentary Union
125
132
145
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The General Secretariat of the Arab Socialist Union

The Political Establishment
152
162
5 Years of Hope and Despair, 19681981

Retreating to the Desert
The Crisis of 1981
167
182
190
6 My Life as an Egyptian American, 19812003

New World
203
207
Chronological Table of Events

Index
221
229
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Illustrations
Between pages 128 and 129
The authors mother at her graduation, June 1899
The authors father, 1911
The cover of al-Musawwar magazine, 3 September 1926
Yaqub Fam, 1937
Students and faculty of the Geology Department, Faculty of
Science, 1939
Permit issued by Egyptian Intelligence to the author in 1941
to visit Gebel Muqattam
The class of the marine biological lab, Woods Hole,
Massachusetts, 1949
In front of the Sphinx, 1951
In the laboratory, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, 1957
At the Industrial Fair, 1969
In front of the experimental mine, Abu Tartur plateau, 1971
At the end of the 1974 season at Bir Tarfawi
At the Interparliamentary Conference, Tokyo, 1974
With Coy Squyres at a reception in 1977
Professor Scholz conferring the Nachtigal Medal, 1986
The authors house in Kharga Oasis, 1978
Relaxing on the Congress lawn, Washington DC, 1996
Celebrating the authors eightieth birthday, 1999
With Wadad, 2003
In front of the auditorium named after the author, 2004
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Preface
his is the English edition of my autobiography, a work that was

originally written in Arabic and published on the occasion of my
eightieth birthday in the year 2000. This autobiography recounts
some of the events and experiences of my life, my reaction to them, and
the impressions that they left on me. I wrote these from memory without resorting to any written diary, since I have never kept one. Many of
the impressions included in this book have previously been expressed in
my writings and speeches, recorded in the minutes of the board meetings
and committees on which I sat, and articulated in the extensive correspondence that I conducted over the years with my colleagues, friends,
and business associates. Many of these documents and personal papers,
however, are no longer in my possession. They were lost during the many
moves I had to make in the latter years of my life.
This autobiography would not have been possible without the support of my wife Wadad, whose name does not appear in this autobiography except for a mere sixteen lines in which I relate the story of our rst
meeting some fty-ve years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where
we were studying at Harvard and Radcliffe. Wadad deserves a bigger
place in this autobiography, and it was on her request that I did not elaborate on the most important role she has played in shaping my life and
in giving me the support that I badly needed many a time. She has been
a source of inspiration, the comforting soul, the intelligent and engaged
partner in the full sense of the word, the wise and loving wife, and the
devoted mother. I also would like to add a word of thanks to my son
Kareem and my daughter Sawsan who were keen to see this autobiogra-
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phy translated into English; Kareem has helped in the translation of

many of its chapters.
In writing this autobiography at the ripe age of eighty I felt free to
describe and interpret the events that I have lived through as candidly as
I could. I left no pertinent subject untouched, including those that refer
to the problems that plague Egyptian society and that tradition and custom have rendered taboo and off limits. At this age I can afford to handle these problems with less discretion, for I have no longer any interests to protect or ambitions to aspire to. Despite the fact that these are
issues that affect the lives of everyone, their very existence is denied and
discussing them is considered inappropriate and in bad taste. In going
against this tradition I feel that I have not only made this autobiography
as candid as I could but have also brought to the fore some of the problems that need to be the subject of public debate. This aspect may
explain why this autobiography was met with great enthusiasm when it
rst appeared in Arabic. It attracted the attention of many commentators, was reviewed extensively in the press and was the subject of at least
two extensive television programs that were aired many times. In 2003
the autobiography was chosen by the Egyptian Book Authority to be
reprinted in a paperback edition.
I lived in Egypt most of my mature life, and moved to the United
States to make it my home late in life and under circumstances that the
reader will see were not of my own making. I love Egypt and have lived
all my life dreaming of seeing it occupy a position that is worthy of its
glorious history and betting its unique human and natural potential. In
this autobiography the reader will become aware of some of the hurdles
that prevent Egypt from achieving this goal.
Apart from the chapters that deal with my roots and formative years,
the bulk of the autobiography deals with my work in Egypt in the elds
of science and politics. This is the work in which I feel I have made my
most important contributions and for which I will most likely be
remembered. As late as this year (2003), the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists found no better citation for the Pioneer Award
that it bestowed upon me than the mention of my contributions to the
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geology of Egypt and the Middle East, which opened vast areas of application in the eld of petroleum geology. Despite the fact that I have
spent well over a quarter of my life as a private citizen in the United
States, my ties to Egypt continue. After a few years of my stay in the
United States, during which I was fully engaged in my own private work
as an international consultant, I came back to direct the bulk of my work
to Egypt and the Middle East region. The last chapter of this autobiography deals with that stage of my life and includes my observations on
the status of the Egyptian-American community and also on the nature
of the complex Egyptian-American relationships.
My ventures in science and politics in Egypt took place during the
three and a half decades that followed the end of World War II in 1945.
These were the years of the Cold War that raged between the two superpowers that emerged after the end of the war. They were years of great
tension but also of a relative peace that was maintained by the fear of
annihilation that the two superpowers harbored should the weapons of
mass destruction that they had developed and amassed during and
immediately after the war be used. During these years there was room
for third world countries to maneuver and to work in a somewhat independent or non-aligned way. During the thirty-year period that followed the end of World War II Egypt made use of this situation and
chose the path of non-alignment. It was able to change its landscape and
embark on an ambitious program of development. It built the Aswan
High Dam that regulated the waters of the Nile and thereby converted
Egypt into a modern nation that no longer had to live with the vagaries
of the river, fearing the high oods that could inundate its land or the
low oods that could cause scarcity in its water supply. It also embarked
on an industrialization program that allowed Egypt to have a diversied
economy and to create a cadre of entrepreneurs, managers, engineers,
and scientists to manage it. My association with this program enabled
me to do things that only my generation can boast of having had the
chance to do. In addition to having had the opportunity of building up a
new school of research in the university and reorganizing a scientic
institution, I planned and supervised the opening of new mines, the lay-
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ing down of railway lines, the building of a new harbor on the Red Sea,
the construction of housing projects, and many other undertakings. This
episode of Egypts history of non-alignment suffered a blow with the
defeat of the Arab armies in the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War. It was
terminated altogether after the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when the
new leadership of Egypt decided to shift course and part from the nonalignment policy. This shift was undertaken in a way that did not benet
Egypt. The 1970s saw the neglect and nal dissolution of the industrialization program that Egypt had embarked upon, and the rise of a new
class of corrupt beneciaries. The shift was also marked by the governments adoption of a policy that led to the introduction of religion in politics. My impressions of this phase of Egypts history are quite negative,
as the reader will nd out in the course of reading.
Throughout my mature years living in Egypt, the system of government was repressive in the main. It was unfortunate that the system did
not develop into a more open form of government to respond to the
aspirations of the vibrant new middle class that arose as a result of the
industrialization program that the country had undertaken. The system
clung to its old methods of holding to the reins of power and not allowing any participation on the part of the public in running its own affairs.
It did not allow the people to decide who should occupy any of the public posts that affected their lives. All these posts, from the mayor of the
village to the prime minister, were not decided by popular vote; all were
appointed by a government decree through a process that was not transparent. The appointed functionaries were accountable only to those who
had appointed them and owed nothing to the people. This led to the rise
of an inefcient system of government that was run for the benet of a
few. Under such a system, the managing of a business was extremely
difcult. It was almost impossible to bring any business project to
fruition without resorting to corrupt practices or using someone in
power for mediation.
Among other restrictions that the government enforced and that
were contrary to the aspirations of the rising middle class was the denial
of the right of the people to assemble freely. This stied the develop-
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ment of institutions of civil society, in the absence of which people

reverted to congregate around their religious institutions, submitting to
the leadership of the clergy. This situation, which holds great danger for
the future of Egypt, has never been the subject of public debate. Its discussion is avoided and feared although it is of the utmost importance in
determining the path of Egypt in future years.
One topic, which the reader will notice I have repeatedly returned to
in the pages of this book, is the position of the Coptic minority within
the context of the nation state. As a member of this minority this issue
had haunted me since my return from my mission of study abroad in
1951. Before that time, it represented no issue at all. In these early years,
and as a result of the national revolution of 1919, national unity was a
goal that every member of society, regardless of religious afliation, had
worked for. The Copts were totally integrated within the nation. It was
only in the years following the defeat and humiliation of the 1948 debacle and the tragic loss of Palestine that the question of the rights and
position of the Copts within the nation state started to surface, admittedly low-keyed at the beginning. However, the Coptic problem was
totally ignored and intentionally avoided or assumed to be non-existent
until it ared up in incidents of violence resulting in the loss of lives and
property. These incidents tarnished the image of Egypt and cast doubt
on the ability of the government to abide by the norms of a civilized
society. The Coptic problem is a national problem that concerns every
Egyptian. Its ultimate solution lies in the revival of the principles of tolerance that Egypt has lived by throughout its modern history and in the
reform of its educational system that has been hijacked by ignorant
zealots. The big crack in national unity is only one disastrous result of
that educational system; other consequences include the graduation of
inept generations of professionals who will not be able to run the daily
affairs of the country with any efciency.
It is clear that the secularist liberal ideas that Egypt had espoused
after the 1919 revolution and which had empowered Egyptians to choose
their own government were unable to withstand the momentous events
that befell Egypt in the years that followed World War II. The most con-
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sequential of these events was the 1948 war that resulted in the establishment of the state of Israel. The loss of that war effectively wiped out
all hope in the existing regimes and in the liberal secularist ideas that
they had embraced. It inamed the spirit of revolution that nally erupted in 1952 when a small group of army ofcers under the leadership of
Gamal Abd al-Nasser took control. The 1952 revolution came at a time
when the ideas of the 1919 revolution and the institutions that it had created had already been weakened by the continuous onslaught of many
forces. These included the king, who did not want his powers to be curtailed, the British colonial power, which did not want to heed the calls to
evacuate Egypt, and the religious right, which feared losing its sway
should the progressive movement build momentum.
I lived my mature years with the 1952 revolution and its tumultuous
events, in many of which I participated. During those years I had hoped
that the revolution would restore the principles of the liberal movement
that had been established by our fathers, now that all the forces that had
fought against them had disappeared from the scene. I had hoped to see
the revolution adopting these principles and starting to build a viable
and proper democratic system of government. Unfortunately the many
monumental challenges that the revolution had to face from inside and
outside frustrated this hope and gave rise instead to ideas that justied
the undemocratic measures it had to take to secure its own safety as well
as the safety of the country itself. The great accomplishments of the revolution were marred by the manner in which they were executed beyond
the bounds of the formal institutions of society, without accountability
or impartial surveillance. This not only enfeebled the existing formal
institutions but it curtailed the development of a civil society, halted initiative, and dealt a blow to the merit system. As the reader will recognize, it took a lot of maneuvering to achieve any constructive work in
this difcult and daunting atmosphere.
At the end of the book the reader will nd a chronological table of some
of the major events frequently referred to in this book. Readers who are not
familiar with recent Egyptian history may nd it useful to refer to it in
order to follow the sequence of events mentioned in the autobiography.
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1
Roots
ike most other children of my generation, I was raised in a family that showed no interest whatsoever in the question of its roots.
The question was not a subject of conversation in my family and
I do not remember that my parents ever talked to me about it or bothered to convey to me any information pertaining to the history or origins
of their families. It was as if they were intentionally avoiding the subject.
I suspect that this was not unique to my family but was common to most
Egyptian families. It may have been due to the fact that they either took
their history for granted or that they found it so full of suffering that
they preferred to ignore it altogether. The many years of oppression,
misery, and injustice that the Egyptians had to endure under foreign rule,
generation after generation, seem to have left them with a memory that
no one was proud of. When agriculture was the main source of wealth,
up to the beginning of the industrial revolution, the fertile land of Egypt
made it one of the richest countries in the world and the prize that was
sought after by every conqueror. For close to three thousand years Egypt
remained under continuous foreign occupation. During this long time
the Egyptians became serfs on their own land, tilling and cultivating it
for the benet of their rulers, who gave them hardly anything in return
and bestowed upon them no rights. It is no wonder that the family history of an average Egyptian is too painful to remember or to document.
I remained oblivious of my roots until 1948, when an incident that
took place in the British Museum in London sparked my interest. Not
only did it make me conscious of my roots but it also made me realize that
anyones roots are worthy of being known and traced. In February of that
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year, while visiting London on my way to the United States from

Switzerland, where I had done part of my studies, I decided to visit the
famed British Museum, which I had always yearned to see. This was my
rst visit to London, a city that I had always wanted to visit by virtue of
the fact that it was the capital of the empire that had ruled Egypt for a
period of time and had made a great impact on it. London was then a
purely English city. It had very little foreign presence and there was hardly any other language spoken on its streets but English. The city was quiet,
the cars were few and the trafc owed smoothly. The price of hotel
accommodation, even the nest, was reasonable and within the reach of a
student like myself. The effects of World War II were clearly visible everywhere. The buildings were shabby even though they still kept a great deal
of their old splendor. Food was still rationed and the few cars that were
running on the streets were old. Many of the comforts that I had expected were not there, for the war had forced the city to be parsimonious and
Spartan. Hot water was available only for a few hours a day in its houses
and even in the best of its hotels. Air conditioning was unknown to any of
its buildings, including the nest of its public places. Three years after the
end of the war, its effects were still felt in Britain and in every other country in Europe, including those that did not even enter it. Landlocked
Switzerland, which had remained neutral and was not party to the war, suffered from a shortage of gas to fuel any cars on its roads. The few cars that
were allowed to run were emergency cars fueled by gas distilled from coal
in little carts that were hauled behind them. I saw the streets of Zurich,
when I rst reached it in 1945, with hardly any cars.
I entered the British Museum and went directly to the Ancient
Egyptian section to see the antiquities that had been hauled en masse
from my country and in particular the famed Rosetta Stone. As I was
looking at a limestone statue in the Old Kingdom section, I noticed an
English lady staring at me. Initially this made me slightly uncomfortable,
but she quickly came over to me. You are undoubtedly an Egyptian, she
said. I was astonished by her remark. How did you know? I asked.
With her hand pointing at the statue, she replied, Cant you see the similarity between the two of you? I looked again at the statue; it was of a
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nobleman from the Fourth Dynasty. I immediately saw the similarity.

This incident ignited my curiosity to learn more about my roots and the
relationship that I may have had with the ancient Egyptians. It made me
realize for the rst time, and contrary to what I had been taught at
school, that there is something that links me with these ancient people.
In the schools I had attended, Ancient Egypt was depicted as another
country that had no relationship to the Egypt we live in today. We were
taught to disown its people whom we were led to believe were pagans
living in the age of ignorance. I am almost certain that the present-day
school curriculum is just as prejudiced against this ancient culture and its
people as it was in my days. This bias is not restricted to those who went
to school but cuts across the entire nation. I still remember the conversation I had in 1954 with an illiterate farmer in the village of Gabalayn in
Upper Egypt, who approached me as I was on my way to the ruins of the
temple that lies on the outskirts of the village. He was curious to know
the reason for my visit. When I told him that I had come to see the temple that my grandparents had built, he was greatly offended and denied
that he or I could have any relationship to these heathens who did not
know God and who were among the cruelest and most misled. I did not
want to continue the discourse, as he was about to call the villagers to
bear witness to what he had said. If anything has changed with regard to
this bias it is only that there is today a greater awareness of the value of
antiquities as mere objects that can attract tourists.
Both my parents were born in Cairo. My father was born in 1882 and
was named Said after the pasha (governor) who was the ruler of Egypt in
the 1850s. Said Pasha was remembered and revered by the Egyptians
because of the reforms he introduced that allowed them to own land for
the rst time and to be promoted to the upper ranks of the army. These
ranks had been previously restricted to ofcers of Turkish or Circassian
descent. Among the reforms he introduced was that which made all
Egyptians equal in the eyes of the law, irrespective of their religion. He
canceled the tribute (jizya) that was levied on the Copts and allowed
them to serve in the army. The jizya was the head or poll tax that early
Islamic rulers demanded from their non-Muslim subjects.
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My grandfather died before my father was born. My father was raised

by his older brother, who was already married at the time of his birth. My
best guess is that my grandfather was born in the late 1830s toward the
end of the reign of Muhammad Ali. He was born in al-Saraqna village in
Asyut province, some 360 kilometers to the south of Cairo. He lived in
this village until the mid 1870s, when he was forced to leave it for Cairo.
In Cairo he worked in the haberdashery business with his brother-in-law
until his untimely death, when the enterprise was taken over by his older
son, who enlarged it and made it a thriving business.
In the village my grandfather worked as a scribe and surveyor, a job
that determined the tax due on each parcel of land. This was a job that
was done exclusively by Copts, who had succeeded in keeping it in their
hands generation after generation. They held secret the methods by
which they measured the land and the way they kept the records, handing them only to their children. By keeping this important and indispensable job in their hands the Copts were assured a position in the society that no ruler could afford to dispense with. It also helped to preserve
their Christian faith from extinction as happened in many other countries that were conquered by the Arabs. Unlike all other countries of
North Africa, where Christianity disappeared completely after the Arab
invasion, Egypt has a thriving Coptic minority that has been able to hold
steadfast to its faith.
The system of land tax estimation and collection, in which the Copts
played an important role, was found useful and functional to both the
ruler and the farmer. For the ruler it provided a safe and easy way to get
the taxes without risking confrontations that could end in chaos and the
ruin of the land. For farmers it was a kinder system that saved them from
the brutal methods that could have come with a system run by a foreigner. The Copt was, after all, kin, who sympathized with their problems and who ordinarily would have sided with them when in need, hiding information and reconsidering land measurements and tax estimates.
This role made the Copt an essential member of the community and
helped strengthen the bond between Copt and Muslim in the countryside. The success of this unique system can be measured by the fact that
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it remained in force for close to twelve uninterrupted centuries. It survived unscathed the many overhauls that it was subjected to by every
new ruling dynasty, when the ledgers were reexamined and the land
measurements were reset. These overhauls were not intended to change
the system but rather to redistribute its exploits.
It was the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 that ended that system.
The system was replaced by a modern one that aimed to put the nances
of the country under the control of the new British administration. The
Copts, who harbored suspicion and hatred of the British, resisted the
change. The resistance did not succeed and the new system prevailed. It
became rmly established when the British raised state-of-the-art maps
for the valley of the Nile, carried out a cadastral survey, instituted a school
for surveying, and established a whole new modern tax department. By so
doing the British succeeded in controlling the nances of Egypt, something the French, who had occupied Egypt some 83 years earlier, had not
been able to do. While the French had succeeded during the years of their
occupation of Egypt to introduce a civil register and establish a system of
taxation on real estate, they had failed completely in organizing a cadastral register of agricultural land. In fact, the amount of tax collected from
this land during the years of French occupation was less than that collected in the years that preceded it. In his book The Finances of Egypt from
the Pharaonic Times to the Present (Alexandria, 1931) Prince Omar Toussoun
mentions that the amount of land tax collected in 1799 during the French
occupation amounted to 870,000 pounds, in comparison with the
1,050,000 pounds that were collected annually in the years before the
occupation. It is said that Napoleon was angry with the Copts, whom he
dubbed insubordinate and roguish. There is no doubt that the old system
of tax collecting, despite its defectiveness, helped Egypt maintain a measure of independence.
My familys name is al-Amash (albino in Arabic), which was probably
given because one of my great grandfathers is purported to have been an
albino, but I have no denite substantiation of that. I dropped al-Amash
from my name early on because of the ridicule it aroused among my colleagues in the early years of my schooling.
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The conditions under which my grandfather left his village have

always intrigued me. His departure appears to have taken place in the
1870s during the reign of Khedive Ismail, under duress and under circumstances that were shrouded in mystery. I began to unfold part of this
saga when I visited his home village of al-Saraqna in 1953. The mayor of
the village, who luckily was very familiar with what had happened almost
75 years earlier, told me that my grandfather had a ght with the multazim, which made his stay in the village impossible. The multazim was the
government representative in the village who oversaw the collection of
its share of taxes. The iltizam system was introduced to Egypt by the
Ottomans and was modied by Muhammad Ali when many farmers
were unable to pay their taxes and were in arrears. The multazim was
given the village in his trust (uhda) and was allowed to collect its taxes
any way he saw t after having paid the designated full tax to the government in advance. He enjoyed unlimited powers and could inict any
punishment he saw t, including execution. Stories abound about the
misuse of these powers and the injustice multazims inicted. Their verdict was nal and they were not accountable to anyone.
The ght that my grandfather had with the multazim arose when the
latter accused him of wasting tax money. To this my grandfather answered
back and cursed him in public. The multazim was so furious that he decided to act on the spot and ordered the cutting out of my grandfathers
tongue in the presence of everyone in the village. Indeed the knives were
sharpened in preparation for that grisly public display. Luckily for my
grandfather the punishment was reduced to licking the dust on the ground
in public, after important members of the village entreated the multazim
to show some leniency. My grandfather indeed licked the dust on the
ground in public and, I suspect, happily so, knowing what the alternative
was. The upshot of this confrontation was that life in the village after that
event became impossible for my grandfather. He surreptitiously took a
sailing boat down the Nile and settled in Cairo with a handsome stack of
golden pounds, as he was known to be a man of some means.
The departure of my grandfather from the village had to take place
secretly, since it was against the law for any farmer to leave the land. This
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law had been promulgated to prevent the exodus of farmers that was taking place because of the high land taxes that had made farming no longer
worthwhile. The land tax was raised many times during the 1870s to service the increasing debt that Khedive Ismail had incurred for Egypt.
My grandfather departed to Cairo alone. He left behind a wife with
two boys and a girl who soon all followed him on a trip down the Nile to
Cairo. During this trip the younger son died after a short illness. The
mother arranged for his burial in a small town near al- Minya (about 100
kilometers to the north of al-Saraqna). She prepared the corpse, helped
dig the grave, performed the prayers, and buried the body, after having
torn the clothes of the corpse to shreds in front of everyone. This she
did to prove to everyone that there was nothing in the grave worth stealing; even the clothes had been torn to pieces. The practice of re-opening and looting graves is old. It goes back to the time of Ancient Egypt
when the dead were buried with their valuables. The habit of shredding
the clothes of the deceased came as a result of that pervasive and repugnant practice.
To undertake the trip down the Nile on her own with her children,
and to manage to bury her dead son, arranging for all the details of his
funeral in a town unfamiliar to her, shows how capable my grandmother
must have been. I suspect that she was no different from any other farming woman of the time, who had been brought up to care for the home,
rear the children, and work on the farm. Very often these women had to
head the family and be responsible for its wellbeing because of the early
death of the husband, a common occurrence at that time due to poor
conditions of public health.
My fathers family was not large. His father was an only child, and his
older and only living brother had only one daughter who, in turn, had
two boys from a husband that died at an early age. My father had six surviving children, three girls and three boys. I was his fourth child, born in
1920 when my father was 38 years old. Two girls and a boy were born
before me. The girls were born in 1909 and 1911 and the boy in 1913. The
successive birth of two girls at the beginning of my mothers marriage
irked her mother-in-law, who had come to live with her after her mar-
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riage in 1904. Girls, in her view, were inferior to boys. The birth of two
girls who happened to come after the loss of the rst baby boy was a
wrongdoing on my mothers part that she could not accept. Like all people of her generation my grandmother cherished boys because they were
the breadwinners who carried the name of the family and gave it its security. Girls, on the other hand, were dependent and constituted a liability.
After bringing them up and investing in them, they would leave the family, get married, and serve and become attached to another family. In
addition, girls required greater attention for they were more liable than
boys to bring shame to the family if they ever fell into temptation and
got involved in an affair. There was no doubt in my grandmothers mind
that it was the woman who was responsible for the sex of the newborn.
Men, according to her, had nothing to do with this matter or with any
other matter that related to the child.
Life with her mother-in-law must have been difcult for my mother,
who never forgave her the misery she inicted upon her by continuously interfering in her affairs. When my mother was on her deathbed in
1952, almost twenty-two years after the death of her mother-in-law, her
only wish that she expressed to me was not to be buried in the same
place as my grandmother. We could not fulll this wish until many years
later, when we decided to have a separate burial place from that of my
uncle, which the family had used until then.
My fathers upbringing is interesting. He was the rst in his family to
go to school and to learn how to read and write. His older brother, who
raised him, was illiterate, albeit a successful businessman who traded in
cloth and textiles that were mostly imported from Greece and Turkey.
The merchandise was transported to Egypt by sailing boats that crossed
the Mediterranean and went up the Nile all the way to the port of Bulaq
in Cairo. I still remember my uncle taking me to that port on several
occasions, when he bought large quantities of shawls and ornate cloth
that he sold retail in his shop at the bazaar. My uncle ran his thriving
business without having any dealings with banks, keeping any books, or
possessing any written document. His entire dealings were by word of
mouth and were carried out in cash or by credit based on an honor sys-
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tem. Despite his expanding and relatively booming business my uncle

had only one employee, who stayed with him all his life and who carried
out every conceivable job.
It is obvious, however, that my uncle realized the importance of the
education of which he had been deprived. He felt the duty of providing
it to my father, and indeed sent him to the Frres French school in Cairo
where my father graduated. After graduation, my father worked as a
clerk in the railway administration and continued to do so until he
retired. Interestingly, my father spoke French well, but learned English
later in life and spoke it with a strong French accent. The importance of
education must have been strongly inculcated in my father as evidenced
by the fact that he made sure that all his children, boys and girls, went to
university and graduate school despite the enormous nancial burden he
had to shoulder. Education at that time, and until the graduation of the
youngest of his children, was not free. The fees were high and ranged
from 10 pounds for the primary school to 40 pounds for the engineering
and medical schools. Scholarships were difcult to obtain because they
were frequently given to the rich and inuential. Corruption and
favoritism were rampant then as they are today.
With the education my father received, an incredible leap took place
in my family, namely from a grandfather who was illiterate to a grandson
who received a doctorate from Harvard University, all in the span of only
two generations.
Despite my uncles acumen and perspicacity, as witnessed by his
insistence on sending my father to school and the manner in which he
managed his business, he lived very modestly. He never knew anything
more than his work, the simple food he ate, and the humble shelter he
lived in. He never had any desire to move to a higher social class even
after he became wealthy. When a janitor proposed to marry his only
daughter he agreed without hesitation despite the protestation of my
father, who felt that the groom was not eligible. My uncles response was
that the groom was a decent and healthy man and not much different
from him when he started his career. Eventually my father prevailed, and
my uncles daughter ended up marrying a jeweler who died a few years
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into the marriage. Two boys resulted from the marriage, and that kept
my young widowed cousin busy for the rest of her life bringing them up.
It is interesting to compare here the egalitarian attitude of my uncle and
that of the early settlers of America, who had the same sense of equality and who had not yet developed a class system that would make some
people feel superior to others.
My father was exposed to a number of books that dealt with topics
that challenged the current and well established thinking of his day.
Most of these books were written by Levantine intellectuals who came
to seek refuge in Egypt from the Ottomans despotic rule. They carried
new ideas that shook Egyptian intellectual life and opened up a whole
new world of ideas. Among the books that were left behind by my father
and that I presume he must have read are: the Arabic translation of
Ernst Renans Jesus the Son of Man, a book that stirred a great controversy within the Catholic church when rst published in France at the turn
of the century; Shibli Shumayls Evolution, which discusses Darwins evolution theory; Qasim Amins The Liberation of Women; and al-Kawkabis
The Characteristics of Oppression, a critical study of the despotism of the
Ottoman rulers. My father also subscribed to contemporary progressive
magazines that dealt with liberal and serious issues such as al-Muqtataf,
which was edited by Yaqub Sarruf and carried news about innovations in
science; al-Mustaqbal, which was edited and almost wholly written by
Salama Musa, a well-known liberal writer; and al-Garida, which was edited by Ahmad Lut al-Sayyid, a noted intellectual. My father had no
appreciation for the classical Arabic books that were commonly read at
the time, and his library did not contain any of them. In this respect my
father must have been a very unusual person.
He was also equally unusual in his outlook on religion, which he practiced in his own way. Although a rm believer, he lived a secular life and
did not have strong ties to the church. He showed great reverence
toward all religions and believed that faith is a private matter. I do not
recall that he ever engaged in any religious discussion even with the
members of his own family. Although I saw my mother observing the
Coptic fast, I do not remember seeing my father joining her or being
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bothered in any way by her fasting. Neither was he a regular churchgoer;

he went to church only on special occasions. Toward the end of his life
I saw him reading the Bible sporadically.
My father was not unusual in this secular outlook. He represented
the thinking of a generation that had been inuenced by the national
Egyptian movement, which was incipient at the end of the nineteenth
century and culminated in the revolution of 1919. The movement
opened up new horizons that went beyond the religious and classical
outlooks that had so far guided the lives of the Egyptians. It brought
to the fore the concept of nationhood under whose banner all citizens
were considered equal irrespective of their religion. The identity of
Egyptians became tied to the nation they lived in rather than to the
religion they professed. The revolution adopted the motto, Religion
is for God but the Nation is for all. The support that was granted to
this slogan manifested itself in many ways. Among these was the
choice of childrens names that would not label their owners as belonging to a particular religion. My father was of the rst generation of
Copts who gave their children such names. All his children carried on
the same tradition.
I am not exactly sure how my father met my mother. I suspect that
he met her while he was tutoring her brother in French. My mothers
family was also from Cairo, but its origin was the village of Mer, which
lies not very far from the village of al-Saraqna from where my grandfathers family originated. My mothers father worked as a clerk in the
Egyptian army and was attached to the ofce of the famed nationalist
leader and minister of defense Ahmad Urabi. He seems to have been a
man of some means, which allowed him to send his daughters to school.
He owned a horse and buggy that took my mother to the American
school in Azbakiya, Cairo, from which she graduated from high school
in 1899. I still have a photograph of her graduation that shows the twenty female graduates dressed to the hilt, each carrying a bouquet of
owers. There were only three Egyptians out of the twenty graduates;
the rest were Lebanese or Armenian. Those twenty graduates represented all the female graduates in Egypt that year.
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My grandfather on my mothers side had a large house in Shubra (a suburb in the north of Cairo). It had a large yard with owerbeds and a fountain in the middle. I was born in this house where my father and mother
were living after having moved into it a few years earlier. I do not know
the reasons that prompted my parents to come to live with my maternal
uncle in this house, but I suspect that it was under pressure from my
mother. She found that this might be the easiest way to avoid living with
her mother-in-law, whom she disliked. The mother-in-law was forced then
to live with her other son, a move that she did not want to make because
his wife was much more harsh and uncouth than my mother.
The Search for Roots

I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter how a remark made by an
English woman noting the similarity in looks between me and an
Ancient Egyptian statue intrigued me and made me eager to nd the
secret of this persistent similarity 150 generations later. My curiosity
became all the more keen as I learned about the history of the numerous
migrations to this country from far and near and the various occupations
it had to endure.
Egypt was like an oasis in the midst of the arid lands of the Middle
East; in the River Nile it had a reliable source of water making life along
its banks reasonably secure. Throughout history incessant waves of
migrants from the surrounding desert came to settle in Egypt when their
lands were struck with drought. Individuals and small groups of the roving nomads of these deserts frequently lurched into Egypt when life
became harsh and difcult. At times the migrants came in well-organized
hordes that were capable of overwhelming the country and wresting its
control from the Egyptians. The Hyksos, the Assyrian, the Persian, the
Arab, and the Turkish hordes are but examples of these who were able
to occupy and live in Egypt for varying periods of time. In addition, various migrations came from across the seas, the earliest of which is documented on the walls of the temple of Ramses III in Luxor as the peo-
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ple of the sea. Later sea migrations and occupations came from places
such as Greece, Rome, France, and England. Egypts wealth and strategic
location were what they all coveted.
These massive migrations and occupations led to an intense racial
mix that shows in the looks of Egyptians to this day, even in members of
the same family. I still remember an incident in Switzerland in 1945. As
we sat at the dining table in the small motel where I was staying with my
Egyptian friends the motel owner asked, Are you all from the same
country? When we answered positively, he was incredulous. I certainly
did not blame him; our looks were indeed very different. Some of us
were white in complexion with green eyes and blond hair, others were
darker in complexion with black eyes and hair, still others were black
with curly hair and thick lips. We looked like a mixed group that could
not have come from one country. In those days Switzerland had a very
homogeneous population with very few foreigners. I remember, on many
occasions, little children would stop us in the street and ask their mothers about the color of our skin or hair, something they had not encountered before. Even members of the same family could vary tremendously in looks. My own mother had a brother who had a fair complexion,
blond hair, and blue eyes. At the same time her own daughters and nieces
had dark complexions, brown hair, and wide, big, black eyes.
The search for roots in Egypt proved to be a daunting if not impossible task. The tension and instability that have haunted Egyptians
throughout most of their history proved to be signicant factors in the
absence of any documentation and registration of vital statistics. Birth
certicates were virtually unknown until the beginning of the twentieth
century and in fact did not become universally used until the middle of
the twentieth century. In 1968 when I headed the geological survey of
Egypt, I found out, much to my surprise, that close to 80 percent of the
workers who were recruited from the countryside to do seasonal work
for the survey did not have birth certicates. We needed the certicates
to register their birth dates in their personal les before appointing them
to permanent jobs. In the absence of these, I ordered that a medical doctor estimate their age.
THE SEARCH FOR ROOTS
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Marriage certicates are equally difcult to nd. Marriages were

never registered in a public register until the middle of the twentieth
century. Traditionally they were in the form of small sheets of paper that
were kept by the family or the priest. Death certicates are also difcult
to come by. They only became universally used at a very late date.
The vast majority of Egyptian families have few if any documents
that can help trace their roots. The reason for this may be that they considered such documents as being of no value and not worth keeping, or
that they were so poor that they did not have the means to hold them
for any length of time. Even family names did not escape this laxity in
the preservation of the familys legacy. Most Egyptian families do not
have a common name for all their members. As stated earlier, I myself
dropped my family name without any remorse. The government itself
encourages this trend. The new government name law species that
the full name of any newly-born Egyptian is composed of his or her name
as given upon birth followed by the fathers and then the grandfathers
rst names. This results in the disappearance of the family name within
a maximum of two generations.
Losing hope of nding any reliable documentation, and becoming
desperate in the quest for my roots, I decided to investigate the possibility of using genetic material from the deceased of my family to nd
what similarity, if any, it bears to that of the ancient Egyptians. I managed to convince one of my geneticist friends to help me with this project and got him very excited about it. Amazingly, we could not identify
four consecutive dead generations of my family or any other family in
any burial site we examined in Cairo and in Upper Egypt. Much to my
chagrin, the state of the graveyards was no different from the state of
registered documents. No proper maintenance, no clear knowledge of
who was buried where, and of course grave looting, which is still prevalent in Egypt, all made the task impossible.
I still remember the poignant and traumatic experience I had as a
nine-year old boy when I accompanied my father and some relatives to
move the remains of the dead of the family to a new graveyard. This
needed to be done because Cairo had expanded so quickly that the old
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graveyard had become part of the downtown area. The government at

the time asked the families to move the remains of their dead to a new
site on the periphery of the city. When my father and relatives opened
the graves no one could distinguish or separate the remains of the different buried relatives, as the condition of the corpses was very bad.
After a short family deliberation it was decided to put all the bones collectively in one big box and take it for burial at the new site.
The only avenue that was left to me in my quest for my roots was to
go in person to al-Saraqna village from where my grandfather Farag
came; fortunately that endeavor met with some success. Al-Saraqna is a
small village in Upper Egypt, which, until the end of the Ottoman rule,
was part of the district of Mer from where my mothers family originated. It is situated next to the Coptic Monastery of Dayr al-Muharraq. Its
mayor at the time was the grandfather of the famous psychiatrist Dr.
Hilmi Ghali Abd al-Masih, who happened to be a friend of mine. While
conversing with him one day, I found out that his ancestry was also from
the same village and that his grandfather was the mayor. When the good
doctor realized my desire to visit the village, he sent his grandfather a
message informing him of my impending visit, and urging him to take me
in as a guest and make my trip a pleasant one.
I took it upon myself to make the trip to al-Saraqna in 1953. A superslow train took me to the city of al-Qusiya (which used to be called
Nazali Ganub at the time of my visit). From there I rode a donkey for
ve miles on a dirt road to reach al-Saraqna utterly exhausted. I found
the mayor waiting for me at the periphery of the village but, surprisingly, he was armed with a rie and accompanied by four armed bodyguards.
The man was loaded for bear. This was hardly the welcome I expected.
He was quite unfriendly initially and inquired about the reason for my
trip. To see the village where my grandfather lived and to gather some
information about him, I replied. I noticed then that his countenance
was showing increasing anger. This is ancient history and there is nothing left of your grandfather in this village to visit, he retorted, but if
you want to avenge him then I am more than ready for you. By that
time, he was pointing his rie at me ready for action. This took me by
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surprise, to say the least, as I did not know what the curmudgeon was
talking about. To my knowledge, my grandfather had no plans of any
revenge against anyone. When I reassured the mayor that the purpose of
the visit was not for revenge or money, and that I was unarmed, he was
suddenly transformed into a pleasant man and invited me over to his
house to give me the scoop on my grandfather.
The mayor told me that his father had taken the position of my
grandfather after the escape down the Nile and was chosen to be the
mayor when the system of mayoralty was introduced to the villages of
Egypt toward the end of the nineteenth century. He admitted to me
that he had been in a state of worry and fear since he received the message from his grandson informing him of my expected arrival. He just
assumed that the purpose of my trip was to collect some owed money
or to avenge some old injustices. It is worth mentioning here that the
story that triggered all this happened over eighty years before, and yet
its memory had stayed vividly with the son of the man who replaced my
grandfather. I suspect that the animosity in the village toward my
grandfather and his family was signicant enough to force them to
totally abscond from the village. I talked to several people in the village
during my visit and found that no one knew anything about my grandfather or any member of his family. The mayor of the village, who was
in his mid seventies, was the last and only one who knew anything
about my family.
Al-Saraqna nestles by the Muharraq Monastery; this is a unique
monastery as it is the only one that lies within the Nile valley. The
monastery was built at the site where the Holy Family is believed to have
settled for three and a half years after its escape from Palestine. The
early history of the monastery is not denitively documented, but one
can assert that it is one of the oldest in Egypt. People like Abu Salih alArmani at the beginning of the thirteenth century and al-Maqrizi in the
fteenth century mention it in their history books. The monastery lies
at the edge of the desert, comprises fteen acres, and is encompassed by
an enormous fence. Unlike other monasteries, it owned and managed
until the early 1950s a very large piece of agricultural land that sur-
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rounded it. Almost all the people of the village worked on that land. In
that respect it was similar to the Catholic monasteries in Europe during
the Middle Ages.
When I visited al-Saraqna in 1953, all its inhabitants were Coptic
Christian. This type of population distribution according to religion was
prevalent in Egypt, just as it was in Europe and the Ottoman Empire
during the Middle Ages. It was the result of living in a theocratic state
that was governed by the religious law of the majority. Under such a state
there was no place for the religious minorities except to congregate in a
ghetto, where they could practice their own religion. This system
worked reasonably well during those times and did not offend the sensibilities of the Muslim neighbors who were also feeling the brunt of foreign oppression. The Egyptian countryside, in particular, did not experience many religious clashes as Christians and Muslims had common
interests. This was in contradistinction to the big cities, which experienced many tumultuous religious disturbances, especially during times of
economic crises, bad governments, or foreign inuence.
The distribution of the populations along religious lines undoubtedly lessened the chances of mingling and helped preserve the purity of
different races. The multiple and repeated Bedouin raids that are known
to have taken place on the monastery, however, must have adulterated
this distinctness. During these raids the Copts used to hide behind the
fences of the Monastery or pay the protection money imposed on
them ostensibly for the purpose of their protection. Undoubtedly multiple cases of rape and resultant pregnancies took place, but the character
of the race overall remained intact.
The destroyed villages and deserted monasteries along the west bank
of the middle reaches of the Nile valley from Dayrut to al-Balyana
(Abydos) are a testament to that sad history that, to my knowledge, no
one has ever written. Every time I visit these ruins, I keep wondering
about the reasons that led the people who once inhabited them to desert
them. Were these reasons related to a climatic event that led to changes
in the physical environment, such as a shift in the course of the Nile or
the encroachment of sand dunes? Or were these reasons related to the
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state of instability and irreparable damage that resulted from the many
Bedouin raids that these villages were exposed to for centuries? Stories
abound in Egyptian folklore about the horrors these raids inicted.
Already in the year 1302 during the reign of Sultan al-Nasir a large
Bedouin tribe was able to extend its sway over a large area of Upper
Egypt. Its infringements were so great that the sultan was forced to
launch a war against it and chase it out of the region. In less than eighty
years Sultan Barquq resettled another tribe, the Hawwara, in Girga in
Upper Egypt. In a few years this Berber tribe extended its area of
inuence over the entirety of Upper Egypt; it imposed taxes on the peasants and especially the Christians, who had to pay an additional tax for
protection. As strange as it may sound, each Christian family was
assigned a Bedouin for the purpose of its protection. An extra tax was
due to that loyal protector. During the eighteenth century the power
of the tribe became supreme. It successfully dominated all of Upper
Egypt and its leader Hammam behaved as an uncrowned king. The hegemony of the tribe under this leader reached its zenith from 1765 to 1769.
While many left wing intellectuals in Egypt consider the insurgency
of Hammam as an uprising of the poor against the sultans and the
wealthy landowners, the fact remains that these were wanton and egregious attacks that wreaked terror and disorder and caused untold hardship to the poor. It was only in 1813 that the power of these lawless tribes
was crushed thanks to Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali, who
headed an expeditionary force to restore order in Upper Egypt.
Although peace and stability came back to Upper Egypt after that event,
the conditions of the Egyptian farmer did not improve. The land tax was
increased and was collected by harsher measures than before, especially
after the introduction of the uhda system. The only consolation for
Egyptians was that the money collected was not proigately spent as it
used to be but was spent on economic development and the establishment of different industries as well as on the army.
Ibrahim Pashas campaign restored the central governments credibility and power and paved the way for the creation of a civil society in
which the Copts could take part. The integration of the Copts within
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the frame of Egyptian society went a step further with the adoption of
the political reforms introduced by Said Pasha in 1856 in the wake of the
publication of the Ottoman Hamayuni Decree of that year. The revolution of 1919 crowned that achievement by totally integrating the
Christians of Egypt within the national movement. The 1923 constitution promulgated as a result of this revolution assured freedom of religion and proclaimed equality for all Egyptians regardless of their religion, race, or language.
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2
The Formative Years
was born in Cairo in May 1920, one year after the great reawakening
that Egypt had witnessed in the wake of the national revolution of
1919. The revolution aimed at the independence of Egypt from
British occupation and was led by Sad Zaghlul, the charismatic leader
who was able to initiate a grassroots movement that reached every corner of the country and galvanized every Egyptian, irrespective of class,
religion, or educational background. The movement stirred up national
pride and called for the installment of a democratic system of government and the end of the countrys long rule of tyranny. My family, like
every other family in Egypt, was an enthusiastic supporter of the revolution and its great leader. Sad Zaghlul was a frequent subject of conversation in my home, where his photos adorned the walls. He was talked
about so fondly that in time I began to think of him as a second father
to me, as did many Egyptians. The day Sad Zaghlul died in August 1927
was a day of national mourning. I remember distinctly the great grief
that befell my family when the news of his death reached us in
Alexandria, where we were spending our summer vacation. On that day
my father, gushing in tears, rushed to catch the train to Cairo to participate in the great leaders funeral.
The 1919 revolution restored to Egyptians their self-condence and
pride. It made them conscious of their national identity, which they had
been forced to forsake during the four hundred years of oppressive
Ottoman occupation. The rediscovery of that identity brought a revival
that touched every aspect of the life of the country and made the decade
of the 1920s one the best in the history of modern Egypt. During that
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
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decade liberal political thinking established its roots, and a modern progressive constitution was ratied in 1923. The constitution declared the
principles of human rights, equality of citizens before the law regardless of
origin or belief, and freedom of speech and religion. It afrmed the principle of the separation of the executive, legislative, and judicial powers,
restricted the authority of the king, and guaranteed Egyptians the right to
govern their country through representation in a freely elected parliament.
During that decade Egypts educational system was modernized.
Traditional religious schools (the kuttab) were phased out and were
replaced by modern secular schools. The university was reorganized and
the faculties of arts and science were opened in 1925. They were staffed
by professors of the highest caliber who were recruited from all over the
world. They contributed in the dissemination of knowledge and helped
transform the university into a center of learning of international repute.
The process of nation building, which the revolution had made one
of its main goals, was given a great boost by the discovery in 1922 of King
Tutankhamuns tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. The discovery
dazzled the world and made the Egyptians proud of their country and
forebears. It made them aware of the ancient and glorious history that
they had been forced to forget for centuries and inspired them to regain
the leading position they once had in the elds of art, literature, and science, all of which had been severely neglected. As a result of that awareness Egyptians started to venture into these elds and many succeeded
in making breakthroughs in them. During the same decade Egyptians
also excelled in the elds of movie making, theater, singing, and journalism. If I were to choose one example that embodies the spirit of that age,
I would nd no better example than the prominent and quintessential
Mahmud Mukhtar, the famous sculptor whose statues adorn many of
Cairos squares. He became the rst Egyptian to sculpt a statue after a
hiatus of over twenty centuries, thus restoring to Egyptians an art they
had pioneered and excelled in for a long time. The mere fact that he
dared make a statue despite the total ban that had been in force during
centuries of theocratic rule shows the spirit of the age and the new zeal
that the revolution had instilled in the people. Another example that
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reveals the depth and extent of the revival, which seems to have touched
every eld of endeavor, is the brilliant singer Sayyid Darwish. His patriotic songs and new lyrics not only inspired the people but ushered in a
new era in the arts.
The renaissance touched my family directly when the rst freely
elected government of 1925 decided to send a mission of young women
to study abroad. The mission included fteen high school graduates, who
were selected to go to England where the Egyptian government enrolled
them in English schools and arranged for their stay in a house that was
run by an English lady. My older sister Inam was one of those selected.
She was barely sixteen years old when she was chosen to go on that mission. Despite her young age my parents agreed to let her go to England
without any hesitation. This not only reected the great strides that the
womens liberation movement had achieved at the time but also the
great degree of trust that existed between the government and the people. My parents had no doubt whatsoever that the government would
take excellent care of their daughter. The daring move of both the government and parents to send women at such a young age to study abroad
was unthinkable even in Europe and the United States at that time. In
that sense, Egypt was ahead of most countries. My European and
American friends until this day are incredulous when they hear of my sisters trip to England in 1925.
Inam studied art and returned from England after seven years of
absence from Egypt. When she came back she introduced a number of
changes that left a lasting impact on my familys way of life and attitudes.
She rearranged the furniture of our home and added a touch of beauty to
the rooms by adorning them with statues that she had sculpted and
paintings and etchings of her own or of others that she had acquired
while abroad. Inam changed many of our habits to help make our lives
more organized and civil. We had our meals at appointed times and they
became an occasion for the members of the family to sit down and converse together. The dining table was set before every meal and knives
and forks were placed properly. The children of the family (myself
included) had to go to bed early and at a set time every night. Everyone
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
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had to wear pajamas at night and take them off in the morning to put on
new and clean clothes. We were not allowed to keep our pajamas on during the day as we used to do. Visiting and socializing became restricted
to the living room. The older members of the family had an afternoon
tea that was open to visitors once a week. Many of my sisters colleagues,
who regularly visited our home, achieved important and inuential positions in the public life of Egypt in later years.
One year after Inams return, she enrolled my younger brother Kamal
and me in the Boys Department of the YMCA which then occupied in
downtown Cairo the beautiful palace of Nubar Pasha, the former prime
minister of Egypt during the late nineteenth century. Joining that club at
age twelve was one of the most inuential factors in my development.
The department was under the supervision of Yaqub Fam, who had just
returned from a mission at Yale University where he had nished a masters degree in education. Yaqub Fam, whom we fondly called Uncle
Yaqub, was a great educator. He gave the Boys Department, hitherto
functioning solely as a recreational and sports club, an educational
dimension. His goal was to help develop good citizens out of the members of the department and to instill in them the principles of civil society. The members were between ten and sixteen years of age. They were
organized into groups called clubs that chose their names and banners
and elected their ofcialsthe president, the secretary, and the treasurer. The clubs entered into competition with one another. In addition to
sports, they competed in reading skills, public debate, theater, and hobbies of different kinds. There were also many common activities in
which the members went to picnics, made regular trips to museums, or
listened to classical and international music. This wide exposure helped
me to expand my horizons at this early age.
Perhaps the most important benet I gained from my years at the
Boys Department was learning the art of living in a group and the methods by which any group should run its affairs. I learned how to call a meeting, prepare an agenda, present a case, conduct a dialogue, manage disagreements, take votes, and record deliberations. I also learned the importance of the principles of transparency, accountability, and participation in
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running the affairs of a group successfully. These principles were instilled

in the members by the frequent elections that the Boys Department ran
for all its positions. The elections gave every member of the group the
chance to participate in the running of its affairs. I ran for many of these
positions. During the election campaigns that I conducted, I learned how
to present a case, conduct a debate, and accept the will of the majority.
Engaging in sports was of paramount importance to me. I reached a
high degree of prociency in basketball and volleyball and, to a lesser
degree, in tennis. In 1936 my prociency in basketball was such that I
was selected as a reserve in the Egyptian national team to the Berlin
Olympics. My total absorption in these and many other activities that
the Boys Department offered helped me to pass my teenage years without trouble. The Boys Department also helped me to express myself and
nd vent for my creative capacities, which were being suppressed by the
patriarchal and regimented school system that I went through. It also
gave me a chance to meet, albeit occasionally, members of the other sex
during the family gatherings and parties that were regularly held.
Meeting the opposite sex in those days was extremely difcult and these
encounters, as well as my total absorption in the activities of the Boys
Department, helped me to overcome the difculties that necessarily
come as a result of such a deprivation.
I must admit that Yaqub Fam had the greatest positive inuence on
me during my formative years. During these years I learned to accept and
respect the other, to be able to conduct a dialogue, and to live in a group
where decisions are taken in transparency and by a vote. I also learned to
take seriously my promises and any responsibility that was entrusted to
me. All this learning took place in the Boys Department with ease and
in a joyful atmosphere despite the competitive mood that governed the
contests and elections that we went through and which represented an
important part of the experiment. The Boys Department has a special
place in my memory not only for the education and good time it gave me
but also for the many friendships that I still keep to this day.
The educational experiment of Yaqub Fam offers an effective method
for bringing up a responsible citizenry that can make a true democracy
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
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work. If Egypt is truly aiming at building a democracy, as its leaders frequently assert, then it should study this experiment and try to apply it in
its schools and youth clubs. Democracy, after all, is not a slogan to be
raised but a way of life to be practiced. Citizens must be prepared for it
from their early youth. They must be given the opportunity to participate
in the running of their affairs in their homes and in their schools and later
on in the district or the town in which they live. There is no way that a
democracy can take root in a society whose members are not allowed to
conduct a dialogue or to participate in the formulation of any decision
that concerns them at any stage of their lives, as is the case in Egypt today.
Whether at home, school, or in public life, Egyptians are deprived of
actively participating in the shaping of their lives. The home is patriarchal, the school is regimented, and civil society is non-existent or manipulated by government agents who are not accountable to any one.
My years in high (secondary) school were not among the happiest of
my life. I joined the Tawqiya secondary school in the district of Shubra
when I was barely eleven years old. My rst year in that school was miserable. The boys in my class were older in age, rough, vulgar, and lacking
in manners. Vicious ghts broke out in the classroom several times a day;
vile language and profanity were common. In many instances the resulting pandemonium in the classroom rendered any attempt at learning
impossible. This was especially the case with some of the teachers who
could not control the boys in the classroom. I vividly remember
Monsieur Audibert, the teacher of the French language, whose classes
epitomized this total chaos. I also remember my English teacher, Mesiha
Girgis, who was so severely myopic that he could not see the boys in the
back rows of the class. All kinds of objects from those rows were hurled
at that hapless and helpless man. Despite the bedlam that took place in
the classrooms the boys had to behave impeccably in the morning when
they saluted the ag in front of the principal, who was feared by everyone. There was also some discipline during lunchtime, but the table
manners of most of the boys left a lot to be desired.
At the time I joined it, the Tawqiya school was one of the bestequipped schools. It was housed in a beautiful turn-of-the-twentieth-
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century building with a high iron fence and a big yard. As one entered
the iron gate of the school and into the long corridor that followed, the
tennis courts were on the left followed by the administration building.
On the right was the headmasters house tucked in a well-kept garden.
The corridor then opened up into an enormous yard that was surrounded by the classrooms, the laboratories, and a small museum of natural
history. The yard had owerbeds and scattered large cus trees with
benches in their shade. The school had also an Olympic-size soccer eld.
The classrooms were well equipped with maps and state-of-the-art
teaching aids. Despite all this, the school did not offer an atmosphere
that permitted the students to express themselves or to have any initiative. It was run in an autocratic manner and the curricula were taught so
as to be remembered by rote.
The rough schoolmates and their vulgarity, to which I had not been
previously exposed, intimidated me and added to my problems in the
school. I felt lonely and estranged in that environment. Gradually I
started neglecting my work; this culminated in my failure the rst year
of high school. Needless to say, the day I received my report card was
a black day in my young life. It showed that I had failed in every subject including the subject of drawing. My siblings and relatives taunted
me about it and warned me that another failure would put me in the
same class as my younger brother Kamal, who was exceedingly successful at school. I had to repeat my rst year in high school, but that
challenge was the impetus that made me excel later on. My older sister Luly started tutoring me and showed me how to study and be
organized and reviewed the curriculum with me the summer before
school restarted. When I returned to school the next fall I was ready
to prove myself to my family and teachers. That was the point of no
return, as after that my school performance started improving by leaps
and bounds. My academic ranking henceforth hovered between the
rst and the third in the class. My biggest competitor at school was
Zaki Ishaq, who later became a prominent engineer. He seemed to
achieve the rst ranking more times than I did and was a very amiable
and well-mannered boy, which was a nice change from the rest of the
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
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crowd. For that reason, I befriended him, but then lost contact with
him after we graduated from school.
Thirty-four years after my high school experience I had to send my
son Kareem to the same school system in the hope that it had
improved. Initially he went to an English school in Maadi (a Cairo suburb best known for its Cairo American College) for a couple of years
and until such schools were taken over by the state in the aftermath of
the Suez war of 1956. In this war the British and French attempts to
recapture the Suez canal that had been nationalized by Egypt failed.
British schools were taken over by Egypt and their British and foreign
teachers left the schools and went back home. My wife and I decided to
move Kareem to the new private national school of Maadi that the
Egyptian ministry of education had established in the wake of that war.
The victory of Egypt in the 1956 Suez war gave rise to a feeling of
national pride and condence, and we felt certain that the new school
was going to be just as good, if not better, than the English school that
it had replaced. Kareems education there was reasonably good, serious,
and highly disciplined, but all that ended when he had to go to the public high school. We found the education in these schools most unsatisfactory. It seemed to have become worse than it was when I attended it
some thirty-four years earlier. High school education had been on a
downhill slide since that time and seems to have continued unabated to
this day. The school was poor in discipline and the students were rough
and contentious and engaged in daily brawls. Kareem, being an amiable
boy with gentle demeanor and looks, found himself in a strange and
hostile environment that he had to cope with as best as he could. In
addition, the curriculum was backward and the quality of the teachers
was poor. We found nothing in the curricula that could bring the best
in our boy or prepare him for the world that we thought he would be
facing in the future. Both his mother and I felt compelled to supplement his education with daily lessons through the summer vacation,
which he initially resented, but later accepted. In effect, we had to
negate a lot of the backward ideas that were inculcated in him at school.
His mother spent many hours teaching him English as a child as well as
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French later on. She had to give him extracurricular reading material to
open his horizons and to introduce him to the cultures of the world. His
mother did for Kareem what the Boys Department of the YMCA had
done for me in my youth.
In contradistinction to my gloomy years in high school, my years in
the university were benecial and enjoyable. I enrolled in the faculty of
science at Cairo University in 1937, twelve years after its establishment. At
that time it was the only university in the Middle East. The atmosphere
there was invigorating, free, and conducive to broadening the students
horizons. Most of my professors were Europeans and truly the best in
their elds. The number of students in all the departments at the time I
joined was only seventy and that enhanced the close relationship and the
quality of discussions between the professors and the students. In my senior year I was the only student in the geology special degree program and
very frequently I took my classes in the ofce of the professor.
At the time I enrolled in it the Egyptian university was a truly
advanced institute of learning that was able to attract some of the best
and internationally known professors. In addition to the good life that
Cairo offered at that time, many reputable European professors joined
the new Egyptian university knowing that they would not be hampered
from carrying out their scientic research. The Egyptian university had
well equipped laboratories and a good library. Research in those days was
possible for anyone with the will, determination and initiative to conduct it. No wonder that Cairo University, and in particular the faculty of
science at the time I joined it, had among its staff some of the most reputable names in science. It was indeed comparable to any European or
American university. Until the beginning of World War II, the examination of the senior students of the faculty of science at Cairo University
was set and graded jointly with the University of London. Postgraduate
degree dissertations were examined abroad and many of the promotions
of the faculty of science professors were made on the recommendation
of professors from the most prestigious universities of the world.
I joined the geology department of the faculty of science on the recommendation of Salama Musa, the great literary writer who used to lec-
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
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ture at the YMCA in which I had become a member after my graduation from the Boys Department at the age of sixteen. Salama Musa was
a well-known writer who had a literary salon that met every Thursday
and was attended by many intellectuals, among whom was the wellknown Egyptian novelist and Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. Salama
Musa was a liberal thinker, a Fabian socialist, and a rm believer in science and its logic. He was uent in several languages and had an insatiable appetite for reading books about different world cultures and civilizations. In that respect, he surpassed anyone else of his generation. I
remember being in awe at Salama Musas stupendous knowledge as he
gave his weekly lectures at the YMCA. My relationship with him gradually strengthened and he showed interest in coaching me, especially
after I had been accepted as a student in the faculty of science. He
wanted me to excel in science, to join the geology department, and to
specialize in paleontology, or the study of fossil remains, which offers
one of the most convincing pieces of evidence for the theory of evolution. Salama Musa was fascinated with this theory. He frequently
referred to it in his lectures and he pioneered in writing many articles
and books about it in Arabic.
Salama contributed a great deal to my education. He showed interest
in my career and encouraged me to express myself in writing. In the
1940s he published my rst article in al-Magalla al-gadida, the monthly literary magazine that he edited. He also encouraged me to read and introduced me to books that I would have never known about had it not been
for him. I read books by Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, H.G. Wells,
Sigmund Freud, Aldous Huxley, J.G. Frazer, and many others. These
books became affordable with the appearance of the paper editions that
the Penguin Publishing House started to print during the years of World
War II. The reading of these books also gave me a better grip of the
English language, especially when I determined to look up the meaning
of unfamiliar words in the dictionary. My relationship with Salama Musa
was such that when I was sent to Switzerland to start my postgraduate
studies in 1945, he came to the railway station to bid me goodbye before
I took the train to Port Said and from there the ship to Europe.
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Events That Shaped My Formative Years

If I were to choose specic events that left an impact on me, determined
my attitudes in life, and stimulated my interest in public affairs I would
choose three sets of events. The rst pertains to the revolution of 1919
that strove for the independence of Egypt. It unied the nation under
the leadership of the Wafd Party, the rst grassroots movement in the
history of Egypt, and resulted in the promulgation of the 1923 constitution, which introduced new principles that regulated the relationship
between the government and the people. The second set of events came
with the onset of World War II and the years that followed until the revolution of the army in 1952. These events changed Egypts demographic,
social, and political structure. The third set of events came with the rise
of the movement of the religious right, which reached its zenith during
the seventies of the twentieth century. This last movement played a key
role in changing the mood of the country and the course of many events
in modern Egypt. On each of these watershed sets of events I would like
to expound.
The 1923 Constitution and the Wafd Party

The ratication of the 1923 constitution represented a turning point in
Egyptian modern history and crowned the struggle of many generations
of Egyptians who strove to take their future in their own hands. It generated hope among the people and gave them the feeling that they were
embarking on a new and more secure life under the institutions it had
established. For the rst time in their history they were assured the right
to participate in the governance of their own country. The constitution
was inspired by the principles of the French Revolution and was modeled
after Europes constitutions. It put all power in the hands of the people,
constrained the authority of the king, and made their leaders accountable for their deeds. There was a separate legislative body elected by
popular vote totally independent of the executive branch of government.
THE 1923 CONSTITUTION AND THE WAFD PARTY
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The right to appoint a government, which was the exclusive prerogative

of the king, was given to the people.
The constitution embodied the aspirations of the national awakening
movement of the 1919 revolution. Its articles were secular in spirit,
emphasizing the national rather than the religious aspect of the state.
They were accepted and passed by the overwhelming majority of members of the drafting committee, including the members representing the
religious institutions, after a compromise article was added designating
Islam as the religion of the state.
The vast majority of the people hailed the constitution and looked
forward to its implementation. The Wafd party, which formed a popular
movement that rallied around its leader Sad Zaghlul, welcomed it with
great fervor despite the fact that the party was not represented on its
drafting committee. Some, however, did not look favorably on the new
constitution. Foremost among them was the king, who viciously resisted
the changes it had brought about which restrained his authority. He
impeded its implementation, harassed the Wafd party, which used to win
a sweeping majority in every election, and frequently rejected to abide by
its articles. He encouraged and gave support to the religious right, the
majority of whose members looked with suspicion at the new constitution because of its secular slant. According to a minority of its extreme
members the constitution was an apostasy that needed to be abolished
altogether because Muslims needed no constitution written by man
since they have their God-sent Quran.
On the liberal side there was a feeling of unease with regard to the
article specifying the religion of Egypt. That feeling turned into outrage when some members of the religious right used this article as a
pretext to express their authority and to ban books and punish their
authors. Two books that carried the brunt of the onslaught in the
1920s were Taha Husayns Pre-Islamic Poetry and Ali Abd al-Raziqs
Islam and the Fundamentals of Government. Taha Husayns book deviated
from the traditional narration of the history of Islam and its origins.
Ali Abd al-Raziqs book attempted to show that the caliphate system
is not an essential part of an Islamic government. The book was writ-
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ten to discredit the basis upon which the king of Egypt wanted to
claim the caliphate after its abolition in Turkey in 1923. The stand of
the religious right against these two books, written by two of the most
distinguished scholars that Egypt had ever seen, caused a great stir at
the time. It prompted Taha Husayn to write his classic book Science and
Religion in 1929 in which he objected to any interference from the clergy in the affairs of the state. In that book he lashed out at the members of the drafting committee of the constitution because they had
accepted the inclusion of an article that labeled the state with a particular religion. In his words it had done nothing but cause schism
within the Muslim community.
The period that elapsed from the ratication of the constitution in
1923 to the revolution of 1952 was marked by the determined ght that
the king, the minority parties, and the religious right waged against the
populist Wafd party. During that period the king frequently used his
authority to dissolve parliament and to discharge the majority Wafd government from ofce. Not a single parliament during this period nished
its term and there is even one that was dissolved on the very day it was
elected (the parliament of March 12, 1925). Many stayed for less than a
year. The Wafd party, which won the majority of seats in every election
that was conducted during the thirty-year period between 1923 and 1952
(with the exception of the 1938 elections that it boycotted), was only
allowed to stay in power for a total of less than seven years. Its government was frequently discharged before its term in ofce had expired.
The longest time it stayed in ofce was during World War II (19421945)
upon the insistence of the British, who wanted to assure the stability of
Egypt during the war years.
The Wafd party enjoyed the sweeping support of the masses. My
family was a strong advocate of the partys goals of independence and the
institution of democracy. It was unappably loyal to its leaders Sad
Zaghoul and his successor Mustafa al-Nahas. It sided with Mustafa alNahas in every dissension that took place within the partys rank and le.
It stood rm with him after the exit of eight of its leading members in
the late 1920s and after the dissension of the Ahmad Maher Nuqrashi
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group in the late 1930s and of Makram Ibayd in the early 1940s. My family frowned upon the dissenters and regarded them as having betrayed
the cause of the people and having ceded power to the camp of the king
and the enemies of democracy. The dissension of Makram Ibayd in particular was a grievous event to my family. Makram Ibayd was a Copt who
had achieved great prominence in the Wafd party hierarchy. His presence at the helm of the party symbolized the principle of national unity.
His dissension and alliance with the king and the minority parties was a
setback to that principle. It also gave credibility to the enemies of the
Wafd, especially after the publication of Ibayds Black Book in which he
related incidents of corruption that were alleged to have happened when
the Wafd party was in power. The book ignited great fury in my family
as it harmed and weakened the Wafd party at a time when it most needed to stand strong against the fascist and anti-democratic forces that
started to appear in the political arena during World War II.
My familys condence in the Wafd party under the leadership of
Mustafa al-Nahas was almost unconditional. It supported every action
it took, even those that raised controversy. It did not subscribe to the
criticism that was leveled against the Anglo-Egyptian treaty that the
Wafd and the representatives of other parties had signed with the
British in 1936. My family considered the treaty a step toward independence and did not accede to the ideas of the extreme nationalists
that it was a capitulation to the British. My family also remained supportive of Mustafa al-Nahas when he was forced upon King Faruq to
become the prime minister by the British, who besieged the royal
palace with their tanks in February 1942. My family was not particularly happy about the British action and was sorry to see the Wafds government installed by a British ultimatum to the king. Nevertheless it
did not discredit the Wafd party and put the blame for this action on
the king, whose frivolity had brought this embarrassment. In fact, my
family thought that the return of al-Nahas to power in 1942 restored
legitimacy to the government and stability to the country. This unfortunate event, together with the concessions that the Wafd party started to make to the king, distorted and weakened the image of the party
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in the eyes of many youths. However, the party continued to have

sweeping support among the masses until I left Egypt in 1945.
The patriotism that the 1919 revolution brought about was tolerant,
secular, and open to the world and its cultures. The constitution was
inspired by principles that were derived from Europe after its egress
from the Middle Ages. It emphasized the principles of the nation state,
the empowerment of the masses, and the respect for the individuals
rights and freedoms. These principles were the result of the triumph of
the Enlightenment movement that ourished in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and which emphasized human reason
and led to new forms of government free of tyranny. My early exposure
to this civilization was through the lectures of Salama Musa, who introduced me to the thoughts of the giant philosophers of the
Enlightenment movement: Hume, Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Kant.
My sister Inam contributed to my appreciation of its ways.
This openness to Europe in particular and to Western civilization in
general did not cause any problems to me or to the vast majority of the
members of my generation. It was our feeling that the only path to
progress open to Egypt was to embrace Western principles based on reason and the logic of science; the salvation of Egypt lay in joining the
mainstream of progress that had been initiated in Europe since the
Enlightenment. In fact, it was our belief that Egypt had slipped behind
when it had isolated itself from the mainstream of civilization.
Personally I considered civilization, which we mistakenly dub as
Western, as a universal phenomenon that is the cumulative product of
past human experience. Egyptians have as much stake in it as
Westerners. Their grandfathers were its founders and the Islamic civilization was its precursor. The Islamic civilization, which had its golden
age in the tenth and eleventh centuries, was responsible for saving the
ancient Greek heritage, which was on the verge of disappearance when
it was abandoned in medieval Europe and deemed heretic. The Arabic
translations of ancient Greek and Latin works that were embraced by
the Islamic civilization in its heyday became the only source that made
this heritage available to Europe during its renaissance.
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While studying at Harvard in the late 1940s I was struck by the similarity of Professor Kirk Bryans lectures in geomorphology and the evolution of landscape, and the writings of the Ikhwan al-Safa, a group of
Arab scholars who lived in Baghdad in the tenth century. The Ikhwan
wrote several letters in which they speculated on the origin of the landscape, which they thought was continuously changing as a result of the
action of the elements. As I sat listening to Professor Bryans lectures I
became convinced that he alone was the real scion of the great Islamic
civilization, and not the present-day descendants of that civilization.
Professor Bryan was surprised when I told him of the closeness of his
lectures on geomorphology to those of Ikhwan al-Safa. He asked me to
publish this observation which I did, together with a translation of a section that I extracted from the Ikhwans letters. The paper was published in the leading American Journal of Science in 1950.
My understanding of the history of Western civilization made me
comfortable with it, and able to deal with it with absolute parity and no
feelings of inferiority. Raised at a time of national movements that
sought independence and freedom, my generation adopted a world view
that called for the upholding of Western methods while preserving our
own national heritage. My admiration for Western civilization did not
detract from my veneration for my heritage or my love for my country.
On the contrary, I was of the belief that this admiration was a way to
express that veneration and love. Neither did this admiration prevent me
from seeing the ugly aspects of Western civilization and the havoc it had
wreaked on the countries that were conquered under its guise. I was
aware of the vile methods the Western powers had used to expand their
empires and to prepare for the British occupation of Egypt in 1882. I was
also cognizant of how this occupation aborted Egypts budding democratic experiment and its industrialization attempts, started many years
before. This awareness fueled my patriotism and made me a faithful supporter of the nationalist movement that was led by the Wafd party. It
also made me sympathetic to the call that was raised in the late 1920s to
boycott British goods and to buy locally manufactured products instead.
The call aimed at helping the edgling local industry so that it could
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grow and achieve the goal of re-industrializing Egypt, an important goal

of the national movement for independence.
As a result of that call a youth movement under the leadership of
Ahmad Husayn (who became later the leader of the ercely nationalistic
movement of Misr al-Fatat) was formed to accumulate capital by collecting piasters (a coin worth one hundredth of an Egyptian pound) for
the purpose of building factories. My older brother Nagib and I joined
the piaster project. I was twelve years old when I went from house to
house asking people to contribute their piasters to the project. The
money was later used to build a factory to manufacture the fez (tarboosh), the national headwear of Egyptians at that time. Until then the
fez had been imported from Austria. The manufacture of this national
headwear in a foreign country was an insult that the project aimed to
correct. The factory was built in the Abbasiya district in Cairo in the
mid 1930s.
In the years of my graduate study at the faculty of science I was
exposed to Marxist literature, which became available in Egypt for the
rst time in 1941 after the Soviet Union had entered the war with the
allies. Before then that literature had been totally banned and it was
against the law to carry it or even talk about it. Many of my colleagues
were intrigued and fascinated by it and devoted themselves to its propagation. I was introduced to Marxist theory by some of my colleagues
who supplied me with its literature, and invited me to attend the weekly meetings they held in the Dar al-Abhath al-Ilmiya (Scientic
Research Forum) on the ground floor of an apartment building that they
had rented in the Munira district in Cairo. The meetings dealt with
many of the social problems that had started to beset Egypt and adversely affect its middle class during the World War II years. The problems
were convincingly treated by the use of a new analytic method and the
meetings were very congenial. They offered a milieu to connect with
other concerned people who were also seeking solutions to these problems. The Marxist theory seemed to give an explanation for the many ills
of society and to offer a credible and coherent solution for them. Its
emphasis on the scientic method and on the ideas of social justice
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made it very attractive indeed. The gallant resistance and the great
sacrices that the people of the Soviet Union had put up against
Germany during World War II added to our admiration of the theory.
When I went to Europe immediately after World War II I found that
the theory had seized the attention of the intellectuals of that continent.
Almost all the university professors and students that I met were sympathetic to its ideas.
In Cairo, the Munira meetings looked innocent to me, but very soon
I realized that they were also intended to attract the youth to join clandestine Marxist organizations that were being actively formed at the
time. Some of my colleagues tried to lure me into joining these organizations, but I declined after the rst meeting. Their stringent discipline
and total submission to doctrine were contrary to the principle of freedom of thought and movement that was basic to my liberal upbringing.
Although I escaped from the grip of these organizations, there is no
denying that I beneted from Marxist thought, which offered a coherent theory capable of explaining the development of human societies
and the forces that shape them.
The 1919 revolution and the 1923 constitution were watershed events
in Egypts modern history. The revolution unied the nation behind
principles that seemed to have had universal support. Its leaders were
keen to reach out to everyone to uphold their call for independence and
democratic rule. They were able to build a grassroots movement that
reached every corner of the country and attracted every group. Farmers,
landowners, artisans, professionals, government employees, clergymen,
and others were united under its banner. Among the most signicant
achievements of the revolution was the open-armed acceptance and
total integration of the Copts in the national body politic. For many
years, until the end of World War II, that acceptance was complete, and
it was not considered politically correct or even in good taste to talk in
public about anyones religious afliation. It was my good fortune to
have had my formative years during this period, when I did not feel discriminated against because of my religion. As a Copt I was not treated
differently at school, college, or at the beginning of my professional
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career. I graduated with rst class honors from college and was chosen
to go abroad at the expense of the Egyptian government on a mission to
further my education. However, upon my return from that mission in
1951 I found that the mood of the country had changed and that the
principle of the equality of all citizens irrespective of their religion had
been challenged. Acts of discrimination were agrantly perpetrated
without any feeling of shame or remorse.
World War II and the Revolution of 1952

The years I spent abroad (19451951) were crucial years in the history of
modern Egypt as well as the entire Arab world. In Egypt the change was
so radical that the country I came back to was totally different from the
one I had left behind. Its social order had been shaken by the rise of a
new social class of wealthy Egyptians who had been able to exploit the
new opportunities that had opened up with the exceptional increase in
demand for goods and services by the allied army that was stationed in
Egypt during the years of World War II. Almost anyone who was able to
offer a service or fulll a need to this army or its hundreds of thousands
of troops became rich. Many made their fortune by less than honorable
means that had become more accessible as a result of the economic disruption that came with war. Drug dealers, contraband smugglers, and
black market racketeers were among the members of the new social
class. Prostitution grew into a large industry to serve the hundreds of
thousands of young male soldiers of the Allies who roamed the streets of
Cairo. Nightclubs and cabarets became part of the scene of the streets
of the city. Ination skyrocketed during the war years and the years that
followed it. It made basic goods unaffordable to the majority of
Egyptians, resulting in widespread corruption at levels that had never
been seen before. Immigration from the countryside to the cities
increased and Cairo became an overcrowded and considerably dirtier
metropolis. Its services and housing could not meet the needs of its new
population.
WORLD WAR II AND THE REVOLUTION OF 1952
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During the years of my absence, the political order was also shaken
by the many setbacks that the government had suffered and which
resulted in the loss of its credibility and even its legitimacy. The British
occupation continued, despite the promise that it would end immediately after the war. The state of Israel was established after the defeat of
the combined armies of Egypt and other Arab countries by a few gangs
of Zionist zealots who did not even have a ag. The defeat led to a great
furor in the Arab World and especially in Egypt, where an atmosphere of
anger and rebellion lled the air.
In the University of Cairo (which was then called Fuad I University),
where I started to teach upon my return from my mission in 1951, this
atmosphere of increasing tension and furor was no different. There were
demonstrations that erupted for days on end and were quashed by the
police force, who barricaded the university premises and led to the closure of the university and the interruption of education. These closures
were so frequent that the 19511952 academic year shrank to only a few
weeks. During that year, on January 26, 1952, the great conagration of
Cairo took place that resulted in the destruction of the famous and historic Shepheards Hotel, as well as many businesses, clubs, and restaurants that were owned or frequented by foreigners. The conagration
created an environment of great tension that culminated in the ring of
the Wafd cabinet under the leadership of Mustafa al-Nahas and the institution of martial law and a dusk to dawn curfew in Cairo that lasted for
close to a whole month. Within six months of the conagration the army
revolution broke out, in July 1952.
The vast majority of Egyptians met the revolution with relief,
although many people had some doubts about the intentions of the
young, unknown, and inexperienced ofcers. Those doubts intensied
when the revolution unceremoniously decided to annul the constitution
and retire all political parties except for the Muslim Brotherhood party.
The execution of two textile workers in Kafr al-Dawar for going on
strike, after a very hurried and dubious trial, did not help matters.
I was in the United States during the summer of 1952 when I heard
the news about the revolution that had taken place in Egypt in July, but
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had very little information about it. Its news did not attract the attention of the media in the United States and it went unnoticed by a nation
that was thoroughly preoccupied with the Republican convention that
was being held at that time and which was to nominate General Dwight
Eisenhower for the presidency. My rst reaction to the news was very
positive. My life in Egypt during the year before had convinced me that
the system of government in Egypt had reached a dead end. It had lost
all credibility and the support of practically all segments of the population. It had also lost the support of the outside world. The rise of corruption and the frivolity of the playful King Faruq made the government
inept and ineffective. Everyone was expecting a change.
I came back to Egypt in September via Zurich, Switzerland, where I
stayed for a few days. There I read the news about the resignation of the
interim civilian cabinet that had taken the reins of power after the revolution in Egypt and the installment of a cabinet that was dominated by
army ofcers. I did not consider the change a good omen and I started to
worry that Egypt might be on its way to a military dictatorship. My worries about the future of democracy in Egypt increased when I read the
list of the members of the new cabinet and found no Copt among them.
I resumed my teaching at the university in the fall of 1952 under
extremely tense conditions as a result of the campaign that the government embarked upon to purge from the university any supporters of the
king or enemies of the revolution. This campaign led to intrigues and
vengeful acts among the university professors; many abused the situation
to settle old animosities.
The Rise of the Religious Right in Egypt

One of the most obvious changes that took place during my six years of
absence from Egypt was the rise of the Islamic religious right. Prior to my
departure, this current of fundamentalist Islam, especially that which was
championed by the Muslim Brotherhood, played almost no role in the
political life of the country or in the making of its public opinion. It had
THE RISE OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT IN EGYPT
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no place in the midst of the rising and sweeping current of nationalism

and patriotism that under the leadership of the Wafd party spearheaded
issues of independence, constitution, civil liberties, and national unity.
I was struck upon my return to Egypt by the new phenomenon of the
rise of this current fundamentalist strain of Islam, especially among the
university students. The phenomenon had signicantly changed the
mood of the country. Several factors, I believe, combined to effect such
a change. The most important of these was the general state of despair
that had prevailed in the aftermath of the humiliating defeat of 1948 and
the establishment of the state of Israel. This led many Egyptians to
strongly embrace the ideas of the religious right as a substitute for the
nationalist and secular ideas of their failed leadership. Islam seemed to
offer the only strategy that could effectively stand against the new
Jewish state. Its call found support among the urban poor, who became
quite visible in the wake of the massive migration to the cities that had
taken place during World War II. Many of the sons of these migrants
who went to college embraced that fanatic current to vent their frustration as they faced unemployment in the years of depression that followed World War II.
Historically Egypts urban poor have been the reservoir that has
fueled extremist movements in Egypt. The urban poor are more likely to
join these movements because, unlike the rural poor, they are more
prone to suffering during times of crises. They do not live among an
extended family that can provide them with support and their access to
food is not as easy; their living conditions lack the spaciousness that
could alleviate the frustrations and inconveniences of overcrowding.
This makes them easy prey for extremist movements, whose history goes
back to the Middle Ages when Ibn Taymiya (12631328), the Muslim theologian, laid down their foundation with his fatwas (religious edicts),
which are still reverberating to this day. All these movements share common traits. They are secretive and have a jargon of their own awash with
slogans. Their members are taught to obey their assigned leaders and to
follow strict rules that are intended to drill into them the belief that they
live in a hostile and unjust world of non-believers who do not wish them
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well. To overcome these ill wishes the members are told to stick together and foster their feeling of brotherhood and solidarity. The keeping
up of this solidarity, therefore, is dependent, to a large extent, on a continuous effort to spread hatred and suspicion of the other.
Ironically, many rulers throughout history have encouraged these
movements in the hope that they might be able to use them to defuse
any imminent anger that could be directed against them and redirect it
to the other. In many instances, however, things did not work out that
way, as happened in the rst violent incident that was perpetrated by a
forerunner of the modern Brotherhood in 1321 during the reign of the
Mamluk Sultan Qalawun. The incident was dubbed by the famous historian al-Maqrizi (13641442) in his well-known Khitat as the incident of
the churches. In it the members of the brotherhood, after one Friday
prayer, wreaked severe destruction and burned practically all the churches of Egypt from Alexandria to Aswan simultaneously. This repugnant
and well-planned act occurred in an age when means of communication
were quite primitive and caused the sultan a great degree of alarm.
Similar incidents took place occasionally at later times during periods of
crises and bad governments.
In more recent times the Muslim Brotherhood movement concentrated its efforts on indoctrinating and winning the loyalty of youth,
especially university students. This it did with astounding success, and
starting from the 1940s the movements presence became very obvious,
if not overwhelming, in all the universities. Members belonging to the
movement controlled the students unions and their funds, which they
directed to propagate the Brotherhoods principles and to nance its
underground operations and the training and indoctrination of its
recruits. After the establishment of the state of Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinians the Brotherhood movement gained support
from among other strata of the society. It established a seemingly strong
presence in the army. Many of the army ofcers who joined the Free
Ofcers Movement that was responsible for the revolution of 1952 were
inuenced in one way or another by its ideas. Some were card-carrying
members of the Brotherhood while others were sympathetic to its cause.
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When they took over the reigns of power they helped propagate its ideas
as a substitute for the liberal and secular principles that prevailed in
Egypt until the beginning of World War II.
As for the Copts, they were almost an unknown entity for many of
the army ofcers who were responsible for the revolution. They had little contact with them. They graduated from schools and worked at jobs
that did not expose them to any Copt. This made the Copts an ambiguous group of people who had to be treated with caution. Dr. Ibrahim
Hilmi Abd al-Rahman, the renowned late minister of planning, mentions
in a recent article that he wrote to the literary magazine al-Hilal that his
rst encounter with a Copt took place when he went to college. The
story of this encounter is of signicance. His elementary education took
place in a village school in Sharqiya province that did not have a single
Copt. His secondary schooling had been in a ministry of waqf school in
Cairo that likewise had no Copt among its student body or staff. His
exposure to the religious other took place only when he entered the faculty of science and found out that Copts and Jews did not only form a
good part of the student body but also of the teaching staff. According
to Dr. Abd al-Rahman this exposure was crucial in getting to know and
respect the other. It led him to develop many strong and lifelong friendships with Copts. The analogy here is clear. If a student with a background similar to that of Dr. Abd al-Rahman, was to enter a college that
had no Coptic presence, such as the Police or Military academies, it
would be understandable why such a graduate would have an unclear and
skewed opinion of people of other religions.
With this backdrop, one can understand why some members of the
Revolutionary Council regarded the Copts as a minority of no consequence or one that should be regarded with suspicion and distrust. I
remember hearing one of the members of that council expressing his
doubts about the Copts loyalty to Egypt. They held a disproportionately large number of government jobs because they were favored by their
co-religionists the British. This statement had been repeatedly told by
members of the extreme religious groups despite its demonstrable falseness. The true reason behind the Copts holding many government jobs
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at the time was that they had pioneered in establishing civil schools that
taught foreign languages during the time of Patriarch Kirollos IV
(18541861). The graduates of these newly established schools formed the
only pool that the British could draw from to ll the newly created jobs
in their administration. The relationship between the British and the
Copts has been historically one of intense hatred and animosity. Lord
Cromer, who represented the British crown in Egypt and was its effective ruler for many years after the British occupation in 1882, alluded to
this relationship in his book Modern Egypt, where he fervently described
the Copts rancor against the British. There is no better example to show
the extent of the distrust between the two than the Copts staunch stand
against the British during the 1919 revolution. Tareq al-Bishri in his book
Muslims and Christians in the Context of National Unity gives historical evidence to show that it was the British who started job discrimination
against the Copts (pp 110ff, 1980 Arabic Edition, published by the
Egyptian General Book Authority, Ministry of Culture, Cairo).
An incident that may show how little the members of the
Revolutionary Council knew about the Copts occurred when they failed
to suggest the name of a single Copt to join the new cabinet that was
being constituted in the fall of 1952. The predicament was nally
resolved after many weeks when they resorted to Fathi Radwan, their
civilian advisor, who suggested the name of his colleague Farid Antun
who was nally appointed the minister of supply in that cabinet.
The new atmosphere that had been brought about by the rise of the
religious right, and which I had rst encountered when I came back
from my mission in 1951, left a great impact on me. It caused great damage to the bond between Muslims and Copts and brought about a feeling of alienation and non-acceptance among the Coptic minority. I know
that many people will nd this statement shocking and will deny that the
bond between Muslims and Christians had been affected, and will
remind me of the oft-repeated slogans of unity between Copts and
Muslims. The reality, however, clearly points to the increasing tenuousness of this unity. Copts are distanced from sensitive political positions
and are excluded from sitting on policy-making committees and from
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occupying positions of trust such as those in the presidency, the media,

the army, the police, or the intelligence agencies. They are not trusted
even to carry the diplomatic pouches in the ministry of foreign affairs.
Strangely, these events have become acceptable and no one seems to
think that they are worthy of consideration or discussion. The subtlety
of this non-violent discrimination makes it imperceptible to many people who have not suffered it. I believe that this may be the reason why
some of the most decent people deny its existence.
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3
Ventures in Science
My Years at the University and the Mining
Organization, 19411978
his chapter contains some recollections of my work in the eld

of geology during my years of service in the university and in the
Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Organization. My years
of service extended from 1941, when I graduated from the faculty of science, Fuad I University (now the University of Cairo), until 1978, when I
resigned from my post as head of the geological survey.
The Beginnings of My Practical Life

I started my career in geology immediately after my graduation in 1941.
At the time of my graduation science played little if any role in the life
of Egypt. Egypt was primarily dependent on traditional agriculture,
which had little place for science. Graduates of the newly established
faculty of science were expected to work as high school science teachers
or as ofcers in the few newly built departments that controlled the
quality or authenticity of materials such as the chemical laboratories or
the bureau of standards.
My rst class honors degree qualied me for a teaching fellowship
at the university. However, the severe recession that accompanied the
World War II years did not allow the university to offer me that posi-
THE BEGINNINGS OF MY PRACTICAL LIFE
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tion and I had great difculty in nding a job. The job market that was
open for geologists at that time was so limited that it could not provide
an opening for the two graduates of the 1941 class of the only geology
department in the country. The economy was dominated by traditional agriculture. The mining and oil industries were run by foreign companies and their operations were extractive in nature offering few, if
any, opportunities for employment. An opportunity availed itself, however, as a result of the entrance of Italy into the war against the Allies
and the subsequent sequestration of its holdings and the detention of
its nationals in Egypt. One of these holdings was the Red Sea
Phosphate Company, which was extracting phosphate rock from the
mountains overlooking the Red Sea at the town of Qusayr. The company was left without any leadership or employees; all its jobs down to
the level of foreman had been in the hands of Italians. The sequestergeneral appealed to the dean of the faculty of science, Ali Mustafa
Musharrafa, to recommend geologists to him to replace the Italian staff
who had been detained. The dean recommended my colleague Mustafa
Izzat and myself for the jobs. That was how fate and unusual circumstances offered me a job, albeit not the one I was hoping for. My heart
was set on pursuing my graduate studies and preparing myself for a
career in scientic research, and to this end I had enrolled in the university as a postgraduate student and registered for the degree of master of science. I maintained strong ties with my professors, especially
Dr. Nasri Shukri, who had just come back from his mission in England
and who had impressed me by his zeal for learning and love of research.
Less than two years after starting my work in the mining company I
was nally appointed as a teaching instructor in the university in March
of 1943. The career I was hoping for had just begun.
Looking back at the two years I spent working for the Qusayr phosphate company I realize that they were among the most instructive years
of my career. The experience opened my eyes to the practical realities of
life, the intricacies of the application of science in industry, and more
importantly to the sad condition of the Egyptian worker and the
exploitation he was being subjected to. The lifeline of the company com-
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prised scores of itinerant workers who were brought from their villages
in Upper Egypt to work underground in the deep phosphate mines. The
workday was eight hours, not counting the time it took the worker to go
down to the mine and up again. This frequently took an hour and was
not considered paid work time. The wage was two and a half piasters a
day (equal to 10 US cents at the exchange rate of that day) paid for days
of work only. The workers had no insurance of any form and the company had the right to terminate the employment of any worker at any time
with no questions asked or explanations offered. Needless to say, there
were no severance payments, compensations, or pensions. The only
thing the company offered the worker was shelter in squalid communal
dormitories and a ration of half a gallon of water a day. Water was a very
dear commodity in the desert area of Qusayr. There was a very modest
grocery store that sold the bare necessities to sustain life, such as our,
tea, sugar, and cheap canned food. The worker was not allowed to bring
with him his wife or family, who were left behind in the village, and he
was allowed to visit them once a year or at the end of his service with the
company. Most workers became unt for this hard work and were in
poor health before they reached the age of thirty-ve.
The mining operations of the Qusayr company were mostly underground and many of the mines were quite deep. The company extracted
the phosphate rock using semi-mechanized methods. After exploding
the walls of the mine, the resultant disintegrated ore was collected by
hand into containers and then put in wagons that were hoisted by a
winch along a rail line to the surface. These methods allowed the worker to produce an average of 110 tones of ore annually, worth 220 Egyptian
pounds at that time. The average annual wage of the worker was a meager eight pounds. The company was clearly making money hand over st.
Most of that money went outside the country. With the exception of the
nominal taxes that went into the coffers of the Egyptian government and
the handsome handouts that went to the few inuential Egyptians who
sat on the board of the company to facilitate its dealings with the
Egyptian government, little was reinvested in Egypt or used to improve
the conditions of its working people.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MY PRACTICAL LIFE
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Travel in the desert at the time I started my career was an enormous undertaking. First there was the hassle of getting a permit to
visit the desert, which was forbidden land for Egyptians, who were not
allowed to move outside the valley of the Nile. Second there were the
hardships that came with travel in the desert wasteland, which had no
roads, maps, public transportation, or communication of any kind.
Going to Qusayr was a feat that took one on a train to Qena, and from
there on a dilapidated overhauled truck that used to leave Qena every
Wednesday to the Red Sea coast. The truck was commissioned by the
postal service to carry the mail and the few government ofcials whose
misfortune took them to the remote desert posts. The two seats next
to the driver were reserved for them. For everybody else, including the
loads of itinerant labor that had been hired to work the few mines in
the desert, there was the box at the back of the truck. Driving a truck
of 1930s or 1940s vintage on an unpaved road required great skill and
experience. The trucks had thin tires and were not equipped with
four-wheel drive gear; they could easily get stuck if driven on a soft
substratum. My rst trip to Qusayr and my earlier trips to the Bahariya
and Farafra oases were enormous feats that required extensive planning and preparation.
My work in the company showed me Egypt as it was at the beginning of my practical career, a country of oppressed and beleaguered
people who were forced to live within the boundaries of the narrow
valley of the Nile and were not allowed to go beyond it into the
expanses of the desert without a permit (the permit that was issued to
me by the intelligence agency in 1941 to allow me to visit the
Muqattam area outside Cairo is reproduced in the picture section).
Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few. The agricultural land
was almost wholly owned by a small number of families who spent
their wealth lavishly and ostentatiously; the few industries were in the
hands of foreigners, amassing great prots that were spirited abroad.
Economic expansion was dismal and prospects for employment were
entirely dependent upon ones connections. Not a pretty picture to
say the least.
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The University
My Scholarship Years Abroad
My appointment in the faculty of science came at a time when university education started to expand under popular pressure. Until the time I
joined the university as a student in 1937 higher education had been
available only to a few; a mere seventy students were admitted to the
only faculty of science in the country that year. That number started to
increase in 1938. That year saw the opening of another university in
Alexandria to which was added a faculty of science in 1942, and the number of enrollees started to grow steadily.
Shortly after my appointment in the faculty of science in Cairo I was
selected to go on a scholarship to pursue my graduate studies abroad, but
that was not to materialize until after the end of World War II. In June
1945, barely six weeks after the end of the war in Europe, six colleagues
and I were on our way to Europe to pursue our graduate studies. There
were few universities to choose from at that time. Most European universities had been severely affected by the war and we were sent to study
in neutral Switzerland. Going to Europe at that time was an arduous
undertaking. Commercial air travel was in its infancy and was almost
unknown. The journey from Egypt to Europe was made by steamers,
some of which started to resume their regular service immediately after
the war. There were a few of these at the time we wanted to travel and the
only available one was a French steamer that was stopping at Port Said on
its way to France from the Far East. We were loaded with luggage, which
we lugged on the train that took us to Port Said, and from there on board
the ship. The ship was old and in a dilapidated condition. It had obviously been overused during the war years as it ferried passengers and cargo in
the seas of the Far East. It was making its last trip to France, where it was
destined to be scrapped. We were the only Egyptians on board the ship,
which was carrying French and Senegalese soldiers who were going back
home after the war. They were a boisterous group of people who indulged
THE UNIVERSITY
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themselves in drinking and gambling during the six days trip to

Marseilles. As we approached the port of Marseilles we were able to see
the partially sunken ships of the French eet, which had been destroyed
by the pro-German French government when they attempted to leave the
port to join the Free French movement.
The Europe we saw at that time was pitiful. Its people were in a state
of despair, disorder, and disgruntlement. Workers in the port of
Marseilles were on strike. We had to unload our heavy luggage from the
ship and carry it all the way to the customs and visa ofce. From there we
went to look for a cab, but found out that the cab drivers were also on
strike. Finally, after a prolonged bargaining session in uent French
between an Alexandrine Jew who was traveling with us and who was
immigrating to France, and the driver of a private car, we were able to get
a ride to the railway station, where we took the train to Geneva,
Switzerland. We could not buy any food in France, as it was rationed and
available only to the holders of ration cards. Things were better and more
organized in Switzerland, where we were given ample food coupons
upon our arrival. Obviously the rst thing we did in Geneva was to have
a good meal, where I was introduced to the tasty Swiss dish of fondue. We
spent our rst night in the hotel Gar Cornavin, which lies adjacent to
the railway station. The following day we went to the Egyptian Education
Bureau, where we were advanced a months payment of 504 Swiss francs,
a railway ticket to Zurich, a few pertinent addresses, and a letter of
acceptance from the institution of learning we were supposed to join.
I and my colleagues started taking lessons to learn the German language, and shortly after I began my studies in Zurich polytechnic (ETH).
My undergraduate courses and my masters dissertation that had earned
me that degree from Cairo University in 1944 impressed my professors
and qualied me to enroll as a doctoral student without any further
preparations. All that was required of me was to write a dissertation
under the supervision of a professor that would meet the standards of
the institution. The dissertation I wanted to write was in the eld of
petroleum geology, which I was keen to specialize in. This eld was not
yet known in European universities. Until the end of World War II
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European industry was still dependent on coal; oil played a minor role as
a source of energy. Hence I contemplated moving my mission to the
United States, which was far ahead of Europe in that eld. The United
States had been using oil as its main source of energy since the beginning
of the twentieth century; this had led to the development of more
efcient industry and an increase in the wealth of the country. At the
time I was contemplating moving my mission, the importance of oil
from the Middle East had started to become apparent.
I sent a request to the faculty of science in Cairo asking for the transfer of my mission to Harvard University, which had shown interest in
accepting me. The approval of this transfer took over two years to come
from Egypt. By that time I had almost nished writing my dissertation
in the eld of paleontology under the supervision of Professor Bernard
Peyer in Zurich. When I nally got the approval to transfer, I cast the
dissertation aside and decided to make a new start in Harvard in the eld
I was interested in. I arrived in New York in February 1948 on the luxury liner the Queen Mary, after a short stop in London. Most of the passengers on that trip were Jews who had made the decision to leave
Europe and immigrate to the States in search of a better life.
I found university in the United States to be totally different from
that in Europe. Work toward a doctoral degree required following several courses related to the eld of specialization; these courses had to be
passed with honors. An examination conducted by a pantheon of professors would then follow to test the students mastery of these courses
and to decide whether the student was ready for the writing of the dissertation. The atmosphere in Harvard was invigorating, pleasing, and
conducive to excellence. The professors gave us a lot of attention and
were eager to help at any time we solicited their assistance. The quality
of the students who came to join the graduate school at the time I was
there was exceptional. Most of them were veterans who had seen action
in the war and had gained great experience. They were mature and serious and all made great careers. They became the scientists who were
responsible for the great discoveries and breakthroughs in the earth sciences that took place in later years.
THE UNIVERSITY
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The United States was a happy and condent society in the period
following the end of World War II. It came out victorious as a result of
its innovative methods of mass production and efcient management
that every other nation wanted to emulate. Harvard was one of the most
prestigious centers of learning and serious scholarship in the United
States. Its professors were devoted and each one of them was a paragon
in his eld. They were basking in the glory of their contributions as
condants and advisors to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the
difcult years of the depression and the war. Honors, research funds, and
consultations came to their door without their asking and no one had to
go through the arduous and sometimes demeaning process of writing
proposals to raise funds as is usual today.
Life in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s was less
demanding than today. The size of the average home was smaller, the cars
were less fanciful, and there were far fewer gadgets to own. The music was
less noisy and the movies less explicit and more romantic.
Communications and transport were such as to force any foreigner who
came to the United States almost to sever his connections with his old
country. It took more than three weeks on board ship to reach the States
from Egypt. Air travel was in its infancy and long distance travel was
accomplished mainly by train or ship. Communications were made by a
dial telephone for local calls and through an operator for long distance
calls, which were expensive and cumbersome to perform. There was no
television and the radio was beamed to local audiences only. Immigration
was restricted, and the population of the United States was mainly white
and homogenous. The black minority was still discriminated against and
was not to be seen anywhere in Harvard or any of the places I frequented.
My scholarship stipend was reasonably generous. In addition to paying the tuition, which was quite modest at the time, it offered me a
monthly payment of $200. This sum was quite ample to give a student a
comfortable life. I ate at the local delicatessen and was able to afford frequent shopping sprees at the Harvard Co-op.
One of the most important tools I gained at Harvard was a deeper
understanding of the logic of science. I had learnt its principles as a stu-
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dent at the faculty of science in Cairo, and later when I was preparing my
masters degree under the supervision of Dr. Nasri Shukri, who helped me
analyze data and weigh probabilities. However, my understanding of the
logic of science was greatly enhanced at Harvard when Professor Henry
Stetson sat with me and reviewed my doctoral dissertation page by page.
He taught me how to write a scientic paper, distinguishing between
observation and interpretation and making sure that I did not add one
extra word to my writing unless it served a purpose or conveyed an
intended meaning. He opened my eyes to the importance of punctuation
and helped me to learn its rules. The use of punctuation marks is new to
anyone who writes in Arabic, where commas, periods, and paragraphs are
unknown and where linguistic amboyance supersedes meaning.
Ironically my skill in writing in Arabic has been greatly enhanced by
my knowledge of writing proper English. It has made my Arabic writing
more perspicuous and succinct, a task that Egyptian schools failed to do,
and continue to fail to do to this day. The reason for this dismal failure
of the school system is that Arabic is taught through learning to recite
from memory pieces of old and archaic literature that have no relevance
to the students life, and through teaching grammar without referring to
its logic. The Arabic writing that is taught in schools emphasizes rhyme
and owery expressions over accuracy of meaning. I became cognizant
of the importance of applying the rules of writing the English language
when I attempted to write a comprehensible scientic book in Arabic.
In 1955 Cairo University, under the insistence of the then minister of
higher education Kamal al-Din Husayn, decided that science courses had
to be taught in Arabic. Prior to this I had delivered my lectures exclusively in English. To meet this new challenge I decided to spend the summer preparing myself for this experience and writing an Arabic textbook
on paleontology. Armed with my notes on the subject and the only available scientic English-Arabic dictionary, which had been given to us in
our last year of college, I went to my summer home at Ras al-Barr, where
the Damietta branch of the Nile meets the Mediterranean Sea. At the
end of the summer I came back with a book that was written in what I
believe was an innovative style in Arabic composition. Its sentences were
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short and to the point and its text was punctuated and organized in paragraphs. I tried to coin Arabic words for the scientic terms as best as I
could. A few years later the university reversed its position on the teaching of science courses in Arabic and teaching in English was resumed.
Nevertheless the book was the rst ever to be written in the Arabic language on this subject. It proved to be a success and I have seen it used as
a text in Arab universities from Rabat to Baghdad.
A few years later I had another opportunity to try my hand at science writing in Arabic. The American University in Cairo asked a group
of eminent Egyptian scientists to translate the science dictionary, published by the Encyclopedia Britannica, from English to Arabic. I was
chosen to translate the geological entries. The group met for two hours
every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. in the premises of the Institut dEgypte, of
which we were all members, in the heart of downtown Cairo, to try to
achieve consensus on the translations. The star of this group of scientists was the late Dr. Ahmad Ammar, the famous gynecologist and the
dean of the faculty of medicine at the time. A bachelor, he was always
impeccably dressed and had an amicable and amiable personality. He
loved Arabic poetry and was a virtuoso of the Arabic language; talking
and listening to him opened my eyes to the wealth and potential of that
language. The dictionary was published in 1977. In my opinion its
Arabic translations for the scientic terms remain to this day some of
the most dependable.
The most important and happiest event of my life happened during
my time at Harvard when I met my future wife Wadad. As fate would
have it, she came to Harvard for the academic year 1949/50 to follow the
lectures of Professor C.I. Lewis in philosophy as part of her graduate
studies toward a doctoral degree that she was pursuing at Bryn Mawr
College. During that year she was enrolled at Radcliffe College, where
women students who wanted to attend Harvard would enroll. Harvard at
that time was an all-male institution. I met Wadad by chance at one of
the receptions of the International Students Union and found in her the
girl of my dreams. She was vivacious, condent, well read, and highly
educated. She was the model of a girl that I was seeking. We shared
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mutual admiration and love, and decided to get married upon our return
to Egypt. The wedding took place in Cairo in 1953. Our marriage was a
happy one and resulted in two beautiful children, Kareem, now 49, and
Sawsan, 48. Wadad was a great support to me and I owe to her a great
deal of whatever I have accomplished. She read and critiqued every manuscript I wrote (including the highly specialized scientic papers), corrected the English and pointed out to me any errors of reasoning that the
manuscripts may have had. She also, in her delicate way, taught me the
basics of logic, which she used to teach at the American University in
Cairo after obtaining her doctorate in 1951.
During the second year of my graduate studies at Harvard I was given
a teaching fellowship to supervise the lab exercises and the eld trips of
the freshman baby geology course. This was a very rewarding experience.
In addition to giving me a small supplementary income it afforded me the
chance to travel in New England and to enjoy and learn more about its
magnicent scenery. In the summer of 1949 I was appointed a research
assistant at the world-renowned Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
on the recommendation of Professor Henry Stetson, a position I held for
the succeeding three summers. This was a truly great experience which
introduced me to the new science of marine geology and acquainted me
with the new techniques that were then being developed to fathom the
nature of the bottom of the oceans. During my stay I had the opportunity to use the research vessels of the institution, roaming the bays and shallow seas around the east coast of America and collecting data and samples
from the seabed. The samples made the material of my studies during the
winter. Woods Hole is a quaint little town at the southern tip of Cape
Cod, Massachusetts. It is the home of two famous scientic institutions,
the Woods Hole Oceanographic and the Marine Biological Laboratory. In
summertime they teem with scores of scientists who come to benet
from their magnicent libraries and well-equipped laboratories. The concentration of that number of scientists in this little town gives it an aura
of its own. There I met practically every scientist who was working on the
budding marine sciences and there I also had the culinary experience of
the fabulous North Atlantic lobster.
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Shortly after passing my preliminaries Professor Kirk Bryan

approached me to ask if I was interested in considering a teaching career
in the United States. He told me of a position opening in Mount Holyoke
College for the academic year 1950/51, months after my nal doctorate
exam, which was scheduled for May 1950. Professor Bryan asked me to
think the matter over and to go and visit the college before making a decision. Knowing that Wadad would nish her doctorate in 1951 and that she
would not be back in Cairo before then, I decided to probe the matter
and went to visit the college. I found the department exceedingly spacious and well equipped. It had only two other professors on its staff. The
atmosphere was genial, the faculty club beautiful, and the apartment that
was offered to me was elegant and within walking distance from the campus. The head of the department was exceedingly helpful and was ready
to go out of his way to encourage me to accept the post. I spent the
1950/51 academic year teaching at Mount Holyoke. My teaching load was
small and I had ample time to spend in research and the study of the
material I had collected from my marine voyages at Woods Hole. The
year was one of my most productive scientic periods; I published the
results of my research in some of the most prestigious scientic journals.
The research and the eld were novel and, judging from the response I
got from colleagues all over the world, my papers seem to have been
appreciated. I achieved quite a degree of fame in my eld and started
exchanging research results, on a regular basis, with some of the most
prominent scientists in the eld. My personal library, which I never stinted in spending on, became unusually large for that eld; later on it became
the basis of the scientic research unit that I established in the faculty of
science at Cairo University upon my return from my mission.
My Years at the Faculty of Science

The small geology department of the faculty of science at Cairo
University, to which I returned in 1951, was totally different from the one
I had known before leaving Egypt. It had been severely impacted by what
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had happened to the university in general during the World War II period, when most of the European professors had left and when two new
universities had been opened, the Alexandria and the Ayn Shams universities. This situation led to a shortage of professors to staff the new positions that had suddenly opened up; old and retired professors, as well as
mediocre graduates, who would not under normal circumstances have
been offered such positions, were solicited to ll these openings. Upon
my return, I found many of my colleagues had left their jobs and seized
the opportunity to join the staff of the new universities. They were later
sent abroad for short scholarships, obtained degrees, and returned to staff
the universities and achieve greater seniority than I. Dr. Ali Mustafa
Musharrafa, the dean of the faculty of science at Cairo University, was
vehemently opposed to the establishment of new universities, as he felt
that Egypt did not have the qualied professors that could staff them. He
also was of the opinion that any compromise with regard to the standard
of the professors would lead to signicant deterioration of the quality and
standard of education, a situation he painstakingly tried to avoid.
A personal and relevant incident worth mentioning in this regard was
the refusal of Dean Musharrafa to transfer me to a teaching position in
the newly established Alexandria university in 1944 when I obtained my
masters degree. As a result of the shortage in qualied personnel this
degree was made sufcient for a university teaching post. When I
protested to Dean Musharrafa, he told me, why do you want to associate yourself with these second grade universities? We are sending you on
a scholarship to the best university in the world to come back to us as a
professor worth his salt; we want to keep the standard of this university
as high as any university in the world. Dr. Musharrafas decision delayed
my seniority status, and put me in a position where several people less
scholarly than I sat on committees that judged my scientic worth and
determined my promotions. All these difculties notwithstanding, I was
thankful for spending all these years abroad and returning as a professor
worth his salt, as Dr. Musharrafa had wished.
Coming back to Cairo University with this background and with a
large number of peer-reviewed and oft-quoted scientic papers shocked
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many of my colleagues, who knew little about scientic research or its

methodology. They felt intimidated and were determined to complicate
my life at the university and put all kinds of obstacles in my way.
Adding to the nuisance was the depressing atmosphere that the rising religious right had wrought in the country in general and in the Cairo
University department of geology in particular. A mediocre professor
who happened to be a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood
movement compounded this atmosphere. He was continually complaining about his delayed promotions, which he attributed to the plotting of
his Coptic and secular Muslim colleagues. These complaints, unfortunately, found sympathetic ears among the responsible authorities and led
to the appointment of a foreign professor to chair the department when
it became a Coptic professors turn to assume that position. The sole
issue that seems to have engaged this professor was to spread the ideas
of the brotherhood and to recruit students to its ranks, especially from
among the freshman class that he insisted on teaching. Here is a sample
of what he taught the students; it is extracted from the textbook that he
wrote for the freshman class and was published in 1955. In the chapter
dealing with glaciers he alluded to the many and repeated glacial
advances that had affected the northern hemisphere during the last two
million years of the history of the earth. This phenomenon, according to
that professor, was part of a divine design to punish the indels who
inhabited that hemisphere. The future, with Allahs blessing, would
bring another advance that would exterminate the non-believers civilization. I must remind the reader that in 1955, when that book was written, there were not many Muslims living in that unfortunate hemisphere.
Today there are many millions. The book was later used for the freshman
geology classes in Saudi Arabia when that professor moved there to
teach in its universities.
The tactic of this professor was to delude the students into believing
that they needed to unite against fanatic Coptic professors who were
plotting to unk them in exams and destroy their future. As naive and
silly as these ideas sound, I was astonished to nd out that a good number of students, especially the urban poor, believed them. The prototype
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of a Copt, which was instilled in the minds of those students in the

medieval school system that they attended, was that he was a fanatic
who did not wish well to anyone outside his faith. I have a feeling that
in all likelihood, the image of a Muslim was no different for a Copt of a
similar background. Some of the students regarded me with suspicion, if
not with enmity. This intolerable atmosphere can best be exemplied by
the following preposterous incident that I have never been able to forget. It happened on the morning following my wedding day in June 1953.
I had handed over the results of the students exams and was getting
ready to go on my honeymoon. I was surprised by a visit from a messenger from the university, who handed me a notice requesting my immediate appearance at the university for interrogation regarding a complaint
by a student alleging that he had failed his exam because he had been discriminated against for his religion. I was taken aback that the university
would take such a complaint seriously, but later realized that many people regard such complaints as quite credible. Of course a re-examination
of the students papers conrmed my decision that he deserved to fail. I
mention this ludicrous example not because of its importance but to
illustrate the nature of the atmosphere that prevailed in the department
in which I had to establish my future. The timing of the event, rather
than the substance, is what really left an indelible mark on my memory.
The conniving of that mediocre professor, who devoted almost all his
time to spreading hate and recruiting students to the brotherhood movement, was successful. The department became a hotbed of the movement with a strong and disciplined cadre to propagate its ideas and
inltrate the university institutions. Looking back at the scene some
fty years later, I have to admit that this professor achieved his goals and
succeeded in ensuring that most of the newly appointed university staff
were from this cadre.
Undoubtedly, this success was partly due to the great support that the
religious right received from the government. As early as 1946 the government of the notorious prime minister Ismail Sidqi was determined to
root out the increasingly popular left wing movement that had been
embraced by many of the university professors and some students dur-
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ing World War II. In that year the government cracked down on the university, jailing many professors and permanently closing their meeting
places and magazines. Embracing the groups of the religious right was
one of the methods the government used to ght left-wing groups. This
new policy might have explained why the government averted its eyes to
the obvious transgressions of the religious right as it spread hate and as
its members grabbed a majority of the university positions and scholarships. It may also explain the free rein given to these groups to recruit
more members, a freedom that continued until 1954 when the brotherhood clashed with the new revolutionary regime.
I came back to the department of geology to nd this backward and
stultifying atmosphere, in which there seemed to be no hope of satisfying my ambitions of pursuing my research and working toward building
a science department rivaling the best in the world. I had left my position in the United States as a professor and a researcher in the most prestigious scientic institution because I felt that I could have a positive
impact in my country. For the rst two years after my return, I tried to
nd a place for myself in this atmosphere and to cope with it but to no
avail. The departments council was overwhelmed by the intrigues of its
more mediocre members, who were determined to prevent me from carrying out my research, dissuaded research students from working with
me, and made sure I did not get any funding.
My rst two years in the department convinced me that it would be
a waste of time to continue to be engaged with this situation. The
nancial resources of the university were meager and were controlled
by a council whose members were not versed in good management or
fairness. The bureaucracy involved in getting anything accomplished at
the university was overwhelming. Every decision, however trivial, took
months to pass. It had to go through the mills of the councils of the
department, the faculty, and the university. The situation was untenable and not conducive to scientic research. For this reason I decided to distance myself from it and started building a small unit of
research that I intended to be self-supported and as independent as
possible from the university.
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I found support from the oil companies and the geological survey,
who were ready to facilitate our work in the desert, support our
research, and exchange data and information with us. A good part of
the effort I spent in this small unit was devoted to training a select
group of graduate students who were eager to expand their horizons
and achieve their potential. I had hoped that by building a new school
of students well versed in research I could contribute to changing the
inexorable and politicized atmosphere that was stiing scientic
research in the university. The unit depended on my personal library,
which I had started building while abroad and which was kept current
through exchange with colleagues and through personal subscriptions
to a number of periodicals. The library became the only one that we
depended on for current literature, since the university library had
become effectively obsolescent.
The new unit of scientic research I established was a small enclave
that I managed to keep up to the same standard as the most prestigious
universities in the world. This was possible only because scientic equipment at that time was not exorbitantly priced or exceptionally complex,
as became the case in later years. The small research unit produced
world-class scientic papers, rivaling those from the best universities
with which we were in constant communication exchanging information
and papers. Most of our scientic results ended up on the pages of the
most prestigious periodicals and journals.
I was able to keep the independence and standards of my small unit
of research by avoiding being engaged with other professors, who
indulged themselves in abusing the system and in degenerating the standard of education by allowing promotions to people who did not deserve
them. It was obvious that these professors would not pass the dissertations that came out of my lab despite the international acclaim they
received. I therefore insisted that they must be examined abroad and I
always forwarded them to the facultys board with suggestions of names
of examiners whom I chose from among the most well known in their
elds. I was fortunate in having on my side in this regard the deans of
the faculty Ahmad Riyad Turki and Husayn Said.
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One of the great accomplishments that came out of my lab was my

book The Geology of Egypt, which I started on when I found myself having ample time on my hands after the head of the geology department
relegated me to giving one lecture a week during the second semester of
the academic year 1960/61. The book was published in 1962 by one of the
oldest and most respected publishers in Europe and soon became the
authoritative and denitive text on the subject and has since been translated into several languages.
Joint Research Programs

Perhaps one of the main reasons my lab was able to remain independent was
the joint scientic research programs that I conducted with my colleagues
from European and American universities. These programs were among the
rst in Egypt and probably among the most successful. Although I have
always had many reservations concerning these joint programs, I still
believe that they can be mutually benecial if the principal investigators of
both teams are of equal standing in the scientic community. Unfortunately
this has not been the case in many of the joint research programs that started to inundate Egypt from the 1970s. Many were great failures that cost
Egypt dearly, as I will show in a later section of this chapter.
The success of the joint work that I conducted with Professor Fred
Wendorf, my classmate at Harvard, was due to the fact that the principal investigators of both parties were of equal standing and were able to
carry out a meaningful dialogue and to direct the work to their mutual
benet. I met Professor Fred Wendorf by chance during his visit to
Egypt in 1961, which he made in response to a plea by the Egyptian government and UNESCO to scientic institutions to salvage the Nubian
historical remains. These remains were at risk of becoming submerged
by the rising waters of the Nile as a result of the construction of the
Aswan High Dam. He came to explore the possibilities of carrying out
salvage archeology in the eld of prehistory. We met fortuitously at the
herbarium of the botany department while I was visiting my friend Dr.
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Kassas. After exchanging a few reminiscences we started to discuss how

best he could achieve his goal, and he soon recognized that a joint program with a geologist might be the best way to go. He invited me to work
with him on a joint program on the geology and prehistoric archeology
of Nubia. I gladly accepted. His invitation could not have come at a
more opportune time. Having just nished my book The Geology of Egypt,
I had noticed that little had been written about the recent geological history of Egypt and I wished I could have the chance to launch a program
for its study. An ideal approach would have been to conduct the study on
a multidisciplinary basis with an archeologist at hand to help in identifying and interpreting the human remains and tools that are frequently
found in the sediments of recent ages. With Wendorf s invitation the
fulllment of this wish seemed close at hand.
But before we could go any further with our plans we had to nd out
whether there were any prehistoric remains in Nubia that would justify
launching the program or applying for funds. I suggested that the best
approach would be to visit Nubia and have a preliminary look at its possibilities. Wendorf agreed, and asked me to carry out that visit and to
prepare a report for discussion when he came back in the fall. I made my
visit to Nubia the way everybody else did at that time, by taking a train
to Aswan and from there the steam boat that shuttled along the Nubian
Nile from Aswan to Wadi Halfa. This boat service was run by the
Egyptian government to serve the many little villages that studded that
stretch of the Nubian Nile. It carried passengers as well as goods and the
mail to every village on its course. I went ashore at every stop and walked
to the nearby desert area, which was in many places quite distant. My
rst impression was that the area had a lot of potential but that its study
could best be carried out from the desert side rather than from the Nile
side. I therefore decided to make the trip from the desert side in vehicles that I was able to get on loan from the geological survey. These were
two well-equipped trucks with their drivers. A geologist from the survey,
Bahay Isawi, was delegated to accompany me. Bahay Isawi was one of
my students who had just nished his masters degree under my supervision and who showed great promise.
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Wendorf returned to Egypt in the fall of 1962 to nd out that I had

arranged our visit to Nubia by way of cars rather than by boat as had
been the tradition among archeologists and Egyptologists. During the
ten-day trip we made with Wendorf we traveled the desert stretch along
the western bank of the Nubian Nile and made a short visit to the oases
of Kurkur and Dunqul, which lie on top of the cliff overlooking the
Nubian plain. The skill of the driver-mechanics that accompanied us and
the extremely efcient organization of the trip with regard to its supplies and the putting up and folding of its y camps were quite impressive. Wendorf found the area to hold great promise for prehistoric studies and collected a few int implements from some of the sites that were
strewn all over that stretch. He carried them back to Cairo, hoping to
convince the head of the antiquities service department to grant him a
concession to work out the prehistoric archeology of Nubia. Much to his
dismay his request was declined. The late Dr. Anwar Shukri, who headed the antiquities service at that time, was blunt with Wendorf, telling
him that he had already granted the concession for the study of the prehistoric remains of Nubia to another expedition and that there was no
place for him. Wendorf came to me complaining and I decided to intercede. I went to Dr. Shukri and was able to persuade him to grant
Wendorf a concession to work in the peripheral stretches of Nubia outside the Nile valley that were beyond the reach of the other expedition,
which was working from a boat docked on the river. Wendorf s concession also included the two oases of Kurkur and Dunqul as well as a small
window overlooking the Nile.
With the concession in hand, Wendorf was able to raise the funds
and form an expedition (the Combined Prehistoric Expedition) to which
he recruited many experts and in which I became responsible for the
geological work. In 1963 I managed to persuade the geological survey to
sponsor the expedition and to provide me with the necessary gear to
conduct a preliminary survey of the land of Nubia to help locate the
most promising areas where the expedition could start its work. I went
in the fall of that year with Bahay Isawi on a car trip that took us to
every part of the region. We found the terrain in the east rugged,
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difcult to negotiate and sparse in prehistoric sites. The terrain to the

west, on the other hand, was considerably easier to approach and was
richer in prehistoric sites. That was where the expedition started its
work. Within one year the work of the expedition had expanded to cover
the banks of the Nile as well, after the withdrawal of the other prehistoric expedition from working in Egypt.
The Combined Prehistoric Expedition has continued to work in
Egypt since that time and did not stop its work even in the most turbulent years of Egyptian-American relations. I remember distinctly how I
managed to get it the necessary permits to work in the winter of 1969 in
the Fayum area. That year saw Egyptian-American relations at their lowest ebb following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Egypt had severed its diplomatic relations with the United States, which it perceived as a partner of
Israel in that war. There was a surge of anti-American feeling that made
any thought of an American visiting Egypt, let alone working in it,
unthinkable. When Wendorf, to my surprise, showed interest and willingness to come to Egypt that year, I took his request to the minister of
the interior and head of the intelligence department. At rst the minister was surprised that I came to him on behalf of an American who wanted to work in such a sensitive area, where the Egyptian army was setting
up new radar installations. The ministers rst reaction was to refuse the
request on the premise that most Americans who came to Egypt were in
reality undercover agents for the C.I.A. I retorted by saying that I had
worked with the gentleman for more than ve years and had not felt that
he could represent any risk to Egypts security. I asked the minister to do
me the favor of looking into the matter and conducting his own investigations for I would not like to be associated with anyone who could be
remotely linked to a foreign or even a local intelligence organization.
Fifteen days after that meeting the ministers ofce telephoned and
asked me to come to pick up the necessary clearance papers for the expedition to work in the Fayum area.
The work of the expedition was highly professional and its contributions in the elds of prehistory and quaternary geology were monumental. Every year its eldwork lasted between ten to twelve weeks, which
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were spent in the desert in Spartan camps that did not have refrigerators
or enough water for frequent bathing. Nevertheless, the eld camps
were a pleasure to go to and I looked forward every year to spending
some time there. The eldwork and the discussions we had about the
results of our work of the day every evening around the candle-lit dining
table were stimulating. The evening meeting was almost like a school in
which many, including myself, learnt a great deal. Wendorf made sure to
bring with him every year an excellent group of researchers from different disciplines. They enriched our discussions and increased our exposure to other branches of science.
The days I spent in these camps diminished as the years went by and
as my duties proliferated when I took over the responsibilities of the
geological survey and mining organization. However, the times I spent
in these camps were among the happiest in my life and the most fruitful in my scientic career. My work in the expanses of the desert away
from the hustle of the city and the atmosphere of intrigue and conspiracy was spiritually uplifting. Nothing could rival the joy of walking in
the desert attempting to unravel its geological evolution or the history
of its land use.
When we went to the southern part of the Western Desert in the
1960s it was almost a virgin land. Few had ventured into it and little was
known about its geology. This led me to encourage Bahay Isawi, to make
it the subject of the doctoral thesis that he nished under my supervision in 1965.
Occupying the Chair of Geology

Throughout the years I worked at the university the question of my promotion did not occupy me. I realized from the beginning that asking for
promotion would either lead to discord with the members of the promotion committee or to compromising my principles, a heavy price I
was not willing to pay. I did not hold the members of that committee in
great esteem as they were known for their nepotism and unfairness.
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Merit was the last thing on their minds. On the other hand, I did not
lack recognition, for I had become known among scientic circles all
over the world. My works were referred to frequently. When I look back
at the correspondence I had during my active years in research I nd it
overwhelming. Almost every scientic worker who was working in my
eld corresponded with me and quoted my work. My promotion to the
position of assistant professor only happened after I had spent eight
years as a lecturer, which is twice the usual time for such a promotion.
The Geology of Egypt was published while I was still an assistant professor, a situation that must have seemed unlikely to the publisher, who
introduced the book by adding the title professor to my name.
Conferring this title on me disturbed one of the professors at the department, who sent a letter to the publisher informing him that I was not a
professor, as indicated on the jacket of the book, but only an assistant
professor in the department in which he was the professor. The publisher sent me a copy of that letter and his response to it in which he
afrmed that it was he who was responsible for adding the title professor to my name. In truth, I was not after any titles, knowing that they
would be conferred by the likes of this professor who happened to sit on
the promotion committee.
I did not ask for a promotion to full professorship until many years
after the publication of the book and only after Dr. Abd al-Aziz alSayyid, the minister of higher education, urged me to do so. He was surprised that until then I had not held the title of professor. When I
explained to him that this was due to the fact that there was no chair for
me to occupy in the department of geology in Cairo University, he insisted on creating one for me. But in the end, rather than going through the
lengthy process of creating one, he found one that was going to be vacated by the retirement of a professor in Alexandria University. Promotions
to the post of professorship at that time were not open as they are today;
they were limited to chairs that were created by presidential edict.
I hesitated to apply for that post because it would have taken me
away from my home in Cairo and also from my laboratory in the university, which by that time had achieved international recognition. I agreed,
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however, to apply, after the minister had explained to me that my

Alexandria appointment would be only temporary and that he would
make every effort to delegate me back to Cairo University as soon as I
had been promoted. Despite that promise I hesitated and did not proceed to apply for the post until the last day, when I was visited in the
early morning, while still having my breakfast, by my dear student Amin
Basyuni, later dean of the faculty of science, Ayn Shams university. Amin,
who had just come back from his mission in Germany where every one
of his professors called me professor, insisted that I must apply. He personally collected my scientic papers, lled the application form, and
carried my application and papers to the promotion committee on my
behalf. When the committee asked me after a whole month to turn in all
the papers that were listed as under publication I refused, informing
the members that they had enough papers to judge my competency as a
professor. Years after my promotion I became a member of the permanent committee for the promotion of university professors. For two
years I worked hard to restore to that committee the respectability it
should have had by emphasizing merit in its decision making, but found
the situation unpleasant and time consuming and mired in endless
Byzantine arguments. I eventually decided to resign from my position in
the committee after coming to the realization that the university was no
longer the place to do any worthwhile scientic research.
After having been promoted in Alexandria University I was not delegated to Cairo University as I had been promised. It is possible that the
minister of education decided not to act on his promise after he found out
the hostile atmosphere that I would have had to face in that university.
The head of the geology department did not want me back and even prevented me from continuing the lectures that I had begun before I moved
to Alexandria, even if that came at the expense of the students education.
The minister suggested that I accept a position in Ayn Shams university
in Cairo instead, and I obliged with a great deal of hesitation and maintained that position for two years, all the while having no ofce there.
While I was gradually becoming estranged and feeling out of place at
the Egyptian universities, I received an invitation from the Geological
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Society of America to give a series of lectures at selected American universities. This was an annual invitation extended by the association to
two scientists from outside the United States and was considered an
honor of the highest degree. I accepted the invitation, booked my plane
ticket, and was ready to go when I received a telephone call that changed
all my plans. The call was from Dr. Aziz Sidqi, who had been appointed
minister of industry in 1968, asking me to accept the position of chairman of the board of directors of the Egyptian General Mining
Organization. I gladly accepted the offer and decided to cancel my trip
to the States and to stay in Egypt.
Before I end my reminiscences of my university years, I have to mention that despite all the obstacles that I faced and the annoyances that
escalated noticeably after the publication of my book The Geology of
Egypt, there was a positive and constructive side to those years. The
obstacles were many and were intended to cripple me and prevent me
from carrying out any creative work. I was barred from all sources of
information and was prevented from meeting visiting professors or
attending scientic conferences abroad. Graduate students were dissuaded from working with me. The following regrettable incident may
show the ferocity and pettiness of the ght that was launched against
me. When the rst minister of scientic research in Egypt invited
Professor Belaussov, the foremost Soviet geologist, to Egypt, he tried his
best not to have the professor meet me. As it happened the professor
came to see me at my laboratory in the university, where we had a long
discussion. He had kept up with all my writings. He told me how surprised he was not to nd me among the geologists that the minister had
assembled for him to meet and introduced as the leading geologists of
the country. Strange enough, this minister had been one of my students,
and always showered me with praise and acclaimed my scholarly works
every time I had a chance to see him.
But despite all these obstacles there was a positive and a bright side
to my university years. First, there was the little enclave that I had set up
in the university and that proved to be a true center of excellence. From
that enclave scores of graduate students obtained their higher degrees
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and from it came many rst-rate scientic papers, which were published
in the most prestigious international journals. From it also came my rst
book about the geology of Egypt; this was the rst book ever written
about the geology of a non-industrial country by one of its people. It was
well reviewed and greatly acclaimed and represented a distinct event in
the history of the geology of Egypt. In that book the mass of scattered
and seemingly disconnected information on the geology of Egypt was
systematized and tted into a conceptual framework. The book became
a standard reference work and found application in the exploration for
mineral, groundwater, and oil deposits.
Second, my years at the university enabled me to inuence many students lives by opening up new horizons to them and by teaching them
the methods of science and the ways to approach a problem. My lectures
at the university were always the busiest and were well attended despite
the lengths the other administration members went to in order to stop
students from enrolling in my classes. A colleague of mine, whom I had
asked to deliver a lecture in my stead during one of the weeks in which
I was away from Cairo on a eld trip, was amazed to nd the auditorium
full of students. He used to lecture to the same class but never knew that
it had such a large number of students. Attendance of my lectures was
not limited to students of my own class but included students from other
classes and even other faculties as well. Mustafa al-Husayni, the wellknown political commentator, told me that he was a frequenter of my
lectures in the 1950s when he was a student at the faculty of law.
Finally, I must admit that I could not have weathered the difculties
I encountered without the support I got from some of my professors and
colleagues. Foremost among these was Dr. Nasri Shukri, who steadfastly
supported me until he departed to take a United Nations position in
Africa in the mid-1960s. I also had the support of deans Muhammad
Mursi Ahmad and Husayn Said, both of whom became ministers of
higher education in later years. But above all I had the good fortune to
work under Ali Mustafa Musharrafa, Hasan Shaker Iatun, and Ahmad
Riyad Turki, all previous deans, and great men of honor who worked
hard to maintain the standards of the university at the highest level.
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The Mining Organization

I left the university to head the mining organization full of hope that I
would be able to change it into a modern institution capable of using
state of the art methods of geological research and mineral exploration.
At the time of my appointment to my post in May 1968 the organization
was supervising the geological research institution as well as seven small
mining companies, each of which had its own board of directors. The
chairmen of these boards together with other public gures constituted
the board of directors of the supervising organization that I chaired.
The mining companies were relics of the private sector and had been
nationalized years before my appointment to the organization. At the
time they were nationalized these companies were already small and in
bad shape. Some were about to close down after having exhausted their
reserves, like the Safaga and Qusayr phosphate companies along the Red
Sea coast and the manganese company in Sinai. Others were small operations, extracting ores by primitive methods using cheap transient labor
that was supplied by ignorant and merciless subcontractors. All were in
a bad nancial state, indebted to the banks, their budgets showing great
losses. Even the Salt and Soda Company, which was supposed to be the
most viable of the seven companies by virtue of the fact that it monopolized the salt market, was in no better shape.
In fact, the organization was in a deplorable state as I arrived to take up
my duties in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war (which had compounded its problems). The war resulted in Egypts temporary loss of the Sinai
peninsula, where many of the mines were located from which deposits of
manganese, kaolin, sand, gypsum, and coal were extracted. Close to 30,000
workers of these mines had been forced to ee their positions and return
to Cairo. Those who did not have a dwelling place in Cairo were allowed to
live in tents that were set up in the yard of the geological research institution in the district of Abbasiya. This situation continued until my arrival
nearly one year after the war. The yard and the building had a horrid stench
and presented a scene of utter confusion. It looked like a market place, with
vendors peddling their goods and food stands serving meals.
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The situation was depressing. The organization had lost most of its
material assets and the morale of its workers was at its lowest. There was
no one to complain to and no one to look into their problems. There
were the widows of the workers who had been lost in action during the
war; they came to me wailing and pleading for help when the salaries of
their husbands were discontinued and their pensions remained undetermined, pending an ofcial conrmation of their fate. There were the
managers who came to my ofce imploring for help to supply their factories with replacements for the raw materials that used to come from
Sinai. There were the thousands of employees of the organization who
had not been promoted for years on end; each came to my ofce with a
complaint and each had a tragedy to tell. There were the thousands of
temporary workers who lived in fear of being laid off and who had been
severely exploited by a corrupt and inefcient administration.
The geological research institution had no organizational framework;
it did not even have a list of its workers organized according to their specialization. The storehouses were completely full and were in total disorder, with scores of unopened boxes piled up on an empty plot of land outside the building, known among the workers as the fenced area. The
building itself was in utter confusion; maps, les, books, and equipment
were to be found everywhere, in the corridors, on the roof and in the
court; many were left in boxes that had not been opened since they were
transferred to the new building in Abbasiya close to two years earlier.
As I mentioned earlier, in addition to this total chaos, I found the
morale of the workers at its lowest ebb. The disaster of the war of 1967
had shocked them all and was particularly hard on those who had been
in Sinai. The war came after a long period in which the organization had
been in complete turmoil following investigations carried out by the military intelligence agency (the mukhabarat) in 1964 to settle old scores
with some of the ex-army ofcers who had headed the mining companies
at that time. The investigation induced many employees to spy on their
colleagues and created an atmosphere of distrust in which everyone was
afraid of the other. It also paralyzed the leadership, which sought safety
in inaction.
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I found the task before me daunting. In addition to the problems of

the geological research institution, there were the problems of the mining companies. They were, as I indicated before, small and on the verge
of bankruptcy and seemed to me without any future. I gave myself a time
limit of two years to try to salvage them. If I succeeded I would keep
them under my supervision and if I failed I would get rid of them. My
rationale was that rather than wasting my time in salvaging hopeless
companies, I should spend it exploring for the mineral wealth of Egypt
and building a new mining industry based on sound research and run by
modern methods. This latter task could only be achieved by paying
greater attention to the role of the geological research institution.
The Mining Companies

I began my work of assessing the mining companies that were under my
supervision by visiting in July 1968 the three companies that were
engaged in the phosphate extraction industry. I started my trip by a visit
to the mines of the Safaga and Qusayr companies along the Red Sea
coast. From there I crossed the Eastern Desert to visit the mines of the
Nasr Phosphate Company in the neighborhood of the Isna region in
upper Egypt.
My trip conrmed the conclusion that I had formed as a result of my
studies on the geology of both areas, that both have a small reserve of economically extractable phosphate rock. In the Red Sea area most of the
mines were old. They had been opened some forty years earlier and were
worked out by semi-mechanical methods and were made protable by the
crude exploitation of cheap labor. They started their decline and were
rendered uneconomical in the wake of World War II, when their methods of ore extraction could not cope with the great technological developments of the time and when labor became more expensive as a result
of the social revolution that gripped the world at that time. The production of the Red Sea phosphate mines had declined tremendously since
their peak in the late 1930s, when they represented a sizeable proportion
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of the worlds phosphate production. When I visited the mines in 1968, I

found that they were substandard even by pre-war levels. They were poorly managed, had no maps, no set plans for their future development, and
no program for training their workers or increasing their productivity.
The workers morale was low as a result of the losses of the companies.
The only way that seemed to have a chance of getting the three phosphate companies out of their difculties and securing their future was to
nd a reserve of ore in such quantities and with such attributes as to
make it amenable to mining by modern methods of mass extraction.
When I examined the phosphate projects that were being planned for
execution by the three companies I found that they were all based on
mining ores that were similar in attributes to those that were being
mined by those companies at the time. The extraction of these ores was
only possible by the use of semi-mechanized methods, which experience
and the rising cost of labor had proven to be totally infeasible. In addition, I found out that the assessment of the ore reserves had not been
made on a sound scientic basis. The reserves seemed to have been exaggerated. Until my arrival at the organization no one seems to have noted
that the losses of the mining companies, and in particular of those that
were engaged in the extraction of the phosphate rock, were due to the
application of these antiquated methods. In the past, when labor was
cheap, these methods were economic; today they could hardly meet the
rising cost of labor.
I did not expect the introduction of new methods of mass extraction
of ores in the mining industry of Egypt to be an easy task. It would need
a total change in management and attitudes. I found it difcult to introduce the two basic conditions that could bring about this change, namely the training of workers and personnel to gain the skills necessary to deal
with the new and more sophisticated equipment of these methods, and
the concentration in our exploration work on nding ores that were
amenable to treatment by these methods. These two simple requirements
seemed to have been missed by all those who were engaged in the mining
industry. When I arrived to head the mining organization in 1968 not a
single mining company had any training program aimed at increasing the
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productivity of its workers. Even when the concept of introducing new

methods of mass extraction of ores was accepted and taken into consideration in planning all the new projects, no one seemed to have realized
that the application of these methods required a new type of ore.
A case in question was that of the Hamrawayn phosphate project,
which aimed at exploiting the phosphate deposit in the area of
Hamrawayn, which lies midway between Qusayr and Safaga along the
Red Sea. The deposit had been discovered by the Italian Qusayr
Phosphate Company before its nationalization and was on its les for
future development. The discovery had been suitable for development
by the Italian company, which was running its operations using semimechanized methods that, as I have explained earlier, were viable at the
time. The beds of the Hamrawayn deposit were thin and were difcult
to extract by the use of fully mechanized methods. The new nationalized
company that took over from the Italian company did not realize this
fact. It went along to draw plans to develop the Hamrawayn deposit by
the use of these new methods. It entered into agreement with the mining organization of the Rumanian republic to develop the deposit. When
I arrived at the organization the work on the project was oundering and
both the Rumanian and the Egyptian sides were complaining that the
other side had failed to meet its obligations.
It was difcult to do anything to save this badly planned project. Its
execution had gone a long way so that withdrawal from it was almost
impossible. In addition, the organization was committed to the execution of the project by protocols signed with the Rumanian government.
The only way that was open was to try to improve upon the plan of the
project in the hope of increasing the efciency of the equipment that
was about to be installed in the underground tunnels that had already
been dug. We did that by increasing the thickness of the extractable ore
by incorporating into it some of the intercalating lower-grade phosphate
beds, notwithstanding the fact that this would lower the grade of the
nal product and would reduce the protability of the project. I also
attempted to minimize expenses by expediting the work. For this reason
I delegated the management of the project to the Sinai Mining
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Company, which had lost its mines when Sinai was occupied after the
1967 war. I wanted to make use of the skilled workers that had been lying
idle since that war.
The future of the phosphate mining operations in the Red Sea area
looked bleak, and it did not seem to be worthwhile spending any effort
on their development. My knowledge of the geology of the area convinced me that it did not have any sizeable reserves of the types of ore
that were needed for the introduction of modern mining methods.
However, the decision to withdraw from this area and to abandon all
mining operations in it was a difcult one. Before making any nal decision on this grave matter, which would have affected the lives of thousands of people and the welfare of a whole community, I wanted to make
sure that my conclusion that the area lacked any economically
extractable reserves of ores was well founded. For that purpose I sent
two drilling expeditions to the area to probe all its potential prospects.
The results came conrming my conclusion and showed clearly that the
proven reserves of economically extractable phosphate rock in the area
did not justify any further work in it.
In light of these results I went to the board of directors of the organization to seek its approval to reconsider the organizations plans for
this area and to rewrite its existing phosphate projects to make their
goals more realistic and in conformity with the results of our ndings.
I also informed the board that these projects must be looked upon as
temporary and that the long-term solution lay in nding another major
phosphate deposit to replace these tiny and burdensome operations.
Until such a deposit was found we had to contend with what we had,
work hard to improve the quality of our nal product, and increase the
productivity of our workers and the efciency of the management. I
pointed out that the workers productivity in the mines of Egypt was
extremely low, amounting to only about ten percent of the productivity of an American miner. As a rst step toward improving the efciency of the management I proposed to merge the two small companies
that were working the ores of the two adjacent areas of Qusayr and
Safaga into one company.
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Despite the boards decisions, none of the companies took any initiative to improve or change its work. The Nasr Phosphate Company,
which was working the deposit along the Nile in Upper Egypt, for
instance, could not execute the simple plan of improving the quality of
its product by crushing it in a mill and then washing it a stream of water.
That simple operation had to await my input. Having lost hope that the
company would carry out the work, I delegated Anwar Bishai, the chief
engineer of the mining organization, to lay down the plan and to set it in
motion for the company. Most companies lacked good management;
their managers had been recruited from the ranks of a system dominated by a bureaucratic environment that did not permit initiative or the
taking of any risk. For that reason most companies were unable to meet
the challenges that had been wrought by new developments in the industry, even when this meant great losses and insolvency.
Other mining companies were no better off. The Black Sands
Company, for example, was in utter disarray. It was a company that had
been established to sort out the heavy minerals from the sand deposits
that used to accumulate at the mouth of the Rosetta branch of the
delta of the Nile after every ood. The company collected the sand
deposits and treated them by a simple process to separate the heavy
minerals included in them. It was initially a small but protable operation, but went wrong and suffered great losses year after year after it
was overextended beyond its potentialities when it became known to
the authorities that the sands included the coveted radioactive mineral monazite. After many years of losses the company was turned into a
research project that was funded by the organization. When I came to
examine the les of that project I found that they included reports
from scores of experts and international consulting rms. I spent many
days studying these reports and found out that all of them were either
non-committed or outright skeptical about the prospects of the project. I therefore decided to close it down. I discussed the matter with
Minister Aziz Sidqi, who immediately approved my decision. The minister had lived the story of the project and had heard a lot of talk about
its potential but had never seen any results. He agreed with me that the
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project had had its fair share of studies. I went to the board of directors of the organization with my recommendation to liquidate the project. After a long argument with the chief executive ofcer of the project, who had nally found his match, the decision was taken to close
down the project.
After spending two years of hard work on the mining companies, I
came to the conclusion that these companies did not have the basis to
be viable entities that could meet competition and look for a future.
Many had exhausted their reserves and had done nothing to replace
them. Others were engaged in small operations that did not seem to
have any future. I felt that spending any further effort on these companies would be a waste of my time, which I wanted to use more constructively in building the foundation for a new and viable mining industry in Egypt. I wanted to spend my time in exploring for new mineral
deposits that could be the basis of this new industry.
In light of this decision I prepared a draft of a new law that would
reorganize the mining organization to allow me to concentrate my
efforts on these new goals. In that draft I transferred the supervision
of all the mining companies to the different industrial organizations
that were using their ores and conned the function of the new organization to the scientic study of the land of Egypt. The study would
comprise exploring and evaluating the mineral deposits of Egypt,
examining their viability, suggesting the best ways for their use, designing the plans, and building the projects deemed necessary for their
exploitation. I named the new organization The Egyptian Geological
Survey and Mining Authority.
I carried the draft to Minister Sidqi, who welcomed it. I entreated him
not to bother me with the affairs of the small mining companies that were
under my supervision and to make use of my expertise in nding new mineral deposits that could be the beginning of a new and better-founded
mining industry. I also informed him that we were already exploring the
potential of a big deposit of phosphate in the Abu Tartur area in the heart
of the Western Desert, which we believed could replace the ailing phosphate companies of the Red Sea area. The republican decree establishing
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the new authority was issued in 1971. My job in establishing that new
authority had been greatly facilitated by the familiarity of Minister Sidqi
with the condition of the mining industry of Egypt. It was easy for him to
grasp the philosophy and signicance of the draft I presented to him.
The Geological Survey and Mining Authority

The Years of Growth
The geological research institution, part of the former mining organization, became the nucleus of the new authority that I wanted to reshape
in order to launch a new and better mining industry in Egypt. The institution received my attention from the rst day I arrived at the organization, and it became the center of my work after the establishment of the
new authority that restored to it its old name The Geological Survey.
Ever since I had left the university I had hoped that I would be able to
transform this institution into a center of excellence that could function
as the nucleus of geological research that the university was no longer
able to be. I realized the difculties entailed in achieving such a goal outside the university where all the trained scientists were to be found.
However, I thought that the attempt might have a chance of succeeding.
It had already been done in the eld of letters, where practically all the
great literary works of modern Egypt were accomplished outside the
university. Not a single one of the great literary gures of twentieth century Egypt was associated with the university. They either ourished
completely outside it or else had been expelled from it for one reason or
another. Towering gures in the elds of literature and art such as Gurgi
Zidan, Abbas al-Aqqad, Tawq al-Hakim, Salama Musa, Naguib
Mahfouz, Hassan Fathi and many others were not associated with the
university. Of the great men who were expelled from it one may mention
the names of Taha Husayn, Ali Abd al-Raziq, Amin al-Khuli, Louis
Awad, Mahmud Amin al-Alim, and many others.
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Despite realizing that the achievement of distinction in the eld of

science outside the university is much more difcult than in the eld of
literature, I decided to give the experiment a try. Unlike literature, distinction in science is dependent on work in structured institutions with
a rich infrastructure. I was encouraged by the fact that I was presiding
over an institution that had a long history of distinguished scientic
research. The geological survey was established in 1896 as a small department that had contributed a great deal to the advancement of the geology of Egypt. In the years that preceded my arrival it had been greatly
expanded. The expansion, however, had not been accompanied by any
restructuring of its management or administration and it was therefore
in very poor shape when I came to preside over it.
Organizing the Building

The geological survey was housed in a building that was originally built
to store the material and equipment that it received in great quantities
during the period of its expansion. It was built in the mid 1960s in the
district of Abbasiya, Cairo, and was also a place to garage and repair the
surveys eet of vehicles. Most of the equipment and vehicles had been
supplied by the Soviet Union in accordance with several agreements
that the survey and the relevant organizations in the Soviet Union had
contracted. After a few years of the building functioning only as a store
and a garage, an annex was added to it to house the ofces of the survey. This annex was nished and ready to receive the staff shortly
before my arrival. The employees moved into it without any plan or
regard to the nature and ow of their work; rooms were occupied in the
order of the employees arrival at the new building. It was not uncommon to nd the ofce of an accountant next to the ofce of a geologist.
Equally bad and disorderly was the arrangement of the furniture,
equipment, les, maps, and other possessions. They were neglected
after they had been moved to their new place and were heaped everywhere and anywhere.
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The ofce building was in absolute chaos when I rst came to visit it
shortly after my appointment as head of the mining organization. At that
time my ofce had not yet been moved to the building but was still in
the headquarters of the organization in downtown Cairo. Walking
through the building I found the corridors and the rooms, with the
exception of one or two rooms that were occupied by senior staff, in
utter lth and confusion. The building itself had received no care. Its
entrances and exits were disorderly. The way to its workshops crossed
the ofces of the technical staff and the gate through which goods and
machinery went in and out of the stores was the same gate used to access
the ofces of the staff. The organization of the building was the rst task
I had to attend to and the matter became especially pressing after I had
moved my ofce there. The way to my new ofce passed by the store of
the car tires. This used to be opened frequently for loading and unloading, causing enormous noise. The ofce overlooked an unpaved yard that
was crowded with workers who used it as a waiting area until their turn
to petition the administration came; and there was no shortage of these.
The displaced workers from Sinai who had no place in Cairo also used it
for accommodation after the 1967 war.
This rst visit left me astounded and depressed. Not only was the
building in poor shape but so was its administration. The director of the
geological research institution, who was responsible for it, was completely unconcerned with what was going on outside his ofce. He
seemed to have been content with the building as it stood, notwithstanding the fact that it did not even have a restroom. When I asked him
about this matter, he showed no remorse; there was, after all, a lavatory
in the mosque next door.
As I left the building after that rst visit I decided to get rid of that
director. His shameful negligence of the building and his unwillingness
to take initiative of any kind convinced me that he was not the kind of
manager who could help me achieve the goals I had set for this institution. I informed the minister of my decision and he approved it.
No sooner had we started the process of reorganizing the building
than it began to show serious cracks. It was apparently built on founda-
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tions that had not reached rm ground. Upon coring the ground we
found that the building was standing on a heap of rubbish some 18
meters thick. The heap was the accumulation of the refuse of the city of
Cairo for some 800 years, from the time of the Fatimids until the time
it became the site of a camp for the British Army during World War II.
After propping and repairing the building we got busy xing its
entrances and exits. We wanted to separate the entrance of the ofce
building from that of the workshops and the stores. I went with Abd alHadi Atiya, the new director, to probe the yard and mark out a way to
separate the entrances, but we found that the task was going to be
extremely difcult. Every possible path that could have made way for the
new entrances had been covered in mats and turned into a prayer area.
Removing any of these areas would have incurred problems that I was
not ready to face. Realizing that the matter was extremely sensitive for
me to handle, Mr. Atiya asked me to leave it to him. He told me that he
was certain that he could dismantle the prayer areas without inciting any
problems and that he was willing to take that responsibility upon himself. Mr. Atiya was a pious man; he knew his religion well. He had that
rare combination of fearing God and enjoying life to its full. A few days
later Mr. Atiya telephoned to inform me that the problem had been
solved and that he had been able to convince the workers union not only
to dismantle the prayer corners but also to participate in restoring the
yard and reorganizing the entrances. Looking back on this remarkable
achievement I can only surmise that the solution to that problem was
not only due to the convincing arguments and leadership qualities of Mr.
Atiya, but was also due to the atmosphere of determination that prevailed among Egyptians in the wake of the 1967 defeat to reconstruct and
reafrm their lives. This became obvious when the workers felt that
their new leadership was serious and committed. Once we were nished
with improving the access to and the exit from the building, we were
able to pave the yard and adorn it with trees which I myself chose, some
of which came from my own garden.
We then turned our attention to the rooms of the building, which
needed to be rearranged so that each department would have its staff
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occupying a contiguous section of the building. I had frequently talked

to the heads of the departments urging them to swap rooms so that they
could streamline their work, but to no avail. They had likewise failed to
convince anyone to change rooms. Everyone found the room that was
offered to him smaller or less airy or more out of the way. When I lost
hope that the heads of the departments would solve this problem I delegated a committee to carry out the task of rearranging the rooms of the
building to streamline the work. The committee studied the plan of the
building and came up with a scheme, which I endorsed. I ordered it to
be carried out during the weekend when no one was in the building. The
committee members spent the whole day and night of one weekend
numbering the rooms, putting the names of their new occupants over
the doors and moving furniture in and out. When the employees arrived
for work at the beginning of the week each was informed at the gate of
the number of his new room. Strangely enough everyone accepted the
new arrangement and there were hardly any complaints heard. What
probably made the arrangement acceptable was that the rooms had been
upgraded and provided with a telephone exchange system that made
internal connections considerably easier.
A similar reorganization was also effected in the Geological
Museum, which occupied a beautiful turn-of-the-twentieth-century
building in Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo. We rearranged its
exhibits to make them more attractive, and we enlarged its working
space by adding an annex to the building, where we housed a small
library of select books on the geology of Egypt and where I kept an
ofce for myself. That ofce was my refuge whenever I wanted to get
away from the din of the administration and its endless problems. It was
a place where I could be alone with myself contemplating and organizing my thoughts about plans for the future of the organization. It was
also the place where I prepared the few scientic papers I was able to
publish during my chairmanship of the survey.
As was the case with every other department, the storehouses were
also in bad shape. They were in total disorder, full to capacity and
overowing with material that was lying unpacked in the original boxes
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in the open air; even more was stored in a fenced area across the street.
As I have already mentioned, most of the equipment came as a result of
several agreements that the survey had made with the Soviet Union. The
rst of these agreements was signed in 1959 and was one of the earliest
commercial agreements that the Soviet Union had made. This was followed by another bigger agreement that was signed in 1964 that was
intended to enable the survey to evaluate the raw materials of the industrial projects that had been planned to utilize the electric power that was
expected to be generated from the Aswan High Dam. This agreement
was renewed in 1971. The quantity of goods and material that these
agreements brought to the survey was so large that it found neither the
place nor the personnel to handle it. There was hardly anyone from the
Egyptian side who knew anything about this equipment, which was
largely handled and used by the Soviet experts who were seconded to the
survey for the duration of the agreements. The storekeepers were not
trained to handle any type of equipment or machinery, let alone those
that had manuals written in the Russian language. My rst step toward
the solution of this problem was to build a new, large, and permanent
store on the fenced plot of land that was being used as an open air store.
When the new store had been built I asked the Soviet side to make available to us a few experts to organize it and to train its keepers. Knowing
that the art of storekeeping needed skills that were considerably higher
than those of our current storekeepers I tried to entice some of the
newly appointed engineers to take up that career, but with little success.
The job of a storekeeper was traditionally viewed as lowly and it was with
great reluctance that a few college graduates responded to my plea. I
rewarded these by sending them abroad on a mission to study the art of
storekeeping.
The vehicles that were used to service the many eld parties in the
desert were in no better shape. They had no place to be garaged once the
eld season folded up and the members of the different parties came
back to Cairo to conduct their laboratory work and write their reports.
Most, if not all, party chiefs left the vehicles in the custody of the guard
of one of the nearest rest houses of the survey, which were spread all over
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the desert. They were left in the open air under the scorching sun without any maintenance. The number of vehicles that the eld parties used
during the work season was in the hundreds. They were of every conceivable type; limousines, four-wheel-drive jeeps, trucks, lorries of every
size, water tankers, trailers, graders, specially built vehicles for hauling
drilling machines, and other equipment. In addition, the survey had a
eet of every type of earth-moving machinery. The number of vehicles
was beyond the capacity of any existing garage and their repair and maintenance represented a problem.
I became aware of the dismal state of the vehicles of the survey
from the rst day of my arrival at the mining organization when I wanted to pay a visit to the mines of Egypt. The director of the geological
research institution could not provide me with working cars that could
take me to the mines. Shortly after the outset of the trip the cars started to stall one after the other prompting me to cancel the trip. This
experience induced me to look into the condition of the workshops in
Cairo, which I found hopelessly difcult to reform. I thought that a
better location for an efcient workshop would be outside Cairo,
where workers could concentrate on their work without distraction. I
therefore decided to enlarge the workshop that the survey had run for
many years in Marsa Alam, which was at the time a remote, sleepy, and
difcult to reach hamlet on the Red Sea coast, some 600 kilometers
south of Suez. I thought that by enlarging that shop and increasing its
workforce from among the local residents, the survey would have better service for its cars. I hoped that by channeling most of the work
away from Cairo, where we had a large workshop, we could avoid the
problems that plague workshops in large cities where discipline and
control are difcult. Large cities offer the workers the chance to moonlight and to market whatever tools and spare parts they may pilfer. The
decision to remove most of the repair work to the remote Marsa Alam
area proved effective.
As for the garaging of the surveys eet of vehicles, we decided to
build a large garage in Marsa Alam to house a large number of them. The
garage was built on the abandoned site of the Sukkari gold mine, some
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20 kilometers to the east of Marsa Alam. The workers of Marsa Alam

volunteered to build the garage under the supervision of one of our engineers. It was a steel structure that used discarded drilling pipes and
sheets of corrugated iron at almost no cost to the survey. Nevertheless,
the garage was the subject of a reprimand from the ministry of nance
because it had been built without the use of an outside contractor and
without getting a permit from the relevant authorities.
The clearing of the fenced area in preparation for the building of
the new storehouse revealed the presence of a cache of boxes that contained the cores and samples raised from the drill holes that had been
sunk in different parts of the desert in the 1950s and 1960s. Realizing the
importance of this nd, I instantly decided to delegate a group of geologists to organize and ready them for storage in a core house that I decided to build next to the new store. The cores and samples of this nd represented a wealth of scientic material that was the result of a large program of drilling that ran for many years and cost millions of pounds. The
program had been instigated by the new revolutionary government after
it had taken power in 1952. Suspicious of the intentions of the British
ofcers of the survey, who had deemed many of the mineral discoveries
of Egypt unt for economic exploitation, the new government had
ordered the reexamination of these discoveries so that their true potential would be known. It wanted the honesty and authenticity of the
British reports to be checked by rms that were not associated with a
colonialist power that did not wish good for Egypt. The rms contracted were west European in the early years of the revolution and east
European in the later years. The result was an intense drilling program
and a large number of scientic reports. The cores raised from these drill
holes represented a wealth that I felt must be kept in good storage.
Future generations of scientists might need to reexamine them using
new techniques that may be developed in the future and that would
throw more light on their nature and potential.
Just as the samples and cores had been treated with utter negligence,
so were the nal reports of these early missions that had been prepared
by the rms contracted to carry out the studies. They were not in the
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library of the survey. At the end of the missions they had been given to
the heads of the departments, who had kept them in their personal
libraries. I succeeded in reclaiming many of these reports and sent them
to the library. As one can imagine the library itself was in no better shape
than anything else. It had stopped its subscriptions to many scientic
journals and had not made use of the publications that came to it by way
of exchange from other surveys of the world. Its transfer to the new
premises added to its already existing problems. Most of its books were
still unpacked and tucked in unmarked boxes. I put in a great amount of
effort to help reorganize the library using modern methods of
classication, renewing its subscriptions to some key scientic journals
and resuming contacts with the survey departments of the world. I also
built a new documentation center in which I tried to assemble all the scientic reports and publications that had been issued by the organization
since its inception and which I hoped would act as a repository for all its
future ones. This was a difcult job to accomplish. Many of the old
reports were not easy to nd and some were lost forever. Among those
that had been lost were the old mining reports dating back to the early
years of the twentieth century, which had been written by the mining
inspectors who had visited the active mines of the time. They had been
thrown on the rubbish dump by order of one of the cabinet ministers,
who had wanted to use the rooms of the old library of the mining department to expand his ofce. Yet in spite of all these difculties I believe
that we succeeded in building a central library and a documentation center that can be considered among the best in the country.
Conceiving an Organizational Framework for the Survey

Attempts to give the survey an organizational framework that would
clearly outline its functions and list its job descriptions were oundering when I came to preside over it. The employees of the central organization of administrative development who had been delegated to the
survey to help prepare this framework had failed to come up with an
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acceptable one after two years of work. Not one of the many frameworks that had been proposed received the approval of the senior staff;
every one of them looked at these proposals from his own departments
point of view, hoping to give it a more central position. Not one of
them rose to see the bigger picture. When the situation reached a
deadlock, I decided to take the matter into my own hands and work
out a framework for the survey that would take into consideration its
aims as I had conceived them. The proposed departments in my framework represented the units that were deemed necessary for the realization of these aims. I discussed the framework with a few competent
experts who helped to put it in its nal shape. The proposal was discussed and accepted by the senior staff with little effort. It was also
approved by the board of directors and by the organization of administrative development.
Now that we had an organizational framework we needed to
describe the nature and duties of the jobs in each department and to
staff them from among the employees and workers of the survey. This
latter job proved to be extremely difcult. There was no record in the
survey of the type of work that its employees and workers did. With the
exception of the college graduates, whose professions were known,
there was no record of the profession of the rest of the labor force.
Appointments had been made, in most cases, without designation to a
specic job and the register of the workforce was a mere list of names
arranged according to the date of appointment. In attempting to know
the profession of each one of these names we went to the heads of the
eld parties and asked their help in identifying their staff and the type
of work they performed. There were close to two thousand, occupying
a variety of jobs: cooks, surveyors, mechanics, drivers, welders, carpenters, and a variety of others. Many workers had been appointed on a
temporary basis year after year and these we decided to change to a permanent status. We took the opportunity of this change to rectify and
complete their les. One of the interesting facts that was disclosed by
this change was that most of these workers had no birth certicates;
their age had to be estimated by a physician.
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Now that the survey had assumed some order, I decided to visit the
eld parties, which used to carry out their work from base camps that
were pitched in the desert. Depending on the nature of the assignment,
the camps were either temporary or semi-permanent. In every camp I
visited I heard the workers complaining that they were unjustly treated,
that their work was not recognized and that they had not been promoted for many years. There were also complaints about the slow response
of the administration in Cairo to their needs or correspondence. Their
provisions and salaries were always late in coming and the salaries uctuated from one check to the other for no obvious reason. The mail service was irregular and the transportation facilities that kept them in contact with the Nile valley, where they got their supplies and had their
homes, was infrequent. Many of the complaints I heard in the eld were
handled on the spot, such as those that dealt with the administration,
mail service, and transportation. Others had to wait until I arrived in
Cairo. Determined to lift the injustice that had been inicted upon the
workers by denying them any promotions for close to ten years, I lobbied
for and succeeded in getting the necessary funding to execute the largest
promotion movement in the history of the survey. I also succeeded in
raising the necessary funds to allocate a monthly food allowance for all
workers in the eld. As to the complaint regarding the way the salaries
were dispensed, I asked the nancial ofcer of the survey to contract the
Ahram newspaper computer center, the only place offering computer
services in Egypt at the time, to work out a program to computerize the
issuing of the salaries. Past experience had given the workers of the
organization the impression that university professors were not always
the best people to run a business, but these reforms, and in particular the
one concerning the way the salaries were dispensed, were met with great
appreciation by all the workers. They dispelled any doubt that the workers may have harbored about my managerial abilities.
With these reforms the number of complaints that my ofce
received, and they used to be in the hundreds every day, was reduced to
a trickle. Thus I was able to decrease the number of lawyers attached to
my ofce to examine complaints to a single lawyer.
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The Training of the Scientific Cadre

We come now to the most important part of the process of building a
scientic institution, namely the building of a cadre that is capable of
handling scientic research. In this respect, the survey had little that was
promising or that could help turn it into a scientic institution of distinction. On the one hand, all our possible recruits for this cadre were
graduates of universities whose standards were eroding. On the other,
the survey did not have among its senior staff the leadership that could
initiate a training program or that could help create the atmosphere that
would inspire the young to learn and to think independently. All the
leadership posts in the survey were attained by climbing the bureaucratic ladder, where merit played a small if any role and where favoritism and
the ability to intrigue were common. This system instilled suspicion
among the workers and was not conducive to teamwork. Everyone was
on his own and no one wanted to share whatever information he had
with any one else. A government position in this system was far from
being a platform for public service.
The few scientists with higher academic degrees occupied middle positions in the surveys hierarchy. They were all unhappy, actively seeking to
leave the survey and join the universities where the workload was lighter
and the pay was higher. I tried in vain to persuade them to stay in the survey but did not succeed. There was no shortage of job openings for any
holder of a higher degree in the many new universities that were being
opened in the early 1970s. Only one or two of the holders of these higher
degrees preferred to remain on the staff of the survey; in addition we managed to keep a couple more after their attempt to move to the university
had failed. A case in question was that of a holder of a degree from
Moscow University, whose application to join the staff of the newly opened
geology department of the Islamic Azhar university was refused because he
held a degree from a communist university. He could not get the position
because of his refusal to perform a certain ritual to prove his religiosity.
There was no appreciation for the holders of the higher degrees
among the management or even among the professional staff, who eyed
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them with jealousy. One of the rst orders that the personnel administrator wanted me to sign when I came to preside over the survey concerned the ring of Dr. Bahay Isawi, one of the few holders of a doctorate on the staff. The reason given for that order was that he had failed to
appear in his ofce for fteen consecutive days. Bahay Isawi had extended his stay abroad beyond the date set for his return from the surveys
training mission in Norway. He had apparently left Norway to the
United States to benet from a short scholarship that I had arranged for
him when I was at the university. He had done that without getting the
permission of the survey, an act which is punishable by expulsion from
the service, according to the literal application of the law. Despite this I
refrained from signing the order. I felt that his expulsion would deprive
the survey of one of its trained scientists. I urged the personnel manager to do everything possible to keep our trained personnel and to attract
others too. I also told him that I knew about the mission of Isawi and
that it would be a short one.
Making Use of Foreign Expertise

The lack of a well-trained cadre of scientists in the survey represented a
major obstacle for its development. Traditionally this obstacle had been
overcome by sending promising young scientists abroad to get their
training. However, our experience with this was not encouraging. Every
scientist that the survey sent abroad for training did not want to continue working for it when he came back. In addition, our experience indicated that sending scientists to study abroad might not necessarily be
the best way for them to get their training. Many of those who came
back from their missions were either not up to standard or had received
training that was not necessarily useful for the needs of the country. I
therefore looked for another way to overcome this problem and thought
that it might be more effective if we were to bring to the survey from
abroad some reputable professors in the profession to train our scientists
on the spot.
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Fortunately, the survey had a team of Soviet experts who could help
prepare our scientic cadre. The nature of the task that had been given
to the team in the 1964 agreement was limited to the evaluation of ores
that had already been explored and found. The training, therefore, that
many of our young scientists had gained was in the eld of ore evaluation. They had learnt the methods of estimating the size of an ore
deposit and the way to get a representative sample of it in order to determine the physical and chemical properties of its bulk. I found their
knowledge exceedingly useful when we came to develop and work out
several ore occurrences to replace those that had been lost in Sinai after
the 1967 war. I depended on many of these young scientists to evaluate
these occurrences and to develop them into workable and viable mines,
as I will explain later in this chapter.
Because of the nature of the 1964 agreement the Soviet experts did
not contribute much to the training of our personnel in the eld of
exploring and nding new mineral deposits. Therefore, when the time
came for the renewal of the agreement in 1971 I insisted that we change
it to benet from the Soviet experience in that eld. Part of the central
Eastern Desert of Egypt was allotted to the Soviet scientists to examine
its mineral potential. The Soviet experts came in large numbers to
accomplish this task, which they carried out in accordance with a manual that they followed to the letter. The system that the Soviets used for
the exploration of the minerals was based on employing young scientists
to amass the data, measurements, and analyses of the area under investigation according to a set plan that no one was allowed to deviate from.
The amassed data was then sent to the Academy of Science in Moscow
for interpretation and for use in deriving conclusions and writing the
nal report. This method seemed tting for the exploration of the vast
territories of the Soviet Union. It employed a large number of geologists,
surveyors, chemists, and others.
The Soviet program proved useful in determining once and for all the
mineral potential of the central part of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, but
because of the fact that all the data had to be sent to Moscow for interpretation it did not help in training our workers in handling and inter-
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preting the eld and laboratory data. For that kind of training I wanted
to get western European and American experience to the survey. That
proved to be difcult to obtain in the 1960s and the early years of the
1970s, when Egypts relations with the West were tense. During these
years I could not bring to the survey any scientic project that was associated with the West except the Aswan Mineral Research Project, which
was funded by the UNDP as part of the regional development plan of
the Aswan area.
When Egypts relations with the West improved in the 1970s, I
became optimistic that we could initiate mutually benecial joint projects with some of the western scientic institutions. My optimism in
this regard was probably due to my personal experience with one of
these joint projects, which had begun long before I arrived at the survey
and which proved to be extremely successful, as I have explained earlier
in this chapter. This project was under the auspices of the survey.
Despite the fact that it constituted a very small part of the programs of
the survey, its mere presence was a reminder of the importance of these
projects in the training of personnel and the enrichment of their experience. However, my attempts to bring western scientic institutions to
work with the survey were in vain until 1975, when I was able to forge an
agreement with the United States geological survey and with other
American institutions. It all happened suddenly and as a result of an
indication of interest that I received from the American administration
during a visit to the United States as a member of the Egyptian parliamentary delegation in 1975. The aim of the visit was to foster USEgyptian relations; this made it easy to get the go-ahead when I raised
the question of scientic cooperation. Immediately after my return to
my hotel from a meeting that the delegation had had at the state department, I found a message from the director of the US geological survey
inviting me to meet him at his ofce in the outskirts of Washington. At
that meeting the US survey agreed to work out a joint program with the
Egyptian survey. It also agreed to my suggestion that this program would
entail the training of personnel and the tting of a state-of-the-art ofce
for the preparation, drafting, and printing of documents and maps.
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The same year I was also able to get two well-known American geophysicists to conduct a joint program with the survey in the eld of seismicity and tectonics. The program proved to be extremely useful in
helping the geophysical department of the survey to improve its methods and to keep abreast with the advances in this branch of science in
which the Soviet Union lagged behind. The results of this program were
among the most useful in understanding the internal structure and
dynamics of the land of Egypt.
Western methods of mineral exploration were markedly different
from those of the Soviet scientists. While the Soviet scientists worked
out the entirety of the land they wanted to explore inch by inch according to a set plan, the Western scientists reserved that detailed work only
for small and selected areas of that land. These areas were selected for
their prospects by using sophisticated all-embracing methods such as
satellite imagery and air magnetometer surveys and by the application of
theories regarding the origin of mineral deposits. Practically speaking,
both Western and Soviet methods led to the desired results. For Egypt,
the Soviet method seemed to be more appropriate. It was labor intensive
and could be carried out with cheaper equipment. It also needed fewer
scientists trained on the theoretical level.
Working Out the Programs of the Survey

Now that the survey had become reasonably organized and had at its disposal Soviet, UNDP, and American expertise, it was time to put in
motion the ambitious program that I hoped it could perform. This program aimed at the study of the land of Egypt with the ultimate goal of
making better use of its resources. It revolved around four main areas of
activity: the preparation of a database on the geology of Egypt including
the raising of geological, magnetic, and gravity maps, the detailed exploration of the mineral potential of selected areas of the desert, the study
of the viability of some ore occurrences for exploitation, and the design
of a scheme for better land use of selected areas of the desert of Egypt.
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The basic work of the survey was conducted in the desert, where close
to forty expeditions were sent to its different parts. More than two hundred geologists and engineers, attended by three times that number of
workers, mechanics, drivers, administrators, and others, staffed these
expeditions. They worked under a set of rules that was envisaged to
guide their work and to standardize the way they recorded their scientic observations and dealt with their nancial expenditures. Serving
these expeditions were hundreds of vehicles that carried their provisions, water, and mail and transported their members to and from the
Nile valley. The new Marsa Alam workshop, and its many subsidiaries
that spanned the desert, serviced the vehicles and the mining, drilling,
and other equipment of the expeditions. Every expedition was asked to
send to its supervisor in Cairo a monthly progress report of its work for
review. At the end of the season the expeditions returned to Cairo to
prepare their nal reports. During the month of September all expeditions were given the chance to present their results at a meeting I convened in the lecture hall that I had had built especially for this purpose.
The members of the expedition who presented the best report were
rewarded nancially and were awarded certicates of appreciation. The
expeditions reports were also edited and published in a new scientic
publication, the Annals of the Geological Survey of Egypt, which I established in 1970 to disseminate part of the information gathered by the
members of the survey to a wider public. I also ordered that all the nal
reports of the expeditions had to be deposited in the new documentation center of the survey.
The new lecture hall that I built in the survey occupied a large part
of the lower oor of the building in which I had my ofce. It used to
be a store for tires and was the source of a lot of noise. The conversion
of that store into a lecture hall was carried out in its entirety by the
workers of the survey using its own workshops. There was no money
that could be allotted for this project in the surveys budget and we had
to depend on whatever voluntary work the workers were willing to give.
The masons and carpenters of the survey did a magnicent job in
preparing the hall and its furniture. The doors were masterpieces of
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work, as were the chairs, which I had designed to have an extended arm
rest for note writing.
Many years after I had left the survey one of the many heads who succeeded me suggested that the hall be named after one of the earlier senior workers of the survey in recognition of his services. Ironically he
could not nd any better person to name it after than the director I had
red because of his neglect of the building! This suggestion did not pass
and the hall was named after me by a decision of the Board of Directors
of the Survey in 2004. It is interesting to note here that the hall that was
named after me was renovated and became a luxurious place with marble ooring, leather seats, great chandeliers, and other luxury furniture.
I do not know how often the hall is being used at present. All I know is
that in the 1996 centenary celebrations of the survey it was not used.
During the rst years of my chairmanship, the survey was a beehive
of work. Its ambitious program was in full swing. Its expeditions were all
over the deserts of Egypt, its laboratories were reorganized and renewed,
and were busy handling the thousands of samples that were sent to them
while its projects department had its hands full in designing and studying the feasibility of the many new mines and quarries that were opened
or were in the pipeline to be opened. The administration was modernized and its ways of reporting and documenting its work were brought
up to date. The success of the survey in nding and developing new ores
to replace those that had been lost in Sinai boosted its reputation and
raised the morale of its personnel.
The Geological Survey of Egypt has a long and glorious history, which
I decided to make use of in fostering the new standing it had achieved
and in instilling condence and self-assurance among its members. I
used the occasion of the seventy-fth anniversary of the geological survey, which happened to fall in 1971, to attain that goal. The celebrations
that I planned for that occasion aimed at increasing the awareness
among the public and the members of the survey of its history and the
achievements it had realized. The celebrations were held in the new lecture hall in the survey. The opening ceremony was attended by the heads
of the industrial, mining, and oil companies as well as by many members
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of academia, former workers of the survey, and the heads of the geological surveys of many countries, especially from the Arab world. Lectures
and exhibits were arranged to show the contributions of the survey in
the understanding of the land of Egypt and in the development of its
mineral resources. A new geological map and a book on the history of
the survey were published. The postal service issued a commemorative
stamp. The new face of the survey impressed the guests. Some of the
heads of the Arab geological surveys solicited our help to organize their
surveys, a task that we carried out with great pride.
The celebrations made the members of the survey proud of belonging to it. It was difcult to believe that the celebrations took place in the
same building that only three years earlier had been in total disorder.
The event must have left a great impact on the members of the survey.
Its memory must have lived on, as is shown by the fact that the geological survey, out of all the scientic institutions established in Egypt in
the last decade of the nineteenth century, was the only institution that
celebrated its centenary in 1996. All other institutions missed the occasion of their centenaries. Not even an event as monumental as the discovery of the sources of the Nile, whose centenary happened to fall close
to that time, caught the attention of anyone.
Assessing the Ore Deposits

The Case of the Kalabsha Kaolin Deposit
The task of nding and assessing alternative ore deposits to replace
those that became inaccessible after Sinai was occupied in the 1967 war
was one of the urgent tasks to which I gave special attention and priority. Their discovery was important for the continuation of the work of
many factories that depended on them. We succeeded in this task and
we were able to nd and develop several mines that successfully supplied
the factories with their needed ores.
ASSESSING THE ORE DEPOSITS
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One of the mines that was opened up as a result of this effort was the
Kalabsha kaolin mine in lower Nubia. It was our rst attempt to open up
a mine on a scientic basis, and in fact was the rst ever for Egypt, which
had always depended on foreign expertise in this regard. This achievement became possible only when we were able to train the specialists in
the different disciplines needed to open up a mine to work as a team.
Most of the specialists of that team were selected from among the young
men who had been exposed to the Soviet experience in the eld of ore
evaluation. They worked according to a plan that was designed and coordinated by the projects department.
Kaolin is a special kind of clay that is used primarily in the ceramic
and refractory industries. The supply became short after the 1967 war
and we needed to ll in the needs of the companies working in these
industries as soon as we could. Upon examining the known occurrences
of this ore in Egypt, we found out that they were low grade and not t
for the requirements of the companies. There remained an occurrence
that we had encountered while working in Nubia and that was mentioned in the unpublished thesis of Isawi. We knew little about this
occurrence except that it was a seemingly large surface deposit. We had
no chemical analysis, no indication of its thickness, and no clue of its feasibility for extraction. Nevertheless I decided to send a mission to the
area for a preliminary look and to bring back some samples for analysis.
The preliminary report and the analysis were encouraging. Keen to ll
the empty bins of the refractory companies, I granted the concession of
the Wadi Kalabsha area to one of the mining companies to start immediately extracting the ore around the spots from which the samples had
been taken. In the meantime, I asked it to draw up a plan to study the
nature and reserves of the deposit so that it could build a permanent
operation there. That latter request, I found out, was beyond the companys capabilities.
I relegated the responsibility of the study of the ore to the geological survey. We assembled a team from the available talent to carry out
the integrated study of that ore. The team started its study by raising
detailed topographic and geologic maps of this remote and little-
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known area. The outlined ore body was then drilled in accordance to a
grid that was designed to help calculate its reserves and get a representative sample of its bulk. The ore itself was the subject of laboratory
studies to determine its chemistry, mineralogy, and physical properties
and a representative sample was processed in order to determine the
best way to dress it and to enhance its properties. All the data went to
the projects department for use in designing its mines and working out
its feasibility. The results of all these investigations were embodied in
numerous reports that were later edited and published as a special publication of the survey.
The studies lasted for about one year. They resulted in the opening
up of a new kaolin mine with a proven ore reserve of 16 million tons.
This showed that the geological survey had the potential to take over the
work of ore evaluation and development, work that had been hitherto
undertaken by foreign rms and cost Egypt millions of pounds.
Toward a New Mining Industry

The Abu Tartur Phosphate Project
Our success in opening up the Kalabsha kaolin mine on a sound scientic
basis and with Egyptian expertise gave me the condence that my concept
of building a new modern mining industry in Egypt could be realized. The
mining industry in Egypt that I inherited was very small and was run by
outmoded methods of operation and extraction. It contributed little to
the national economy. Thus in 1968 (when I became responsible for the
mining organization) the country did not extract from all its mines and
quarries more than six million tones of materials. Half of this production
was made by simple shovel and sack from about 500 pits and quarries of
sand and gravel used in construction. The other three million tones represented all the mineral produce of Egypt, including iron, phosphate, manganese, talc, salt, gypsum, marble, different clays, and others.
TOWARD A NEW MINING INDUSTRY
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The building of a new and modern mining industry in Egypt depended on nding ores that could be extracted by fully mechanized methods.
My knowledge of the geology of Egypt pointed to the presence of many
mineral occurrences that could t this requirement. One of the rst
occurrences that came to my mind when I was looking for an alternative
to replace the depleted Red Sea phosphate mines was the phosphate
deposit that had been reported by one of the expeditions of the survey
some ten years earlier in the heart of the Western Desert at the Abu
Tartur plateau. This plateau forms part of the rugged country that separates the oases of Kharga and Dakhla. It is bounded by precipitous and
rough-going scarps from all sides except from the northwest, where it
merges with the at plateau of the Western Desert. The extent and
thickness of the phosphate occurrence on this plateau encouraged me to
look into its potential for development. In 1969 I decided to send an
expedition to the plateau to carry out a preliminary study of the ore and
the viability of its extraction. The expeditions study was to comprise the
preparation of topographic and geologic maps of the area, the channel
sampling of the ore exposure at more or less equal spacing for chemical
analyses, and the drilling of boreholes to determine the extent of the ore.
The members of the expedition took to their work with great enthusiasm despite the extremely difcult conditions under which they
worked. Their camp was pitched on top of the plateau, a remote area
that was difcult to reach except by climbing a steep track that had
been graded to t the passage of a car. The nearest place to obtain supplies was the hamlet of Kharga, some 50 kilometers away; it could only
be reached by negotiating a dirt road some 17 kilometers long before it
joined the asphalt road to the hamlet. The camp itself was pitched on a
plateau that was covered in a very ne-grained reddish brown soil whose
particles lled the air upon the passage of any car. Reaching the camp
was a feat in itself. The trip to and from the camp was even more
difcult for the water tankers and the large lorries that carried the supplies and equipment. The problem of transport became doubly difcult
when it was discovered that the drilling operations needed exceptionally large quantities of water because of the cavernous nature of the sub-
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stratum that the boreholes had encountered. That problem was on my

mind when I visited the expedition to follow up on the progress of its
work. At dinnertime and as the members of the expedition assembled in
the mess tent, I informed them that this problem left me no choice but
to close the expedition, for it was going to be extremely difcult to provide the drilling operations with their exceptionally large needs of water
without running out a eet of water tankers. This amount of water had
to be hauled from the oasis along a rough road and the steep climb of
the scarp. My words took everybody aback and after a few minutes of
silence, one of the young engineers assembled around the table suggested that we could overcome the problem if we were to use drilling
machines that could use air rather than water for cooling. When I pointed out that we did not have any of these, he answered that he could convert the existing machines to work with air rather than with water. I
thought the matter over for a moment and decided to take the young
mans offer seriously. I asked him about his needs to effect this conversion and he said that he would need a place in the workshop and the
freedom to use its tools. The next morning I took the young man to
Cairo in my car. During the ten hour trip I found out that he had graduated from the faculty of engineering, Cairo, and that his father had a
small blacksmiths shop in the district of Shubra where he used to work
in summer. Back in Cairo I provided him with what he asked for. A
month later, we had converted two of our machines to work with air
rather than with water.
The spirit of devotion and enthusiasm that was shown by this young
man moved me and heightened my interest in the project. The encouraging results of the preliminary work of the expedition increased that
interest as they clearly indicated that we were on the verge of a great discovery. The Abu Tartur phosphate deposit has a large extent and its
reserves could be in the hundreds of millions of tons. The chemical
analyses pointed to a medium grade ore with great potential for upgrading. Buoyed by these results and inspired by the enthusiasm and devotion shown by the members of the expedition I sat down to chart a
vision for the area after its development. Based on the available infor-
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mation at that time I envisioned it as a hub of activity that would be centered around a large phosphate mine with a possible annual production
of ten million tones of mine ore to be reduced to seven million tones of
saleable upgraded ore after its treatment. I also envisioned the project to
have its own railway and port, since the amount of material that would
have to be moved from it would exceed the total tonnage that was being
handled at that time by the state railways or the port of Alexandria. That
would entail the outlay of a 520-kilometer railway line from Abu Tartur
to the new port of Hamrawayn (north of Qusayr) that was being built at
that time, which would add to the cost of the project.
The total cost of the project was estimated to be 200 million US dollars (1969 prices) of which 145 million dollars would go toward building
the infrastructure, including the laying of the railway line, the extension
of a power line to the area, and the building of a housing center for about
three thousand workers. All cost estimates were based on the actual cost
of similar structures in the Bahariya oasis iron project, which had been
built only a few years earlier. Considering the prevailing rates of depreciation, interest, transport costs, power prices, wages, and so on, the
project looked very promising indeed.
Realizing that the production of this project would far exceed the
needs of Egypt, it was important to nd a potential buyer for the surplus
phosphate. We found out that the western European markets were
closed; their needs were supplied by the North African mines that were
jointly run and owned by European rms. We also found out that the
American market satised its need for phosphate ores from its domestic
mines. The Soviet Union, however, was a potential buyer for the surplus
ore of the proposed mine at Abu Tartur. With this in mind I asked Dr.
Sidqi, the minister of industry, if we could add the matter of the development of this mine to the agenda of the meetings of the joint industrial committee to be held in Moscow in the spring of 1971. He agreed. I
went to Moscow carrying with me a large portfolio of our preliminary
studies of the area including the maps, the chemical and mineral analyses, charts, logs of boreholes, and other data. The Soviet side showed
great interest in helping develop the project and in entering into a long-
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term arrangement to buy part of its product. As a rst step it signed an

agreement with the survey to complete the studies of the project. At this
point it did seem that Egypt was taking its rst steps toward a viable and
modern mining project. It was also on the verge of drastically changing
its geographical map by giving it a new eastwest dimension besides the
north-south extension along the Nile.
The Years of Regression

Work continued with great zeal in the survey until the early years of the
1970s, when it began to diminish slowly after the rise of President Anwar
Sadat to power. Under his leadership the priorities of national interest
started to change; industry lost its importance while tourism and other
services gained greater attention. The change occurred gradually, but by
the mid-1970s it had become complete and obvious. Industry became of
secondary importance and its leadership was entrusted to ministers of
little weight and dubious qualications. The new president saw in
tourism and other service activities an easier way out of the nancial crisis that followed the 1973 war that he had waged to regain Sinai from
Israel. The new ministers of industry did not recognize the importance
or potential of the industrial activities they were appointed to watch
over; their efforts were spent on downsizing them, liquidating their
institutions, chasing out their leaders, and neglecting the supporting
national research institutions that complemented their work.
Enter the Mukhabarat

The early years of the 1970s saw a struggle for power between the new
president and the members of the old guard; I was unwittingly thrust
into that struggle and made the subject of investigation by the state
intelligence agency, the mukhabarat. I will dwell on this matter in greater
detail in the following chapter, which will deal with my ventures in poli-
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tics. The reports prepared by the intelligence agency were sent to Dr.
Aziz Sidqi, the minister of industry. Although I was not informed of
their content I felt that they were unfavorable and were behind the hostile attitude that Dr. Sidqi started to show toward me shortly before he
left the ministry to take up the position of deputy prime minister late in
1971. This was regrettable, because it was largely due to the support of
Dr. Sidqi that I had been able to accomplish what I had. Dr. Sidqi was
an extremely competent minister who had cooperated with me until
these reports started to reach him.
When Dr. Sidqi left his ofce he handed over the reports to
Engineer Ali Wali, the new minister of petroleum to whose duties the
mining and mineral wealth portfolio had been added. He asked him to
read them and act accordingly. For a few weeks after the appointment of
the new minister I did not hear a word from him. He obviously wanted
to keep his distance from me. He did not seem to be interested in contacting me to learn anything about the survey or its activities. It seemed
that he was content with what he had learnt about it from the
mukhabarat reports that Dr. Sidqi had given him. These reports, which
Mr. Wali assumed to be truthful, depicted the survey as a poorly run
organization that failed to perform its duties and was run by an inept
religious fanatic. After a few weeks of this tense atmosphere Minister
Wali decided to call a meeting to introduce his new policies to the
employees of the survey. The meeting, which was organized by one of
my subordinates on the instructions of the minister and without my
knowledge, was to be held in the conference hall of the ministry of
petroleum. I was invited at the last moment. After some hesitation I
decided to go. I was seated on the dais next to the minister and the general manager who had arranged the meeting.
The minister opened the meeting with a long discourse on the
benets of good management, which he claimed that the geological survey did not have. He wanted the survey to follow the example of the
well-run and efcient petroleum organization, which he had headed
before his appointment as minister. He went on to say that the survey
had failed to nd the mineral treasures that were known to ll the
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deserts of Egypt. He then asked the senior ofcials of the petroleum

organization to lecture the audience on the methods they used in running their successful organization. Complimenting them on their
remarks the minister said that tolerance is part of good administration
and that the petroleum organization, unlike the geological survey, did
not discriminate against anyone because of his or her religion. He then
reminded the audience that he himself had appointed a Copt to head
one of the companies of the petroleum organization. I sat listening to
this diatribe with great anger and I contemplated leaving the meeting in
protest. But I decided to stay and to respond.
I took the microphone and for forty minutes I gave my answer to
these accusations. I began by expressing my amazement at the ministers audacity to pass judgment on the geological survey before getting
acquainted with its work or even talking to me about it. I expressed my
surprise that he would attack the surveys inefciency when he had
received from me in less than six hours a full report on a sample that
he had sent to me for analysis and comment. This sample had apparently reached the ofce of the minister soon after his appointment
from an unknown person who claimed to have collected it from a copper mountain located in a neighborhood of Cairo. The sample had
reached him after he had read the intelligence reports that depicted
the survey as an inept organization that could easily miss these obvious mineral occurrences. The idea that treasure mountains abound in
the desert is so ingrained in popular culture that it has become part of
Egyptian folklore. I have frequently received letters from many who
informed me of their discoveries of massive mineral deposits or valuable ore occurrences. I made a point always to respond to these letters
by thanking their senders and enclosing information about the pertinent mineral or ore. It seems that the copper mountain sample that
reached the ofce of the minister had been sent by one of those amateurs. It also seems that the minister, like most Egyptians, believed in
its authenticity. I must admit, however, that the geological survey
beneted from this ongoing myth and received large funds from the
government to verify its truth.
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My forty-minute talk was a summary of the achievements of the survey over the previous few years. I talked about our successes in nding
and developing replacements for the ores that had been lost in Sinai,
about the great discovery of the Abu Tartur phosphate deposit, and the
new nd of rare earth metals in the Eastern Desert. I also explained the
work that had been done to reorganize the survey and to establish the
new documentation center and the state-of-the-art central laboratories.
In citing each one of these achievements I mentioned the name of the
leader who was responsible for it and pointed him out from among those
who were attending the meeting. I concluded my talk by asking the minister to visit the survey before passing any judgment.
After the talk a hush fell upon the hall and the minister probably felt
that he had made a mistake by calling the meeting before consulting
with me. He adjourned the meeting and promised to visit the survey. A
few days later he fullled his promise and came to visit me at my ofce.
I accompanied him on a tour to acquaint him with some of the surveys
activities. At each project or department we visited I asked the one
responsible, after I introduced him to the minister, to explain the work
of the project. Everyone did that with great condence and pride. The
minister was impressed.
As we came back to my ofce, he embraced me and thanked me for
the tour. He confessed to me that he had been mistaken to believe the
intelligence reports, despite the fact that he himself had been the subject of similar malicious reports by the same agency. He promised to forward to me a complete le of the reports about me.
True to his promise the reports arrived the following day. It was
indeed to the credit of Mr. Wali that he had had the courage to disclose
these reports and make them available to the person concerned. Such
reports were generally prepared by secret agents and included background information and impressions about individuals holding key positions in the government. It was disheartening to nd out that the reports
that concerned me had been prepared at the urging of one of my closest
associates, who had been apparently appointed by the mukhabarat to be
their eyes in the survey. Most of the information provided and the com-
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plaints led against me came from some of those whom I had helped
most in their careers, many of whom had been among the most obsequious to me. The few professionals who had sent complaints were from
among those who had been recruited into the Muslim Brotherhood
movement during their student days at the university.
My relationship with the minister improved greatly after his visit to
the survey. I admired him for his willingness to forego his views and for
his readiness to reconsider his stand. Notwithstanding this new relationship that I had fostered with him, I lobbied hard to move the survey
from under his jurisdiction and bring it back to the ministry of industry.
I was of the belief that the survey had a role to play in industry as the
supplier of its needed raw materials. Attached to the ministry of petroleum, on the other hand, the survey was a mere appendage with no
dened role to play. My efforts succeeded, and the survey was re-afliated with the ministry of industry in the cabinet reshufe that took place
in January 1972. This new afliation, however, did not help improve conditions, especially after the appointment of a series of ministers of industry who did not seem to be knowledgeable about the needs of a wellintegrated industry or the importance of raw materials to it, but rather
seemed to be little people who encouraged intrigue.
The Abu Tartur Phosphate Project Comes to a Dead End

Many of the decisions of this new breed of ministers of industry were not
necessarily made with a view to the public interest. They seem to have
been made in accordance with an agenda that was set for them by special
interest groups that had become inuential in the mid 1970s. In the
domain of mineral wealth, for example, the ministers made decisions that
affected its future without consulting with the survey or with any other
knowledgeable person. One of these decisions that cost Egypt dearly and
proved detrimental to the entire mining industry and its future was that
which put the Abu Tartur phosphate project on the wrong path and led
to its failure. The project was transferred from the supervision of the
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geological survey and mining authority to a government ofce that had

been originally formed to supervise the maze of contracts involved in the
building of the Helwan iron and steel complex. That ofce had no function after the complex was built, and it did not have a single person on its
staff that knew anything about mining. The minister made that fateful
decision secretively and without any consultation with me or any other
knowledgeable person, despite his total ignorance of the details of the
project and the basics of the mining industry. The decision was also made
without any consideration of the law, which relegated the administration
of all mining projects to the geological survey.
The order to remove the Abu Tartur project from the jurisdiction of
the survey did not reach my ofce until weeks after the minister had
signed it. During these weeks rumors were circulating about the fate of
the project, all of which I dismissed, as I could not imagine that the minister would take such an important decision without consulting with me
on the matter.
When that decision nally reached my ofce I called the board of
directors of the survey for an urgent meeting to discuss the effect of
the order on the project and on the survey itself. The board agreed
that the decision was premature and recommended its immediate
rescinding. The survey was still waiting for the nal report of the
Soviet experts to determine the viability of the project and the best
approach to its development. Until that report was received, the survey did not even have answers to such basic questions as the most suitable location for the mine. That location was to be determined after
receiving the results of the analysis of the bulk sample that we had
obtained from the experimental mine that had been opened up for the
sole purpose of getting a representative sample of the ore. The analysis of the bulk sample was to be made in the laboratories of both the
Soviet Union and the survey. For this reason the bulk sample was divided into two equal parts that were sent to both laboratories. I had
emphasized the importance of involving our young scientists and engineers in these studies. I wanted to train and prepare them to discuss
intelligently, and on an equal footing, the foreign experts nal report
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when it was received. In fact, I had wanted to use the Abu Tartur project as a school to train our young employees in the art of evaluating
ores and developing and building mines. They had already helped in
opening the experimental mine and had shared in every study that had
been made on the ore.
I sent to the minister the recommendation of the board of directors
together with a long memorandum explaining the serious consequences
that could result from relegating the affairs of the project to an ofce
that had no experience in the art of mining. The decision and the memorandum went unanswered and the minister took no action.
It is difcult to surmise the reasons behind the ministers insistence
on not taking the advice of the best experts on mining in the country. My
suspicion is that he was working under pressure from large contracting
rms that were lobbying to start the construction works of the project.
I had resisted these pressures and had insisted that we did not begin any
construction work until we had completed our studies. No sooner had
the project been transferred to its new supervisors than a spate of building and construction started around the old experimental mine. It is
interesting to note that the same contractors were the rst to come to
the rescue of the minister after he left ofce, offering him well-paid jobs
in their service.
A few months after the ministers decision to transfer the project,
the Soviet experts report on the analysis of the bulk sample as well as
the nal report were ready. They were delivered to the new ofce that
had now become responsible for the project. Because there was no one
in that ofce capable of reading the reports or making any sense out of
them, it was decided to forward them to a western foreign rm for evaluation. The decision tted the new political direction that Egypt had
taken to decrease its collaboration with the Soviet Union. The new
ofce contracted a French company to do that evaluation for a fee that
exceeded four million pounds sterling. It may be interesting to remind
the reader that the cost of the many years of work that culminated in
the report that was the subject of that evaluation was only about
250,000 Egyptian pounds. While the contract was being negotiated
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with the French company I sent a letter to the prime minister asking
him to consider assigning the examination and evaluation of that
report to the geological survey. This would not only be more advantageous for the country but also considerably cheaper; it might have cost
the country less than one half the amount of money that was to go to
the French rm. The survey would be able to hire all the experts it
lacked for the evaluation of the report and strengthen its projects
department and its new mining design ofce. I also expressed my
doubts about the wisdom of choosing a French rm that was associated with the phosphate mining interests of North Africa, a situation
that could create a conict of interest.
The letter went unanswered and the transfer of the project went
ahead. The transfer proved disastrous at all levels. On the national level
it cost Egypt dearly. The group of amateurs who took over the project
failed thoroughly in their task. After squandering more than seven billion pounds that were showered on local contractors and international
consulting rms in every corner of the earth there was little that they
were able to show for that money. When the issue of that project was
raised in parliament in 1996, some twenty-ve years later, Egypt did not
have a phosphate mine or anything else of any value. Even the railway
line that was laid between Abu Tartur and the port of Safaga on the Red
Sea, and which was opened in a pompous ceremony attended by the
president of the republic, was abandoned shortly thereafter. There were
no goods to transport or passengers to move. The line itself had been
laid down along an unsuitable path. It reached the Red Sea coast by cutting through the rugged mountain chain of the Eastern Desert rather
than by following the at path of Wadi Hammamat as we had originally
proposed. Not only did this add to the cost of its building but it made its
maintenance much more difcult. The line would be cut after every torrential rain that the Red Sea hills receive in the fall.
On the level of the geological survey, the transfer of the project shattered the dream of turning the survey into a national institute of excellence. It resulted in its loss of the applied part of the program of work
that I had originally conceived for the survey when I formulated my
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plan to reorganize the mining organization. It ended the work of the

mining designing ofce and aborted the training program of its engineers, which was being carried out in conjunction with the Polish mining institute at that time. This meant that Egypt had lost the ofce
where its mines and quarries could be designed and where the government could refer for review the reports it received from many foreign
consulting rms.
On the personal level the transfer and failure of the project left me
with me a sense of guilt. The project was of my own creation. It was distressing to see the project, which I had conceived as bringing prosperity
to Egypt and allowing it to make better use of its land, turn into a disaster and a burden. When I look back at my role in that major endeavor, I
frequently blame myself for having brought to the attention of the present generation of decision makers the potential of that wealth. It may
have been wiser had I left it for a future, and hopefully more prudent,
generation to make better use of it.
The Work of the Survey Downsized

The removal of the Abu Tartur project from the survey was a step that
diminished the scope of the surveys work and reduced its budget and
reach. Another step that further reduced that reach soon followed. The
surveys jurisdiction over nuclear raw materials was taken away from it and
given to a new organization that was established for the sole purpose of
exploring and developing these materials. The new organization was established secretively and without consulting with us. It did not seem to serve
any particular purpose, and it looked strange and extravagant for a developing country to have two separate organizations, using the same methods
and techniques, for mineral exploration. The timing of the announcement
of the establishment of this new organization also raised questions, as it
came when mineral exploration in Egypt was undergoing great reductions.
The new organization was soon busy digging tunnels in one of the
mountains of the Red Sea range, claiming that it was evaluating a urani-
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um ore discovery that it had made. To anyone knowledgeable in the art

of ore evaluation it seemed odd to go about it in this expensive manner.
Assuming that there were good indications for the presence of this ore,
there were other considerably cheaper methods to go about the evaluation. Although it would be difcult to speculate on the real reason
behind the digging of the tunnels, it is interesting to note that it was
contemporaneous with the promise that President Sadat had made to
President Kraisky of Austria to help him nd a place to get rid of the
waste of the proposed nuclear power plants that his party was contemplating building in Austria. Getting rid of that waste had become an election issue. Keen to have Mr. Kraisky reelected, Mr. Sadat offered to bury
the waste in the expansive and barren deserts of Egypt. Rumors had it
that the digging of the tunnels in a remote part of Egypt might have
been related to that promise. Although it is almost certain that Mr.
Sadats promise was made in good faith, it stirred great anxiety among
Egyptians, who were relieved to know that they had escaped receiving
the waste when the Austrian people opted not to expand their countrys
nuclear powered plants.
Corruption Becomes Rampant

The new policy of economic opening that Egypt began to pursue in the
mid 1970s led to the restructuring of its economy and the deregulation
of its industries and services. The hasty enforcement of deregulation
generated an atmosphere that was conducive to the spread of corruption
and suspicious deals. With respect to the mining industry, which was
opened up to the private sector for investment, it was difcult in this
atmosphere to set the rules and guidelines that would have made this
opening up benecial to the nation and the investor. The countrys mineral wealth had for many years been considered a national asset and a
monopoly of the state. Now that it had been opened up for investors
there was a need to set some rules that would guide us in the process of
granting concessions. However, I found great resistance to setting any
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rules. There were pressures from all sides, including from many a cabinet minister, to leave the whole matter to be completely unregulated and
to facilitate the process of the granting of concessions for mineral exploration and exploitation to any applicant. Many of those who overwhelmed the department of mining with their applications were clearly
unqualied. They did not have the technical or nancial prowess to conduct any serious operation in the eld of mining. They were clearly
adventurers who were after a kill and many, as we discovered later, were
outright crooks.
A case in question was that of one applicant who sought to get a concession to exploit a certain mineral deposit located in one of the most
remote and inaccessible areas of the desert. The presence of this deposit
had been known for a long time and was the subject of extensive studies
by the survey, which had deemed it unfeasible to exploit economically.
We informed the applicant that in view of these results, which were
made available to him, we could not grant him the concession unless he
could show that he had undertaken a study proving that the deposit had
economic potential. In a few days he was able to provide the survey with
a report that claimed that the deposit was of economic value and worth
exploiting. It was signed by two professors of the National Research
Council who had never visited the deposit. With this report in hand, I
had no option but to grant the concession, which the applicant then
took to the bank together with the report of the two professors; he got
a hefty loan. He was reported to have been seen for about ten days roaming the area around the deposit in a four-wheel-drive car, after which he
disappeared from the scene altogether leaving the bank with a bad loan.
In the 1970s almost every foreign corporation sent representatives to
Egypt to probe its investment possibilities. The large mining corporations were no exception, and my ofce was overwhelmed by requests
from their representatives for information about the results of our
research on the mineral wealth of the country. When these requests
became too numerous, I prepared a booklet in which I included the
most salient results of our research and ordered it to be handed over to
these representatives. This way I avoided losing my time meeting them,
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as I was certain that the minerals with which Egypt was endowed would
not be of interest to large corporations. They could only be used locally
to provide its industry with valuable raw materials. I had always warned
against waiting for foreign investors to exploit Egypts mineral wealth,
but this warning went unheeded. Everyone who succeeded me in presiding over the survey worked under the delusion that he could attract foreign mining companies to Egypt to invest. The success of these presidents was measured by their ability to bring over these investors. It may
be worth mentioning that after thirty years of this policy, not one single
investor has come to Egypt to invest in its mines, and there is not a single foreign or joint company that is working in the eld of mineral
exploitation today.
Joint Scientific Programs Founder

Unlike foreign investors, who refrained from coming to Egypt, foreign
workers in scientic research rushed to it in order to conduct joint
research programs with its universities and other centers of learning. My
initial hope that these programs would help Egypt disappeared as I saw
them failing to benet the Egyptian institutions and in some cases even
harming them. Much of this was due to the absence on the Egyptian side
of leaders who felt scientically on a par with their foreign counterparts
and who could help in fashioning and directing these programs to the
mutual benet of both sides. Most of the joint programs that I was
familiar with ended up with the Egyptian side rendering the services that
were essential for the programs functioning and contributing little or
nothing to their scientic content. In many a case, these services were
generously rewarded by hefty sums of money that were frequently paid
under the table.
Many of the joint research programs were of no obvious relevance to
Egypts needs or its priorities. They frequently ended in results that
were of no obvious use to Egypt or to the institutions in which the
research had been conducted. I have the feeling that in most cases this
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was due primarily to the laxity of the Egyptian principal investigator. It

is true that in the case of some programs, such as those that dealt with
energy, water, and social studies, there was little that the Egyptian principal investigator could have done to redirect them from their intended aim. These programs seem to have been part of an agenda that had
been set solely by the foreign counterpart. The majority of the programs, however, were free from such constraint and could have been
changed to the benet of Egypt, had the foreign counterpart found an
Egyptian principal investigator with the vision and knowledge to suggest workable alternatives.
I began to have my doubts about the value of these programs shortly after their large-scale launch in Egypt in 1974, when a representative
of the US national science foundation came to visit me in my ofce to
invite the survey to consider working with relevant American institutions of learning on a joint research program. He suggested that it might
be best for the survey to structure its program along the same lines as the
joint Tunisian-South Carolina University program funded by the national science foundation and initiated some years earlier. He gave me a copy
of the Tunisian program to study and to take as a model to guide me in
writing my proposed program. When I looked at the Tunisian program
I was appalled by its size and scope and also by the large number of
American scientists and assistants involved in it. It was envisaged as
though the geology of Tunisia were to be worked out from scratch.
When the representative of the national science foundation returned, I
informed him it would be difcult for me to fashion my proposal after
the Tunisian model since it did not t Egypts needs. Egypt had long
passed the stage of descriptive geology and was now at a stage when it
needed to concentrate its efforts on improving upon the performance of
some elds of the earth sciences with which it had failed to keep abreast.
I also pointed out that I was not in favor of having a large presence of
American scientists on the program; it would not be benecial to either
the American or the Egyptian side to have such an obvious presence. I
explained to him that my proposal would concentrate on the development of certain areas in the eld of the earth sciences in which Egypt
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needed help. My comments took the representative of the national science foundation by surprise. He folded his papers, left my ofce, and
went straight to the ofce of the newly-established organization of
nuclear materials, where he succeeded in launching a large joint research
program between that organization and the department of geology of
South Carolina University, designed along the same lines as the Tunisian
program. After many years of work and several million pounds squandered, there was little that this program could show. There was hardly a
mention of the results of its work in any scientic publication.
Another equally disastrous program in the eld of the earth sciences,
in which a useful scientic technique was misused was that of the then
newly introduced technique of remote sensing for which a unit was
established in the Egyptian academy of science and funded by the
American agency for international development (USAID). The unit was
headed by an Egyptian-American engineer seconded from one of the
American universities for the job. The introduction of this program was
accompanied by an extensive campaign to sell it to the public as one of
the miracles of science, whose marvels included the power to detect
mineral resources, oilelds, and ground water reservoirs from space
without going to the effort of carrying out any tedious work on the
ground. Space imagery would indeed make classical methods of geology
obsolete. Modern technology was capable, after all, of unraveling all
secrets and solving all problems without the need to exert any effort.
This naive message was aggressively used by the head of that unit to sell
its services to the government as well as to the private sector. He succeeded in turning the unit, which was funded by the Egyptian government and USAID, into a private consulting rm that monopolized the
use of remote sensing for his own benet. Not a single report or project
that this unit contracted for and was involved in stood the test of time
or the standards of the profession. The contract for the geological map
project, conceived and funded by the academy of science, was secretly
given to that unit without the knowledge of the geological survey, whose
primary function it was to carry it out. The result was a map that no one
even cared to look at, let alone make use of. It went straight into the
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garbage bin. Most of the money of that multimillion-pound project was

wasted and a good part of it was unaccounted for. Using a complicated
system of accounting in which public and private funds were muddled
up, the head of that unit was able to nd a way out of the corruption and
embezzlement charges that were leveled against him and were the subject of investigations by government auditing agencies for years.
The 1970s witnessed the use of science as an instrument of politics
on a large scale. A good example of this use may be gleaned from the
amusing story of the return of an Egyptian-American space scientist to
Egypt in the 1970s and his appointment as the scientic advisor to the
president of the republic. According to the story that was told by this
scientist to the Cairo Times magazine (issue 22, December 24, 1998) and
repeated on the web page of Boston University where he worked, it all
happened after the Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s during the years
of the Nixon administration. America was seriously inconvenienced by
the rift with the Arab oil-producing countries and was casting about for
ways of easing the tension. It accepted NASAs elegant solution to
impress the leaders of these countries by sending them, via a special
emissary, a slice of the moon rock that had been collected from the
moon during the historic voyage that landed on it in 1969. For all other
countries due to receive slices of that rock, the samples were sent to the
appropriate departments by an envoy from among the staff of the
American embassies. The emissary that was chosen to impress the heads
of state of the Arab oil-producing countries, however, was none other
than that Egyptian-American space scientist, who was known for his
talent as a story teller and for his indisputable allure. He traveled to
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait
amid substantial media coverage that was designed to reach the royals ears. He regaled them with stories of space travel in melodious
Arabic. He informed them that he had sent a page of the Quran up
there and had named several lunar and Martian features after great
Islamic mathematicians and astronomers. The Arab royals were
impressed and were lavish in their welcome, quickly claiming him as
their own.
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Egypt was not on the list of countries that was to be visited by this
scientist. Its slice of the moon rock was handed to me in my capacity as
the head of the geological survey by the scientic attach of the
American embassy in Cairo. I wrote a letter to the attach thanking him
in the name of the Egyptian government and informing him that the
slice had been deposited and exhibited in the geological museum in
Cairo. It did not occur to the American administration that the omission
of Egypt from that list would cause any problems, for it was certain that
Egypt would not have been taken in by such ploys intended to impress
the robed majesties. But this certainty proved to be wrong, and the
omission of Egypt from that list irked President Sadat. He did not want
to miss a chance to attract the attention of the American administration,
especially when it came via one of his compatriots. He asked Ismail
Fahmi, then minister of foreign affairs, to summon the prodigal son,
who dutifully returned to Egypt for the rst time in eight years. The
president met the scientist and heard from him his melodious stories
about space and its magical powers to nd the hidden wealth of the
desert wasteland. He appointed him a personal scientic advisor. The
newspapers of the morning following that meeting carried on their front
pages a photograph of the president looking at an image of Egypt from
space that had been brought by this scientist, who was depicted pointing to the locations of the hidden mineral, oil, and water treasures. With
the appearance of this photograph the president of Egypt had joined the
club of cloak-wearing excellencies and majesties!
In brief, it can be safely said that the politicization of the joint scientic programs caused great harm to these programs, and reduced their
potential for improving the performance of Egypts scientic institutions. Although it would be difcult to evaluate the impact of these programs, which have engrossed practically every institution of learning and
dominated the scene of scientic research in Egypt over the past thirty
years, it can be safely said that it has been minimal or even negative. A
cursory examination of Egypts centers of learning would nd most of
them in worse condition today than they were before the initiation of
these programs. The contribution of many of these programs to the
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national economy or to the training of personnel was dubious at best.

There was little that the Egyptian side could show for the millions of
pounds that had been invested in these programs. Most of the credit for
the scientic papers that were published as a result of these programs
should go to the foreign counterpart. The few names of Egyptian scientists that appear among the list of authors of these papers were added as
a matter of courtesy and, in many instances, without even the knowledge
of these scientists. Many did not know the content of the papers that
had carried their names, and the few I contacted did not have a copy to
exchange with their fellow scientists.
Exiting Public Office

It should now be apparent that the change of policy of the 1970s made
it difcult to conduct any serious work in the elds of industry or scientic research. These two elds were the last on the list of priorities
of the countrys new leadership, and the ministers who were picked to
run their affairs were among the most inconsequential. Their power was
greatly reduced and was for the main part taken over by clandestine
agencies whose functions and prerogatives were undisclosed. The
atmosphere that these agencies created was stiing and was conducive
to the spread of corruption and charlatanism. On the personal level, I
started to get impatient with the harassment of the intelligence agencies, who were escalating their campaign against me. Having lost all
hope that anything constructive could be done under these circumstances I decided to resign from my job. I discussed the matter with my
wife Wadad who agreed and encouraged me to go ahead. I presented my
resignation to the minister of industry in November 1977. He accepted
it instantaneously, and before getting the approval of the prime minister as the law stipulates.
My resignation ended my career in public service and began my new
career as an independent consultant. Less than four years later I was
forced to move my consulting ofce to the United States when I found
EXITING PUBLIC OFFICE
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out that I was listed among 1,500 other personalities who had been
ordered to be jailed by President Sadat in September 1981. I was close to
sixty-two years of age when this move took place. I will relate the details
and effects of this momentous event on my life and my familys fortunes
in a later chapter.
Looking back at my career in public life I can safely say that it was
shaped and driven by ideals that I tried to live by and was able not to
compromise even in the most difcult of times. This stand forced me
into clashes with many inuential people who did not share with me the
commitment to public interest that I believed should steer the work of
a public ofcer. During my university years I worked toward setting an
example of sound, high quality scientic research, guided by rules of conduct that emphasized objectivity and fairness. That put me squarely in
collision with many professors who did not care about such rules and
who were ready to fake the results of examinations, award unmerited
degrees, and appoint to university positions those who did not deserve
them. In the eld of industry, after a few years of fruitful work, I entered
into many battles with those who had taken over its leadership when it
was in retreat. I saw many of these new leaders misusing their ofce and
making fortunes for themselves. No wonder that my resignation was
accepted with a sigh of relief and without a word of thanks.
As for the future of the geological survey, in which I spent the most
productive years of my life, I had hoped that after I left a new leadership would imbue it with new life, although I had little condence that
its directors were able enough for the job. That hope never materialized. As soon as I left the survey they started inghting, each accusing
the other of violations that were investigated by secret service agents
who almost took over the survey, bringing it to a state of utter confusion. After six years of this, during which time the leadership of the survey changed ve times, the minister of petroleum, under whose supervision the survey had again been placed in 1984, decided to shelve its
leadership and to delegate an outsider to run it and to bring back some
semblance of order to it. The new head brought back order to the survey, but he also reduced the scope of its work, converting it into a super-
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visory body for the work of the foreign companies that he had hoped to
attract to explore and exploit the mineral wealth of the country. With
hardly any serious offers coming from these companies, the survey
became such a small department that it was possible to run it from the
ofce of the head of an oil company that took over its responsibilities.
This situation continued for seven years until 1991. Since that year the
survey has attempted to regain its role under a leadership from among
its staff. Despite the great efforts that have been made, it was difcult
for the survey to nd a place for itself in an economy that lacked an
industrialization program
With this sad ending time seemed to have run its course, bringing us
back to where we started. My generation seemed to have lost the battle
to build an institution of excellence in the eld of scientic research that
could help make use of the natural resources of the country rationally
and in a sustainable manner. It also lost the battle to build a rst class
university that would stand on a par with other prestigious universities
of the world. However, this sad ending should not be taken as sealing the
fate of these institutions, for there will always be that hope that they will
regain their rightful place in the life of the country. One can garner this
hope from the story that I have just related in this chapter about the
organization that I presided over in 1968, when we were able to turn it
around from its total collapse. Within less than two years and under
difcult conditions and with very limited budgets the geological survey
rose like the legendary phoenix to play a dynamic role in the life of the
country. Truly the Egyptians are capable of performing miracles when
they know their goal and nd committed leadership. This has not been
solely my experience but that of Egypt throughout the ages.
Whenever I consider the path that Egypt should follow if it is to
avoid a future of increasing poverty, I nd none other that of aggressive
industrialization. The kind of industry I am talking about here is one
that makes use of local materials. Such an activity can create jobs for the
hundreds of thousands who enter the labor market every year. It is also
the activity that can give a mission and an impetus to national research
institutions to prosper.
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4
Ventures in Politics
19611976
or ten years after my return in 1951 from my study mission abroad

I stayed deeply involved in my work at Cairo University, devoting
all my time to research and the training of students. My preoccupation was to build a rst class geology department in Cairo University
that would be equal in standard to that of Harvard. In those days, aspirations like these were not uncommon or unrealistic.
During these years, there was no place for the participation of anyone in the political process other than the members of the revolution
and their condants who had taken over the reins of power in July 1952.
The rst ten years of the life of the revolution were marked by a series
of successes. It rid the country of the corrupt monarchy, nationalized the
Suez Canal, ended British occupation and realized independence, gave
Egypt a visible presence on the international scene, entered into union
with Syria, and launched a large-scale social and economic program. The
members of the revolution were full of condence. They mistrusted the
intellectuals, who were intentionally kept out of the political process.
That condence was shaken in 1961 with the withdrawal of Syria from
the union it had forged with Egypt some three years earlier. The withdrawal was regarded by the revolutionary regime as part of a bigger plot
conceived by hostile foreign powers in cooperation with local renegades.
The belief that the regime was under attack and was the target of a
plot changed the revolutions posture and made it reach out to the people and the intellectuals in an attempt to earn their support and
VENTURES IN POLITICS
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condence. It wanted to mobilize the masses for its defense and in particular that segment that the regime believed had beneted from its
reforms. For that end it called for the convening of a preparatory conference of a select group of people to discuss and adopt a document that
would embody the philosophy and goals of the regime and serve as a
basis for the mobilization of the people and the building of a political
party. A preliminary committee was summoned to set down the rules
that would govern the selection of the community leaders who would sit
in that conference. To my surprise, my name appeared among the members of both the preliminary committee and the conference, which convened in 1961 and 1962 respectively. At that juncture my political involvement with the regime began.
The members of both the committee and the conference were
appointees. Ten years after the revolution, the regime did not yet have
the condence that its supporters could compete and succeed in a free
election. Until that time the ancien regime would be alive and well despite
the great setbacks it had suffered as a result of the reforms that the revolution had introduced. These reforms aimed at bringing about a more
equitable distribution of wealth, a goal that the new regime had adopted
and considered of equal importance to that of the realization of independence from the British. The new regime started by enacting a series
of bills that limited land ownership, enforced a new and more progressive labor law, made education free, and health services available to a
larger number of people. It also initiated an ambitious program of development, including the building of the large Aswan High Dam on the
Nile to assure Egypt of a larger and more regular share of the waters of
the river. These programs did not impress the propertied class, which
abstained from nancing them. It harbored great suspicions of the
regimes intentions and was frightened of its slogans about socialism and
the bridging of the gap between the rich and the poor. Repeated
attempts by the regime to attract private capital and lure the propertied
class to invest in its programs failed, despite the many incentives it
advanced and the many laws it enacted to encourage private investment.
When that capital did not come voluntarily, the regime took the bold
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step of nationalizing it, a step that was carried out with a nationalist
overtone since most private capital was in foreign hands. The nationalization began with the Suez Canal Company in 1956; this precipitated
the Suez war. This was followed by the nationalization of British and
French companies, since those countries had been party to that war. Five
years later a large number of private companies were nationalized under
the so-called socialist laws of 1961. The nationalized capital was used to
nance a program of development that enlarged the economy and
brought about full employment. The nationalizations, however, led the
regime onto a collision course with the propertied classes and the religious right, who were suppressed in a manner that raised indignation,
and created an atmosphere that did not allow for any form of popular
political participation.
The aim of the preliminary committee that was summoned in 1961
was to nd a way to get over this impasse and pave the way for that participation. It proposed to build a party and convene a parliament that
would be made up of the working forces of the nation, namely the
farmers, the workers, the professionals and the national capitalists. It
recommended the exclusion of the traditional leadership from the party
and the new parliament and the restriction of the right of nomination
and voting to the working forces only. It also recommended the passing
of afrmative action legislation that would guarantee one half of the
seats of parliament to workers and farmers. The aim of the convention,
which was held in 1962, was to discuss and espouse a charter which
would outline the policies that the country planned to assume. The charter emphasized the Arab identity of Egypt, the central role of the public
sector in the development of the country, the narrowing of the gap
between the rich and the poor and the adoption of a socialist stance.
These principles were incorporated in the 1971 constitution of Egypt
which is still the law of the land until today despite the dramatic changes
that have completely reversed the bearing of Egypt since then.
I do not know how my name came to appear among the appointed
members of the preliminary committee and the convention. These
appointments were made in secrecy and decided upon by a closed circle
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of condants, none of whom could have known me. I can only guess that
the appearance of my name on the lists of appointees may have been
related to the campaign that al-Ahram newspaper, under the editorship of
Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, had launched to involve intellectuals in
public affairs in an attempt to regain their condence. The newspaper
initiated an opinion page where intellectuals were encouraged to write. I
was one among many who were invited to contribute to the page by its
editor Lut al-Khuli. He seemed to have heard about me from some of
his colleagues who used to attend my lectures at the university. Upon his
insistence, and with great hesitation, I started writing articles on the
important role of universities and scientic research in the life and
future of the nation.
The rift between the intellectuals and the regime had become obvious during the 1954 crisis, when a split in the revolutionary council
brought Egypt to the brink of civil war. The split happened when one
wing of the council wanted to end military rule and to return to the parliamentary system of government. This wing was led by Muhammad
Nagib, the president of the republic, and was supported by some army
units. It called for the immediate undertaking of elections and the return
to that system of popular government. This was opposed by another
wing that was led by Gamal Abd al-Nasser, the real force behind the revolution, and was backed by most units of the army. This wing believed
that the immediate undertaking of elections would result in the return
of the corrupt leadership of the ancien regime and the end of the revolution. Members of that wing wanted to postpone the elections until the
revolution had gathered enough public support to enable its candidates
to have a chance to win. Much to the disgruntlement of the majority of
the intellectuals, who had sided with Muhammad Nagib, this wing got
the upper hand and won. The depth of antagonism that ensued between
the intellectuals and the new leadership in the aftermath of these events
can be measured by the subsequent extensive purge of more than fty
university professors from their posts. The purge was dubbed the university massacre and was the subject of many writings by people who
had lived through it.
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In 1964 the revolutionary council felt condent that the party it had
built in the wake of the convention of 1962 had developed enough public support to warrant the start of a parliamentary democracy. The party
was made up of an alliance of the working forces, who were encouraged
to participate in the parliamentary elections. Thousands of average middle-class and little-known members of this alliance took advantage of the
new rules set by the preliminary committee that excluded the traditional leadership, and nominated themselves for parliamentary seats. The
elections were free. There was no reason for the government to interfere
or tamper with the results of the elections; all the nominees were counted among its supporters, ready to defend it and live with its goals.
The results of the elections shocked the political leadership inasmuch as only one Copt had been elected to the new parliament. He was
elected from the town of Sedfa, Asyut province, Upper Egypt. To remedy this situation, the election law was hastily amended to give the president of the republic the right to appoint ten members to the parliament. Such a result should have been expected in the elections since
there had been a gradual process of distancing the Copts from public life
and service. Although this distancing had become more obvious after
the rise of the religious right, it had roots that extended deep into the
government bureaucracy itself. That aspect of the problem is seldom
mentioned or talked about, even though it remains one of the main
issues preventing the ending of the legacy of a discriminatory past. Few
people are willing to raise the issue of the gerrymandering that has been
practiced to the disadvantage of the Copts in every election since 1923.
Fewer people are willing to discuss the forces that oppose the abolition
of the Hamayuni rman of 1856 that makes the building and repair of
churches extremely difcult. Although the rman of 1856 was part of
the reform measures that the Ottoman porte had undertaken to ensure
the principle of equality for all its subjects irrespective of their race or
creed, it gave the right of issuing permits for building or repairing
churches to the Ottoman sultan. Among the reforms that were specied
in the rman was the right of all subjects of the porte to perform their
religious duties freely and without coercion to forsake their religion. It
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promised to take immediate measures to secure the safety of every community of non-Muslims irrespective of its numbers and to grant it a proportionate share of public service jobs. Military service was to be
mandatory for all the subjects of the porte, and not just Muslims as
before. It also ordered the deletion from all formal documents of any
language derogatory of any group or community of people. Giving the
sultan the right to grant the necessary permits to build and repair
churches assured the execution of the rman to the letter. It allowed the
heads of the Christian communities to deal directly with the sultan and
to avoid dealing with local governors. The rman was applied to Egypt,
which was then part of the Ottoman empire. After the disintegration of
that empire the rman was abrogated in all its domains except Egypt. It
was the only rman that remained in force after the declaration of independence of Egypt and the promulgation of the 1923 constitution. The
rman was stripped of all its injunctions except the one pertaining to
the construction and repair of churches. It remained in the hands of the
head of state to grant the permit to build or repair churches but the
preparatory work that had to be done before the granting of the permit
was entrusted to the ministry of the interior. The ministry put ten stipulations that the applications for the construction or repair of a church
had to satisfy before recommending the granting of the permit. These
stipulations, which were annexed to the rman in 1934, were hard to
meet. They made the construction or repair of churches almost impossible. Despite the many appeals for the repeal of the rman, it is still in
force. The extent of the resistance to its repeal at all levels of the
bureaucracy is such that it was not possible for the head of state, under
pressure from world public opinion, to effect any change in its substance. Even as late as 1998, the most that he was able to do was to delegate his powers of granting the permits to local governors.
Going back to the 1964 parliamentary elections, it must be admitted
that the failure of the Copts to get but one seat must have been a source
of worry to the political leadership and to President Nasser in particular.
This failure not only signaled the extent of the inuence of the religious
right, which had been able to force its agenda on the national scene, but
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also the depth of the rift that had befallen the unity of the nation. It was
hoped that the appointment of a number of Copts to the newly elected
parliament would be a temporary remedy and that future elections
would bring them back as elected members. Unfortunately, this hope has
not materialized to this day; the representation of Copts in parliament
has become dependent on the grace of the president and not on the will
of the people.
The president appointed me to the Egyptian parliament in 1964. I
was not happy with this appointment, as it conrmed a feeling I had had
since my return from my study mission abroad that I had become the
other in my own country. My unhappiness intensied when I learned
that the nal list of Copts appointed to the new parliament, excluding
me, had been chosen from two lists of candidates that had been prepared
by the Coptic patriarchate and by Dr. Kamal Ramzy Stino, the sole
Coptic cabinet minister. The two lists were then screened by the Coptic
section of the security apparatus, which was supervised by second tier
revolutionary army ofcers. It was a source of great pain to me to see the
regime involving religious institutions in the choice of political
appointees. The increasing dependence of the regime on these institutions was a course I had wished Egypt would not take. The fact that the
regime had to depend on the only Coptic cabinet minister for choosing
the Coptic appointees was indicative of the times. It meant that Copts
had become isolated and were known only to their co-religionists.
It is remarkable that the government, which frequently involves religious institutions in its decisions, is the same government that does not
permit the establishment of political parties that are based on religion.
This contradiction is the result of the fragility, if not the outright
absence, of institutions of civil society to which the government can turn
when it needs to reach out to the people, leaving it no choice but to
resort to the religious institutions. A vibrant civil society would foster
the process of democracy and would allow the people to vent their views
freely in any of its institutions. But because of the fragility of civil society and the little faith the government has in its institutions, the government frequently seeks the assistance of the religious establishment
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whenever it has a controversial law it wants to pass. It sought the help of

that establishment to pass the Egyptian-Israeli peace accords, to repeal
the agrarian reform bills, and to support the nomination of the president
of the republic. Had there been a vibrant civil society, the government
might not have been forced to resort to these institutions and the people might not have used them to express their views.
I was the only one of the appointed Copts in the 1964 parliament
whose name did not appear on the two preliminary lists. I suspect that
my name was added to the nal list of appointees hurriedly and seemingly without being screened by the security agencies. The use of my
informal name in the presidential decree conrms this suspicion. Had
my name been forwarded to these agencies, it would have appeared in
the formal form and would have included my family name.
My Years in Parliament
The Egyptian parliament of 1964, of which I was a member, was different from the parliaments of western democracies in that all its members
belonged to one party, the Arab Socialist Union. All the members seem
to have been genuinely convinced of the rightness of the principles of
that party and of the policies of the government that had articulated
them. All were ready to defend the government under all circumstances
and not one had the slightest intention of embarrassing it, let alone
changing it. Parliament did not have the authority to appoint the government or to approve candidates for any of the key government posts.
It functioned primarily as a platform that was used by the government
to promulgate its programs and by the members to convey the requests
and complaints of the people they represented. The members had great
freedom in discussing and criticizing the service-sector ministries, but
that freedom was limited when it came to deal with the affairs of the socalled sovereign ministries and departments, such as the presidency or
the ministries of foreign affairs, defense, or intelligence. The budget,
affairs of the state, and all proposed laws were passed easily and without
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any serious discussion, unless the political leadership wanted to gauge

public reaction toward particular legislation that it planned to introduce.
The legislative work was expedited by the chairs of the committees, who
were chosen from among condants with strong ties to the partys whip,
who was responsible for discipline. The primary duty of the chairs of the
committees, as well as the president of the parliament, was to pass government legislation and other affairs of state smoothly, even if that
entailed a deliberately cursory examination. I have seen the budget of
the state passed in a matter of hours and without any serious discussion.
I have also seen parliament accepting to list the budget of many of the
governments departments under one gure and without any itemization, a practice that is still followed to this day.
This system of limited democracy that started in 1964 continues to
this day, despite the enormous changes that have taken place in the world
and in Egypt itself. In the mid 1970s Egypt abandoned the one-party system, dissolved the Arab Socialist Alliance, which acted as an umbrella
organization for all nationalist forces, and established instead three platforms that represented the right, left, and center wings of that alliance.
These platforms soon became the nuclei of three separate parties, to
which were added many more in accordance with a law that regulated the
formation and activities of new parties. The law included restrictions
that constrained their freedom and severely limited their effectiveness.
Three elections were held in Egypt under the one-party system (1964,
1969, and 1971) and I was appointed in all three of them. Six other elections have been held since then (the last in 2000) under the multi-party
system. In all these elections the Copts did not succeed in getting fair
representation, prompting the president of the republic to continue
using his prerogative to appoint a number of them to parliament to remedy the situation. Women also fared badly in the elections, and their representation was also increased by presidential appointments.
The institution of parliament had never enjoyed great credibility
with the masses. Its orchestrated discussions and foregone decisions did
not enhance its standing or its authority. In attempting to help change
this picture, I presented to Anwar Sadat, who was then the speaker of
MY YEARS IN PARLIAMENT
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parliament, a proposal to change the way votes were cast in parliament,

at least in the case of important legislation, so that counting would be
done by roll call rather than by the raising of hands. This proposal would
have made members responsible for their vote and would have made
their position vis--vis the different laws a matter of public record. It
would also have enabled the voters to judge their representatives according to their stand on issues. The speaker of parliament did not consider
the proposal worthy of any further discussion. He must have conjectured
that it would have made the passing of the governments proposed laws
or undertakings less certain. The existing procedure of vote casting by
raising the hands assured their passage with ease, irrespective of how
many hands were raised.
I did not see from the parliamentary leadership any effort to introduce new members to the nature of parliamentary work or to offer them
the research facilities that could have provided them with the necessary
information and statistical data that would have made their work more
effective. It is difcult to envision parliament as an institution having
any effectiveness in an environment lacking in transparency. Without
the availability of information, the two main functions of parliament in
the domains of legislation and the overseeing of the executive branch of
government were difcult to carry out. The function of overseeing the
government in particular was never a serious matter in the parliaments I
knew. The existing system of government is built to grant the executive
branch all the powers and to elevate it beyond accountability. Parliament
did not have any say in the appointment of the ministers, and it wielded
no power with regard to the budget of their ministries. No wonder none
of the questions or accusations leveled against cabinet ministers during
my three terms in parliament succeeded in incriminating any of them or
in effecting any change. All ended up in a motion to proceed with the
ordinary business of parliament. In fact, overseeing the affairs of the
government was, and still is, an extremely difcult task because of the
non-transparency of all government actions. It was a matter of great
difculty to get any information on any of the affairs of the state. There
were times when even the simplest statistical data was considered a
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secret and was not available to the public. There is no doubt that the
principle of supervising the affairs of the state cannot be upheld with any
effectiveness without asserting the principle of transparency.
The empowerment of parliament to carry out effectively its two
functions of legislation and overseeing the affairs of state would be
difcult to achieve under present-day conditions in Egypt. This is due to
two main reasons. One relates to the background of the elected members, who are still bound to a culture that does not differ from that
prevalent in medieval times, inasmuch as it does not encourage debate.
Among the revelations that my tenure in parliament exposed me to was
how limited the impact of the enlightenment movement that had
accompanied the nationalist uprising had been on the bulk of Egyptians,
who were still leading a life that did not differ greatly from that which
prevailed in medieval times. Before coming to parliament I was under
the impression that this lifestyle had disappeared or at least was on its
way to disappearing. Having lived in the city all my life and having moved
among Westernized communities, I had never thought that the norms
and measures of this lifestyle could survive the challenges of the age.
Much to my surprise, I not only found it deeply ingrained but also gaining ground and adapting to modern challenges by adopting the jargon
and slogans of the religious right, which was on the rise during the 1970s.
During that decade the religious right received funding and support
from the western powers and from their allies in the Arab world. Despite
the fact that the tone became more assertive and militant, it was basically medieval in its sources and attitudes. While in parliament, I listened to hundreds of speeches and interventions that used language and
arguments based mainly on old sayings and nave parables extracted from
books that had been written hundreds of years ago. Every time I listened
to these interventions I was reminded of the picture of the Egyptian of
the early years of the nineteenth century as depicted in Edward William
Lanes book The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptian. Most members were not very much different from the picture given in that book.
Their education was derived from the same sources, which were accepted literally and without any criticism. They believed that their fate was
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not theirs to determine but was in the hands of invisible powers that
they had to appease by offering sacrice, burning candles, reciting incantations, or asking for the intercession of holy saints. In this culture
wealth was not generated by effort but fell from the sky in bounty. Much
to my chagrin I found out this culture was quite pervasive, and was even
accepted by many of the educated and city dwellers. I have seen cabinet
ministers and decision makers carrying charms, attending sessions to
communicate with spirits and mediums, consulting oracles and
astrologers, reciting incantations, and traveling to far off places to visit
pious saints. In the 1950s the petroleum authority was ordered to drill a
well at a particular location in Egypts Western Desert that had been
determined by a medium who had been asked by a leading member of
the revolution to nd the place where oil was present.
I became more familiar with this way of thinking when I was
appointed a member of the parliamentary fact-nding committee that
was created in 1972 to investigate the incidents of sectarian strife that
had become frequent during that year. It was feared that these incidents
would escalate into a serious confrontation, especially after the demonstration of Coptic priests in the streets of the small town of Khanka to
the northeast of Cairo, which was to protest against the closure of one
of the churches of the town. The procession of the Coptic priests in the
streets of the town infuriated President Sadat, especially since it happened barely one year after the accession of His Holiness Pope Shenouda
III to the patriarchate of the Coptic orthodox church. It was rumored
that the president was about to take a vengeful step against the patriarch
but was advised by some of his close advisers to take the matter calmly
and to leave it for parliament to investigate. Parliament created a committee of six members, three Muslims and three Copts, which was
chaired by the late Dr. Gamal al-Utay, the distinguished attorney. Dr.
Utay took his work seriously. He held many meetings and traveled to
all the spots that were reported to have seen an incident of sectarian
strife or tension. I accompanied him in most if not all these meetings
and travels. This gave me a chance to be exposed to the thoughts and
views of a sector of people that I would not ordinarily have had any
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chance to meet. We traveled all over Egypt, visiting every place where
strife had been reported or where sectarian tension was on the rise. We
met the ofcials and responsible personnel of many governmental and
non-governmental religious institutions, members of dervish sects and
orders, men responsible for mosques and churches, priests who had been
accused of proselytizing Muslims, and many others. These encounters
gave us a picture of how the religious other is viewed by a large section
of the urban poor. The image of the Copts for many Muslims is that they
are rich and miserly, their churches and monasteries stacked with gold.
They hold a disproportionate number of government jobs and of the
national wealth. They run and control the Egyptian economy under
cover and have long range plans to proselytize Egypt and turn it into a
Christian country lled with churches, which they have plans to build
everywhere. In this respect we were frequently reminded of the large
number of churches that line Ramses Street, the main thoroughfare in
the heart of Cairo. Copts were viewed as fanatic people who intentionally go into the professions of medicine, pharmacy, and education to
effect their long range plan to demean Muslims and to prevent them
from having medical treatment or proceeding with the education of
their children. The picture of a Muslim in the eyes of a Copt was similar, although one heard more frequently of the discriminatory practices
that Copts face in getting jobs, in practicing their religious rites, and in
building their churches.
I must remind the reader here that the picture of the religious other
that I described above was gathered from our meetings with people who
were living in the centers of religious strife and tension. This picture is
probably different from that which an average Egyptian would have
about the religious other. Most Egyptians, who have not been exposed
to the teachings of the schools that fell into the hands of religious fanatics or to the sermons of the zealots who took over some places of worship, carry a legacy of tolerance and acceptance of the other. Although
what we observed must not be looked upon as representing a general
trend, it was nonetheless alarming enough because it showed that religious intolerance can easily spread and take root. In fact, there were indi-
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cations that it had reached the highest levels of government, as can be

gleaned from some of the governments actions, which could only be
explained by assuming that they had been taken by religiously intolerant
or paranoid functionaries. Take, for example, the decision that was made
by the real estate registry ofce in the 1970s to ask everyone conducting
a real estate transaction to declare his religious afliation on the transaction forms. Although no reason was given for this unnecessary requirement, I believe that it was stipulated to verify the truth of the rumor circulating among some fanatics that the Copts had a design to establish a
Coptic independent state in Upper Egypt by buying a large and contiguous chunk of land there. President Sadat himself had alluded to this
design in one of his long and frequent speeches in parliament. As expected, the records of the registry ofces proved that the rumor was a hoax.
Similarly, the tearing down of the English cathedral at the apex of
Ramses Street in Cairo (it was rebuilt in a side street in the Zamalek district) and the rebuilding of the small mosque that stood in Ramses Square
to become the tallest building in town were part of a plan to change the
landscape of Ramses Street. I have already mentioned that we frequently heard during our encounters complaints about the large number of
churches that lined Ramses Street, a feature that many did not see tting
for Cairo as a Muslim capital. This complaint surprised both Dr. Utay
and myself, and we went to look at the street with new eyes. We found
that the street did have many churches. With the exception of the
Coptic patriarchy all the other churches belonged to foreign missions.
The English cathedral, which had stood at the apex of the street overlooking the Nile and which was torn down, had been built in accordance
with an agreement between the Egyptian and the British governments in
the early years of the twentieth century in which the Egyptian government had granted this piece of land to Britain for the building of a church
in Cairo, in return for a piece of land that had been granted to Egypt in
London for the building of a mosque that is still standing to this day.
The second reason that hampers the empowerment of parliament is
that it represents a foreign body in a society none of whose dealings is
governed by the democratic process. Egyptian citizens do not take part
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in any kind of dialogue or have any say in who will represent them at any
level from the time of birth until the time of death. As children they are
not allowed to participate in any way in the affairs of the home, where
the father stands master. In the school the students are not permitted to
have any representation or to carry out any discussion or to disagree with
their teachers. Even when the students are given the chance to elect
their councils at the university level we impose many restrictions on the
freedom of movement of these councils. At the level of the town or the
village there is no participation of the populace in any sort of management of their affairs, as the appointed mayor does it all. It is thus
difcult to imagine in an authoritative society such as the one prevailing
in Egypt today, where the individual is not taught the art of dialogue and
is not allowed to participate in running his or her affairs, that there can
be a place for a functional parliament.
The three parliaments in which I sat witnessed changes in the political life of the country that were reected in the performance of each of
these parliaments. The members of the 1964 parliament were mostly
unknown personalities. The traditional leaders and the members of the
old families who used to occupy the seats of the previous parliaments
had virtually disappeared from the scene. Only a few members of this
class were able to make it into this new parliament. These looked with
scorn on the new members. One of them expressed his chagrin to me, as
we sipped a cup of coffee in the Pharaonic Hall of the parliament building, at seeing these small landholders, elementary school teachers, and
third-rate countryside lawyers replacing the dignitaries who used to
occupy the seats of parliament. Most of the new members of this parliament used public transportation to come to the opening session as they
did not have private cars, and they spent their nights in Cairo in some of
its humblest hotels.
None of these new members owed anybody anything for their success
in the election. They all made it on their own and without the help of
anyone. They beneted from the new rules that barred many of the traditional leaders from entering the elections, and from the afrmative
action rulings that favored workers and farmers. The political leadership
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had no preference for one candidate over the other; it considered them
all as allies. It let the election battle take its course without any interference. It waited to see the performance of the elected members before
selecting its core of supporters. By the end of this term of parliament the
political leadership had found a cadre of supporters who were willing to
ght for its cause, justify its actions, and do everything they could to pass
the laws that the government wanted to pass, even if this entailed bullying or intimidation.
When this parliament came to an end, many of the members were
able to improve their lot by making use of little favors that were offered
to them. Many owned a car through easy credit, others had the favor of
obtaining a small loan from parliament with the tacit understanding that
it need not be paid back, some were able to acquire a franchise of a government-owned business in their home town, or to obtain for a small rent
one of Cairos luxury apartments that the government had sequestered
after their foreign owners exodus during the 1956 Suez war. I must confess that these little privileges were the most that a member of parliament could get during the 1960s, almost puritanical in comparison with
what Egypt witnessed in the following decades. During that decade there
was accountability and many controls that prevented large-scale thefts,
which, when they did occur, were allegedly limited to those government
agencies that were working in secrecy and without any control. The
salary of a member of parliament during this decade was a measly thirty
pounds a month, and it was taxable. The member did not get any other
remuneration for attending committees or parliamentary sessions, as
became the norm in later parliaments. Most members were of limited
income; this made them sensitive to the problems of the common man
whose needs were the preoccupation of the government at that time.
During the time of this parliament the members regarded me with
respect, as a scholar and a professor in the university who had the
condence of President Nasser. This respect was mixed with a certain
amount of wariness and guardedness on the part of the parliamentary
leadership, who saw to it that I did not occupy any leading position in
the parliament. I was excluded from presiding over any of the parlia-
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mentary committees until 1971, when I was elected head of the foreign
relations committee under conditions that I will relate later.
During the term of the 1964 parliament the 1967 Arab-Israeli war
occurred. The members were summoned to a meeting to pass legislation
that was deemed necessary to meet the serious situation that the defeat
of the Egyptian army had left on the ground. We hastily passed an emergency law, agreed to have the army and security allocations listed under
one gure in the states budget, and delegated authority to the president
of the republic to buy armaments and other military equipment without
having to go back to parliament; the members were ready to pass any
measure that would empower the government to get over that defeat.
These decisions and laws were passed in a matter of minutes. Most of the
session was spent in speeches declaring the refusal of the nations defeat,
which the members described as a mere setback that the country would
soon overcome. They all expressed their satisfaction that President
Nasser had listened to the voice of the people and had decided to withdraw his resignation and stay in ofce to lead the nation in its battle to
overcome that setback. Emotions were high and genuine; the members
were expressing the mood of the people, who had taken to the streets asking the president to stay in ofce after they had heard his speech on television admitting responsibility for the defeat and offering his resignation.
The parliament of 1969 came with a new group of members, who
were carefully selected from among the tested members of the 1964 parliament by the political organization, whose leadership had now been
passed to the old guard of the revolution under the leadership of Ali
Sabri. This parliament witnessed the death of President Nasser and the
accession of Anwar Sadat to the presidency. Soon after his accession, the
new president entered into a ght with Ali Sabri and his team of the old
guard. The members sided with the president despite the fact that most
of them owed their positions to the old guard. They agreed to dismiss
from parliament eighteen prominent members, including the speaker
and the two vice-speakers. The members were prodded by a group of
opportunistic members who were looking forward to taking over the
new administration. The decision took less than ve minutes, despite
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the fact that it represented an exceedingly serious precedent. That parliament was soon dissolved.
The 1971 parliament was made up mostly of the members of the 1969
parliament who had sided with the new president in his battle with the
old guard. I was also appointed to that parliament. For the rst two years
of its life, until the outbreak of the 1973 war, this parliament took its work
seriously. During these years the preparation for the war generated an
atmosphere of urgency; there was a feeling that more attention ought to
be given to the eld of foreign relations on which the new president had
pinned great hopes in his efforts to end the occupation of Sinai, something he thought he could achieve by peaceful means. This urgency
brought to the fore a situation that induced the leadership of parliament
to recommend my candidacy to the presidency of the foreign relations
committee. As soon as I became the president of that committee I
worked closely with the ministry of foreign affairs to carry out a campaign
to get the support of as many governments as possible for the implementation of the United Nations resolutions calling for the withdrawal of
Israel from the territories it had occupied during the 1967 war. The campaign succeeded and we won the worlds public opinion. We had been able
to isolate Israel diplomatically. It remained unable to exchange diplomatic representation with any country outside the United States and Western
Europe. One of the great achievements of that time was our success in
convincing all African countries to sever their relations with Israel. This
remarkable achievement stands as testimony to the weight of Egypt and
the Arab world at that time, a phenomenon that is hard to believe for anyone who did not live this episode of the history of Egypt.
As soon as the 1973 October War ended there was a marked change
in the bearings of the political leadership. It wanted to make this war the
last of all wars and hoped to enjoy the fruits of what it thought it had
achieved by that war. It stopped mobilizing the nations potential, and
was content with the foreign aid monies that owed into the coffers of
Egypt as a result of the war and with the work opportunities for
Egyptians in foreign and Arab countries that the war had opened up. A
new economic policy, Egypts so-called Open Door (al-intah al-iqtisadi),
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was launched in the wake of the 1973 war. It involved among other things
the oating of the Egyptian pound, the opening of foreign trade to the
private sector, the reactivation of the stock and commodity exchange,
the authorization of foreign or private capital to invest in any sector of
the Egyptian economy, the raising of the ceiling of personal incomes, the
easing of business and corporate prot taxes, and the permitting of foreign banks to open branches in Egypt. This total change in the course of
the Egyptian economy offered opportunities for corrupt practices, as it
had become almost totally uncontrolled. Many members of parliament
who were closely associated with the president were allowed to benet
from these opportunities. Many made fortunes by trading in currency or
in drugs and contraband materials. Others made them by selling scraped
topsoil from agricultural land, while many made them by representing
the foreign companies that opened up shop in Egypt to trade in products that were to replace locally made products. Many members became
exceedingly rich, and there was no place for any serious talk in this parliament. I felt alienated and I lost interest in its affairs so much so that
I stopped attending its regular sessions.
I realized from day one of my membership of parliament that there
were limits to my power and inuence. I was always reminded of these
limits by the hurried and forceful ways in which legislation was passed
both in the committees and in the general sessions, and also by the secretive and non-transparent ways in which information was guarded. Other
members also knew their limits. They directed their efforts toward solving the problems of the members of their constituencies, presenting
their petitions to cabinet ministers and acting as intermediaries between
the constituents and the government. In addition many members
worked toward the improvement of the infrastructure of the areas they
represented. Building a school, improving the condition of a road, or
extending a power line to any area of Egypt was the absolute prerogative
of the executive power; parliament had (and still has) no power over any
of these domains; nor does it have any control over budgetary allocations
as is the case in most other democracies. No wonder, therefore, that
members would swarm around the ministers with their petitions as soon
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as they had entered the parliamentary hall and before even taking their
seats. The sight of members crammed around the ministers with their
petitions stands testimony to the poor clout of the legislative branch of
government vis--vis its executive branch.
In my case, since I had no district to represent, I was spared the task
of presenting petitions or working toward solving local problems and I
found a place for myself in the eld of foreign relations. This eld was the
only one open before me in which I was able to nd a degree of maneuverability. The door was slammed shut for any dealing with the national
problems that plagued Egypt and affected its future. I tried once to present legislation that could help solve the pressing population problem,
which I hoped would get some attention, especially after the issue was
discussed in parliament. During that discussion, I heard a leading member suggesting that the government should exert a greater effort to regulate the numbers of Egyptians, even if it had to use unconventional methods such as sterilizing men or withholding services to newly born children
beyond a certain number. I was greatly perturbed by this members diatribe, which I thought was quite inconsiderate, inhumane, and would not
serve Egypts image. I wanted to help change this image by proposing legislation that would reduce the galloping rates of population increase by a
more humane method. My proposal was to use material incentive to
reward families that control their numbers. Because of the novelty of this
proposal, I thought that it would be better if I were to introduce it to the
public rst. I wrote a long article explaining its main features in the leading newspaper al-Ahram, which appeared on December 24, 1970. A few
weeks later I made a formal request to the speaker of parliament to present my proposed legislation, which stipulated the granting to every
Egyptian family in which the wife had reached the age of thirty years and
which had two children or less a monthly sum of three Egyptian pounds
(which would be the equivalent of 200 pounds by 2001 prices). This sum
would stop should the family have a third child.
I was given the chance to present the proposed legislation to the permanent committee of parliament. The members listened with great
attention to the proposal, which sounded practical and workable in
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checking the rates of growth of the population. Once they recognized its
workability and that it might succeed in curbing the numbers, they all
stood against it, including that member who had harangued parliament
a few days before advocating the use of inhumane methods to reduce the
rates of growth of the population. At that moment I realized that the
time had not come yet for the presentation of any serious proposal to
tackle the problem, for, despite all the lip service to the contrary, the
principle of family planning itself was totally unacceptable to the people
at large. They were the product of a more primitive society, where numbers were the basis of the power and status of the clan, and where procreation was important to compensate for childrens deaths, which were
common. All the members of the committee voted against the proposal.
Those who had had the traditional education of religious schools voted
against it because it was against what they were brought up to believe in.
They did not contribute to the discussion. At that time they did not have
the philosophical background that would enable them to raise a credible
argument in this regard. That background came in later years with the
ood of books and tapes that inundated Egypt in the 1970s with the
inux of oil money from the neighboring Arab countries. The few members of the committee who had a better education and who occupied
important jobs, such as the one member who had to deal with international donor organizations, argued against the proposal despite the fact
that they would on other occasions speak differently. These members
had two languages, one with which they lived and one with which they
spoke to foreign organizations.
The Interparliamentary Union

In the eld of foreign relations I found a venue to use my talents and compensate for my inability to do much in the eld of internal politics.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Egypt was quite active in the international
arena. It adopted and fought for many issues. Foremost among these was
the issue of the freeing of the world of all forms of colonialism, and the
THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY UNION
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right of all countries to independence and self-determination. It also concerned itself with the problem of Palestine. Much of my activity in the
eld of foreign relations was done through the Interparliamentary Union,
an international association of parliamentarians that has formed an
important platform since the end of World War II. I spent some twelve
years of my life in the corridors of this union, representing Egypt in its
council from 1964 until 1976. I consider these years among the most fruitful in my life. During these years I attended every meeting of the council
or the general conference of the union, which were held in the parliaments of the different countries that hosted them. In the fall of 1973 the
venue of the general conference of the union was changed from Santiago,
Chile to the headquarters of the union in Geneva, Switzerland, in protest
of the military coup that had taken place in Chile before the convening of
the conference. The coup was planned by the American CIA and executed by the Chilean military under the leadership of Augusto Pinochet. It
was a bloody coup that ended in the assassination of Salvador Allende, the
democratically elected president of Chile.
The period I spent in the union was among the most active in its
life. During that period the non-industrialized countries used the
union as a platform to voice their hopes and to mobilize public opinion for their cases.
Historically, the union had remained since its foundation in 1881 and
until the 1960s a private club for the members of Europes parliaments,
the sole continent that knew the parliamentary system at that time.
Egypt joined the union when it became a parliamentary monarchy in the
wake of the ratication of the 1923 constitution. It played a minor role
in the life of the union at that time because its parliaments were short
lived and were frequently dissolved by royal decrees. Between the two
world wars, the parliamentary system itself suffered a great setback
throughout the world, and many countries turned away from it and
reverted to the totalitarian systems of fascism and communism. These
were troubled times, which saw the retreat of the number of countries
following the parliamentary system; only Great Britain, France, and
Switzerland continued to be its main champions.
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Immediately after the end of World War II the Interparliamentary

Union started to play a much more active role with the return of the system of parliamentary democracy to most European countries. For some
time it remained fundamentally a European organization, and did not
get its universal character until it decided to incorporate in its membership the legislative councils of countries that differed from the traditional councils of the western democracies. With this decision the councils of the Soviet Union, the east European socialist block countries, and
some third world countries were admitted to the union. The decision
meant that the union had abandoned from among its preconditions of
admittance the multiparty shape of the council. The union, however, did
insist that the newly admitted councils must have among their responsibilities the process of legislation and the ratication of the national
budget, and that their members must be elected by popular vote. These
preconditions continued to be applied to all new applicants until my exit
from the union in 1976. It is obvious that these preconditions were
dropped after that date, as is clear from a glance at the list of membership of the union, which today includes about fteen Arab parliaments!
The expansion of the union made it more universal in character and
brought new ideas that enlivened its discussions and broadened its interests. The prime question that occupied Egypt when I represented it at the
union was the question of Palestine, which assumed a central place in
Egypts concerns after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. That war caused Egypt
and the Arabs to recognize the unfruitfulness of the owery and passionate language they had so far been using to deal with the problem and to
change it to a new language of a more rational tone that was based on facts
and gures. That new approach garnered respect from the world community and gave credibility to the Egyptian and Arab delegations, whose
speeches attracted greater attention and were highly attended and listened
to. At that time Egypt found support for its views, being a member of a
large coalition of third world countries, socialist countries, and members
of the left wing parties of the western democracies. This coalition formed
an inuential block that enhanced the position of the third world countries and enabled them to have a role and a voice in the worlds affairs.
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I occupied one of the two seats assigned to Egypt in the interparliamentary council. The late Dr. Fuad Muhi al-Din occupied the other seat
from 1964 until 1972, when he joined the executive branch of Egypts
government to become rst governor of Giza province and then, from
1979 until his untimely death in 1982, prime minister. He was replaced by
the late Dr. Gamal al-Utay, a magnicent partner who contributed
greatly to the advancement of the work of the union.
The 1972 fall conference of the union was held in Rome and was the
rst conference to be attended by Dr. Utay. He seems to have been
impressed by my performance in the drafting committee and in the plenary session of that conference, when I ad-libbed an intervention after a
draft resolution about the Middle East had come under attack. His
impression must have been so great that he mentioned it some ten years
later, when he came to write an article in my defense in al-Mussawar magazine (July 23, 1982 issue). He described my role in the Interparliamentary
Union as that of the adviser and the leader who mastered the English language and who defended the policies of Egypt with courage. Dr. Utay
wrote this article in my defense after the appearance of my name in the
notorious list of 1981 that spelled out my detention. I will deal with this
order of detention and the circumstances that led to it in chapter six. The
only surviving people to have witnessed the events of this conference are
Kamal al-Shazli and Dr. Laila Takla, whom I remember sitting next to the
late Hafez Badawi, the speaker of the house at the time, translating to
him what I ad-libbed in the session. In this conference I was elected a
member of the executive committee of the union by a large majority.
The following years fall conference, which was to be held in
Santiago, Chile, was replaced by a meeting of the council at the unions
headquarters in Geneva. The meeting convened a few days after the
end of the 1973 October war, when Cairo airport was still closed to civil
aviation. The transportation of the parliamentary delegation to that
conference took place on a private plane that the authorities had
secured for its sole use. In addition to myself, the delegation consisted
of Dr. Utay and the members of parliament Zakariya Gomaa and
Mahmud Abu Wafya. A full report about the deliberations of that con-
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ference, which was almost wholly devoted to the Middle East problem,
can be found in the minutes of the Egyptian parliamentary session of
November 11, 1973. The minutes include also a translation of the two
interventions of Dr. Utay and myself in the unions council. Despite
the importance of that meeting and the favorable resolutions it had
come to, the president of the republic did not meet the delegation
upon its return and was satised to know its news from his brother-inlaw Mahmud Abu Wafya, who was known to be his eyes in parliament.
This was a surprising move, for of all the councils members Mr. Abu
Wafya was the least knowledgeable about what had transpired in its
meetings, by virtue of his limited knowledge of the languages being
used in them and his inexperience in the union. I have no knowledge
of the nature of the report that Mr. Abu Wafya relayed to the president
about the meeting. All that I know is that after it my relationship with
the president suffered.
In the spring of 1975 I saw that the time might be ripe, after all the
years of talking about the problem of Palestine, to do something more
tangible to break the silence Israel had imposed and to let the
Palestinians have a forum through which their representatives could get
the international recognition that had been denied to them and from
which they could put forward their cause. The idea was oated that the
Interparliamentary Union might be a good starting point to test the
degree of readiness of the international community to recognize the
Palestine Liberation Organization as the legitimate representative of
the Palestinian people. If we were to succeed in having that organization achieve observer status in the union, it might be possible to proceed from there and ask other international bodies to do the same. I
therefore decided to slate a proposal on the agenda of the council of the
union, which was meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to grant the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) observer status in the union. That proposal was met with greatest resistance from the majority of the parliamentarians of the western democracies, who stood steadfastly against
the slating of the proposal on the agenda. The Egyptian delegation,
however, argued that the by-laws of the union allowed the slating of new
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subjects under the item of other business that appeared on the councils agenda. The largest majority of delegates accepted that argument
and voted to accept the PLO as an observer member. The decision
caused a lot of stir, especially among many western parliaments, some
of whom threatened to withdraw from the union. The crisis cooled
down by the fall, when we were able to greet the representative of the
PLO the late Khaled al-Hasan in the halls of the conference, which was
held in London. The admittance of the organization to the union
opened up the door for its admittance into other international organizations. I was personally surprised that this achievement did not get the
attention of President Sadat, but as we later found out he wanted to
extricate himself from all Arab problems and issues, as he was preparing to make a deal with Israel.
This achievement was, however, greatly appreciated by the many
delegates who sympathized with the Palestinian cause. In appreciation
of the initiative Egypt had taken in this case many delegates asked me
to stand as a candidate for the presidency of the union in the elections
that were to take place in the fall of 1976. The only other candidate for
the post was John Williams, British member of parliament and a colleague in the executive committee. By that time I had become a wellknown gure in the union, which, by the standards of the time, was the
most important attribute to qualify one to run for the presidency of the
union. The elections were based solely on the candidates merits and
activities. They were fair and clean. It did not occur to anyone to use
foul methods such as bribes or discrimination on the basis of religion to
inuence the results, such as has happened in many subsequent elections of international organizations, including those of the
Interparliamentary Union itself. It is true that elections for international posts have always been politically motivated but they were until
the decade of the 1990s clean. In the case of the Interparliamentary
Union, the voting of the different countries, especially those whose parliaments have a multiparty character, is not necessarily uniform. The
delegations of those countries are made up of representatives of various
parties, and it was not uncommon for some of the delegates belonging
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to left-leaning parties to vote with Egypt and adopt the problems of the
third world countries and that of Palestine.
When I entered these elections I found that I had enough support to
proceed with my campaign even though I was unsure of the degree of
support that the leadership of the Egyptian parliament was willing to
give. Despite my feeling that this support was lukewarm at best, the
count of votes that I was sure to get was in my favor. I was guaranteed
the votes of the third world countries, as well as those of the many countries that sympathized with the Palestinian cause. These represented a
majority of votes by a big margin. However this count ran afoul as a
result of the events of the year that followed the fall of 1975. During that
year the relations of Egypt with the rest of the world underwent a dramatic change as a result of the disclosure of the secret dealings that
President Sadat had undertaken, independently of all international and
regional organizations, to reach a settlement of the Israeli occupation of
Sinai. The disclosure angered the Soviet Union and the socialist countries. Egypts secret dealings with the United States and Israel, without
consulting the other Arab countries, cost Egypt the support of the Arabs
and the sympathy of many third world countries that had been so far
sympathetic to its cause. This resulted in the dissolution of the bloc that
supported my candidacy for the presidency of the union. My chances of
winning the election were further reduced when the Soviet Union decided to support another third-world candidate for the post who somewhat
belatedly entered the race. Votes were split and I lost the election. This
represented the last of my dealings with the Interparliamentary Union.
The year 1976 was also a watershed year in the life of the union. It
marked its reversion to a private club, where the members of parliament
could meet and spend their vacations as guests of the various parliaments
of the world, which are usually generous with their guests. That generosity becomes more obvious in the case of the poorer countries of the
world. The meetings have become routine, full of slogans and buzzwords
of the day. The real problems that occupy the people of the world have
disappeared from agenda of the unions meetings, and do not attract the
attention of the members any more.
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The General Secretariat of the Arab Socialist Union

In 1964 I was appointed a member of the general secretariat of the Arab
Socialist Union (ASU), the political organization that was established in
the wake of the proclamation of the 1962 charter. Husayn al-Shafi, a
member of the revolutionary council, was appointed as its general secretary. The political leadership pinned great hopes on the ASU to mobilize
the nation behind the revolution. It wanted the ASU to rally under its
banner all national forces, especially those that had beneted from the
reforms that the revolution had introduced. It also wanted the secretariat to build a vanguard organization of selected leaders to guide that
union of national forces.
President Nasser used to attend the weekly meetings of the secretariat regularly; this allowed me to see and work with him closely. All
the members of the revolutionary council including Major-General
Amer, Zakariya Muhi al-Din, Anwar Sadat, and Ali Sabri also attended
the meetings. In addition, the secretariat included about twenty other
members representing different political trends or sectors of such popular forces as the trade unions, the professional syndicates, the nationalist entrepreneurs, and the farmers associations. The secretariat
included all the luminaries of the regime, including some key cabinet
ministers and a representative of the security apparatus. This was the
closest I ever came to being near the centers of power. In this gathering I was the lowest in protocol ranking and thus I was seated at the
very end of the conference table.
The meetings were held in the Heliopolis Hotel, which had been converted to become part of the ofce of the president. The meetings were
chaired by President Nasser, who had an overwhelming presence despite
the fact that he spoke little and ran the meetings in a democratic way,
giving all the chance to express their views. He was a good listener, capable of making the necessary compromises to keep the unity of the
alliance he was trying to forge from the varied groups that were represented in the secretariat, all of whom had different ideologies and goals.
It was this composition of the secretariat that made its work prone to
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intrigue. Anyone reading the minutes of the meetings of the secretariat,

which were published in full in book form by the government printing
ofce of the ministry of culture in 1997, clearly senses this atmosphere of
intrigue. I personally suffered from this atmosphere and was denied
membership of the vanguard organization that the secretariat was supposed to have been formed to establish.
Nasser was tall, handsome, and had great presence. He led a very simple life. As a member of the secretariat of the party I was frequently
invited to the dinners he gave to the dignitaries that visited Egypt. All
the dinners that I was invited to were extremely simple; the cutlery was
ordinary and the menu was a three-course meal such as any middle class
family could occasionally afford.
Nasser always took the side of the poor and the downtrodden on
every issue that I had the chance to see him take a decision. This must
have been one of the reasons that he was mourned all over the world
when he died in 1970. During my travels I had a chance to see how much
the ordinary man revered him. Six months after his death I was attending a meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where I found Nassers photograph hanging in the hotel shop where I went to buy my morning paper.
The man who was running the shop insisted on giving me the newspaper
free when he knew that I came from the land of Nasser. On my way back
home I stopped in Madras and Beirut, where I found Nassers photograph hanging in the shops and in the taxi that carried me to my hotel in
Beirut. I could not nd an explanation for this reverence for the man
except that the poor and those without a say in the worlds affairs identied themselves with him. He was perceived as their champion, someone who had taken a stand against mighty powers and other oppressors.
Whether Nasser succeeded in doing something to alleviate their hardships or not is a matter of debate. All one can say is that he tried.
During the rst meeting of the secretariat I was engaged with
President Nasser in a heated discussion on the importance and necessity of going back to the democratic system of government. The discussion caused a stir among the members of the secretariat, who were not
accustomed to that type of dialogue with the president. They wondered
THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF THE ARAB SOCIALIST UNION
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who the newcomer who talked with such condence to the president
could be and what kind of support he had. Sayyid Marei, a long-time
minister of agriculture who represented the sector of nationalist entrepreneurs in the secretariat, came to me at the end of the meeting and
advised me to calm down and take matters easily. The rest of the members of the secretariat eyed me with envy. That envy turned into hatred
when the full minutes of the rst meeting were published in al-Talia
magazine, one of the publications of al-Ahram newspaper edited by
Lut al-Khuli.
The publication of the minutes of that meeting conrmed the members suspicions, that this must be part of a conspiracy designed by none
other than Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, the editor of al-Ahram newspaper, with the aim of introducing new faces that would eventually
replace them. Mr. Haykal was the object of the wrath of many politicians, who envied his intimate relationship with and direct access to
President Nasser. The publication of the minutes assured them that I
must be one of Haykals men, drawing my condence to talk freely to the
president from his support. I was thus counted as one of Haykals
cronies, even though I hardly knew the man at that time. Save for one or
two casual meetings with him, I do not remember having discussed anything with him that could touch on the affairs of the secretariat or the
union. My association with Haykal until that time had been through my
writings in al-Ahram newspaper, which I used to send by courier. He
apparently liked these articles which he published in a prominent place.
My presumed association with Haykal brought upon me the wrath of
those who hated him. The general secretary of the Arab Socialist Union
managed to issue a presidential decree that added to the secretariat
another university professor within two months of its formation. This
was done to counter my presence and to prove to the president that I
was not the only professor who had vision and knowledge. During the
third meeting of the secretariat, many members attacked me viciously
for meeting with university professors without the prior knowledge of
the minister of higher education. The attack was so vicious that it
prompted President Nasser to interfere and come to my rescue.
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Nevertheless, the attack continued relentlessly and increased in intensity when it was rumored that I was being considered for the post of minister of higher education in the next cabinet reshufe. The rumor circulated after President Nasser asked me during the second meeting of the
secretariat to be responsible for the universities bureau of the union.
Despite the fact that the secretary-general of the union never translated
this demand into an executive order, I took over the duties of that job.
An ofce was especially set up for me in the magnicent former royal
palace at Abdin, which became the headquarters of the union. The
rumor brought upon me the wrath of Dr. Abd al-Aziz al-Sayyid, the minister of higher education, a man who was well connected and capable of
turning the tables on his adversaries.
I took my work in the universities bureau seriously, and I started to
build extensive contacts with many university professors with whom I
used to meet in the elegant building of the parliament club, which occupied one of the stylish turn-of-the-century palaces in the prestigious
Cairo district of Garden City. At the time I was using it for these meetings, it had not yet started to be frequented by the members of parliament and it acted almost as a private meeting place. The meetings
offered me the opportunity to get to know a large number of professors
whom I hoped to assemble in an association that would act as a think
tank, where intellectuals could get a chance to discuss the problems of
their country and where they could establish contact with the decision
makers. This hope did not materialize. On the one hand, the university
professors were suspicious of the revolutions intentions and they did not
want to be involved with its associates. On the other hand, the majority
of the leaders of the revolution were distrustful of the intellectuals and
did not care to be engaged in a dialogue with them. The revolutionary
leaders only wanted to deactivate them and to keep them under their
control. This they decided could best be achieved by setting up a clandestine organization of some of their operatives in the universities,
which would report to them the goings-on and any potential movements
of protest. Engaging in a dialogue with the professors was never part of
the agenda of this clandestine group.
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Despite the fact that this parallel organization was built while I was
responsible for the universities bureau in the union, I was never
informed about it. It was one of many secret organizations that MajorGeneral Amer and his notorious security apparatus were building to penetrate and spy on the parallel government agencies. I do not know
whether President Nasser or the general secretary of the union were
informed about this clandestine organization. All I know is that its
members were destined to occupy the most important posts in the country. From among its members were recruited future speakers of parliament and many cabinet ministers.
In contrast, the organization that I was attempting to build was totally different in its goals. Its aim was to benet from the expertise of the
professors to help solve the problems that were facing the country, and
encourage the free exchange of ideas about these problems. As a starter
I chose the problem of university education, which had become a hot
subject in the 1960s when the number of students seeking higher education increased dramatically, causing many problems ranging from a
shortage of qualied staff to a lowering of the standards of the quality of
education. I started the dialogue by publishing a long article in al-Ahram
newspaper on January 17, 1965. I began the article by reminding the readers that the increase in the number of students pressing to join the universities was a healthy sign, indicating a vibrant and aspiring nation. It
was a trend that was almost impossible to reverse and any talk about
reducing the number of students clamoring for a higher education was
futile. It was against the trend of democratizing higher education that
was sweeping the world at that time. I then went on to say that all we
could do to cope with the new university of large numbers was to learn
to live with it and to adapt our ways to this new situation. Among the
adaptations that I suggested was to convert the university of the masses
into a teaching institution of liberal education. The aim of that institution would be conned to graduating a well-rounded citizen who would
be capable of working, after a short period of on-the-job training, in the
variety of jobs that the new economy was providing. The other function
of the university, namely conducting scientic research and carrying out
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in-depth studies, was to be relegated to the faculties of postgraduate

studies, which I suggested would be established as independent institutions. These would be staffed by a select group of competent professors
and would have a small student body selected from among the best graduates of the universities of the masses. The aim of these faculties would
be to conduct scientic research and to train students in the specialized
elds of science, engineering, and the humanities, with a view to preparing them to practice the professions of medicine and law and to carry out
the research and development programs that were vital to the growth of
the economy and to the welfare of the nation.
The response to my article was overwhelming. About fty professors
sent their comments on the article to al-Ahram newspaper, where they
were published. I summarized the different opinions that were
expressed in these comments in a concluding article that was published
in al-Ahram on March 6, 1965. The success of the campaign and the great
response it elicited alarmed the clandestine parallel organization, which
thought that our group might be able to pull the carpet from under its
feet and get the attention of the nation and the president of the republic, who was at that time engaged in a secret battle with the sponsor of
the organization, Major-General Amer, the minister of defense. The
members of that organization increased their attendance at our meetings to eavesdrop on our deliberations and to report them to the fearful
security apparatus, which they were able to involve in their ght. That
involvement caused me the greatest discomfort and forced me to use
sedatives, for the rst time in my life, to relieve my anxiety.
During that time I was under the surveillance of the security apparatus and was the subject of reports that recorded my movements and
activities. These were written by agents who were mobilized from
among the employees of my ofce in the geological survey or from the
members of parliament who were attached to the parliamentary delegations that I attended. In two unusual and unique occasions I was given
the chance to read some of these reports. Unfortunately I did not copy
any of them. Had I had these copies I would not have hesitated to publish them for all to see their mediocrity, poor construction, and incon-
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sistency. They were subjective, and used preconceived judgments that

were not based on the facts of the case.
The extensive efforts of the security agencies succeeded in uprooting
me from the secretariat of the ASU. Less than one year after my appointment I lost my membership when the secretariat was reorganized; my
name was not included in the list of new members. The decision to delete
my name came suddenly. I was not told about it or about the reasons for
which the decision to get rid of me was taken. I took the matter calmly,
and I did not even care to ask about the reason for removing me from the
secretariat. In so doing I broke a tradition, namely to go to the would-be
powers to afrm my loyalty and to beg for forgiveness. This tradition, still
followed to this day, may explain the repeated reappearances of politicians, who disappear from the scene for periods that may vary in length,
only to reoccupy inuential posts in the government or in the party.
Every report that was written about me by the security apparatus, without a single exception, pictured me as a fanatic Copt who had to be treated with guardedness. The fact that all the reports agreed in depicting me
thus leads me to believe that their writers, whom I have never met, took
that characterization as given and then manipulated the events and incidents to t that characterization. I do not know the reason behind the
insistence of the apparatus to depict me in this manner. It could have been
that they could not nd anything incriminating in my record such as corrupt practices or shady relationships, so they reverted to this easy way to
slander my name. It is also possible that the writers of these reports were
motivated by their suspicions of the religious other, which are drilled in
them from childhood and which form part of the traditional culture that
most Egyptians live by. To them these suspicions may have been conrmed
when they discovered that I had a younger brother who had married a
Muslim woman and had changed his faith to Islam in 1949. This marriage
was not accepted by my family, which tried and failed to prevent its consummation, causing a rift between my family and my brother. This may
have been taken as an indication that I belonged to a fanatic family that
did not accept the religion of Islam. I do not want to dwell on the details
of this episode, whose incidents happened more than fty years ago and
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whose actors have died and disappeared from the scene. I have always considered this affair a very private matter that I have kept to myself and
decided never to talk about. The reason I am going against this decision
and speaking about it in this memoir is that this affair was mentioned in
my security le and had consequences that affected my life and career. It
portrayed me in a manner that caused me a lot of pain and impeded my
opportunities for advancement. This happened despite the fact that I did
not witness the events of the affair, which took place while I was abroad
pursuing my studies. When I returned to Egypt two years after these
events I tried without avail to renew my contact with my brother, with
whom I had had a special relationship. In the single visit I made to his
house, he bluntly informed me that he had decided to cut off all relationship with his past and begin a new life. I respected his decision and never
contacted him again except once, when my mother was on her deathbed.
I went to him to beg him to be present at her funeral, for I wanted to put
his name in the obituary that my family, who had omitted his name, was
preparing to be published in the newspapers. When I suggested adding his
name everyone in the family assured me that he would not welcome it.
When I went to him that night to ask him to attend our mothers funeral
he told me bluntly and on the steps of his apartment, without even allowing me in, that he had severed all relationship with his past and that he
would not attend the funeral. That was my last encounter with him. I did
not hear of him after that until the day I read the announcement of his
death in al-Ahram newspaper in 1986 while I was in Berlin.
I do not want to burden the reader with the content of the reports
that were written to malign my name or with the accusations and allegations that were leveled against me. I am sure that I was one of many who
were the subjects of these reports, which had the negative effect of
infusing a tense atmosphere in the workplace. That atmosphere became
intolerable in the latter half of the 1960s and was responsible, to a large
degree, for the setbacks that befell Egypt at that time. Reading through
the reports that were written about me and that I had the chance to see,
I can vouch that they were not written with any care; they were not
intended to be read critically but were written to inform the concerned
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authorities of the verdict passed by the security apparatus on the subject

of the report. The reports were poorly composed, badly constructed,
and lacking in logic; their conclusions had no relationship to the events
of the case. They were invariably based on rumors or unauthenticated
incidents, which in many instances were made up or twisted to t the
accusation. The reports were sent to the relevant cabinet minister for
information only. They carried no indictment that needed any action or
further investigation. Since most ministers had no time to read these
reports with any care, they usually accepted their conclusions, developing a guarded if not hostile relationship to the person mentioned in the
report. This had the effect of creating an atmosphere of suspicion
between the minister and the senior members of his staff.
I mentioned earlier that the primary concern of the writers of the
reports was to nd evidence to prove my fanaticism. Much of the evidence that was taken against me was not of my making, such as the accusation that I favored the appointment of Copts in the mining organization that I headed and that I promoted them even if they were not
qualied. This accusation was repeatedly mentioned, even though I did
not have the power to appoint anyone in the organization. That power
was vested in an outside ofce, the central ofce of government personnel, which was created to allocate the graduates of the different colleges
and technical institutes to job openings in the various government
departments and public sector organizations. The graduates of the colleges and institutes of the earth sciences were allocated to work in the
petroleum organization or the mining organization and in the companies
that were under their authority. If the allegation mentioned in the
reports about me was true, that the mining organization, over which I
presided, had an exceptionally large number of Coptic employees, no
one was to blame for that but that government ofce. It picked the
Muslim graduates to give them the better and higher-paid jobs of the
petroleum industry, leaving the Coptic graduates to be assigned to the
less lucrative jobs of the mining industry.
The creation of a central ofce in the 1960s to arrange for the employment of all the college and higher institute graduates in the different gov-
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ernment departments and public sector organizations, without resorting

to advertisements or oral examinations or any other ploy that could be
used to discriminate against an individual or a group, was the idea of
President Nasser himself. He must have thought of this idea in response
to the ood of complaints that he received every day about the discriminatory practices exercised in the different government departments and
public sector organizations. As many of these complaints concerned the
favoritism practiced with regard to the promotion of employees, he
ordered that these promotions be decided solely on the basis of seniority
up to the level of general manager. This order beneted the Copts as well
as those of their Muslim compatriots who did not have the backing of an
inuential person. In a similar vein President Nasser stood rm with
regard to the rules that governed the admission of students to university,
basing them solely on the grades of the public examination of the secondary school certicate. He wanted to eliminate any other basis that
could be used to discriminate against the weak. In this regard President
Nasser was a rare example of a leader who was conscious of the problems
of ordinary people, with whom he had always sided.
I mentioned in an earlier part of these memoirs that I had the rare
opportunity on two occasions to read some of the security reports that
were written about me. I have already alluded to one of these occasions
in the previous chapter when Minister Ali Wali forwarded the reports
to me. The other occasion was when President Sadat ordered the
release of another batch of these reports for my information in 1971. I
was amazed to nd out that they were based on sayings that I was supposed to have uttered in the presence of members of parliament who
happened to accompany the different parliamentary delegations of
which I was always a member. I was amazed to read what these members had reported to the security apparatus about me. It was totally different from what they used to say to me in person, when they showered
me with their praise. Many of these members were simple informants
who had mastered the art of attery, which they used to advance their
interests, climb up the social ladder, and become among the luminaries
of the world of politics.
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In the preceding few paragraphs I have expounded on the enormous

effort that was exerted by the security apparatus to slander my name
and to nd incriminating evidence that could be used to justify chasing
me out of public life. This effort cannot be explained until the nature
of the establishment that dominated the political scene in Egypt in the
1960s and the 1970s is understood. To this subject I will devote the following paragraphs.
The Political Establishment

The political establishment of Egypt during the 1960s and 1970s was
composed, at least in theory, of an alliance of the working forces of the
nation. In practice, however, it consisted of several feuding groups that
had nothing in common. The ideologies of most if not all these groups
were extremely vague, arising mostly from the traditionalist and deeply
rooted thinking that had the endorsement and support of the revolution since its early days. This mode of thinking assumed greater importance and inuence when its adherents were given the responsibility of
running the education and the information ministries, as well as the
affairs of the sole political organization in the country, the Arab
Socialist Union.
As a result of the restructuring of the political organization in the
wake of the 1967 war, the composition and role of the party changed
with the rise and prominence of the politically oriented group known as
the patriotic left. The group was led by Ali Sabri, the new secretary general of the party, member of the revolutionary council, and former prime
minister. The group became the strongest and the most visible in the
alliance by virtue of its close relationship to the centers of power. The
group formed a league whose core was made up of the members of the
old guard, who formed a closed and secretive association with a restricted membership. On occasions, however, the league opened up to other
groups and forged alliances with them for the sole purpose of making use
of them to further its cause. These alliances were never elevated to the
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status of full partnership or even full trust. Among the groups that were
used by the league was the Marxist left, with which the league worked
closely for as long as it was necessary to develop a theoretical basis to justify the social programs that the regime was adopting at that time. None
of the members of the Marxist left was ever able to get full membership
of the league. On the contrary, they were treated with a guarded if not
hostile attitude.
I do not need to dwell here on the different ideologies of any of the
groups that made up the alliance of the nations working forces. Most of
them did not adhere to anything beyond the traditionalist way of thinking. They were mere groupings of persons who were bound together by
familial, tribal, or religious ties. Their primary concern was to solve their
daily problems and to take advantage of whatever opportunities their
association with the political system provided. They usually rallied
around an inuential gure in the regime who acted as an intermediary
between them and the government. The only group that may have had
what may be called an ideology was the league of the patriotic left. It was
basically a chauvinistic grouping with a hodgepodge of ideas that were
derived from the various political theories of the day: fascism and the
belief in the concept of the just dictator, Marxism and the acceptance of
the principles of class struggle and more equitable distribution of wealth,
and the secularist model of government, as long as it preserved the traditionalist way of thinking and its values. Irrespective of the ideology
that these groups may have had, the primary motive of their daily decisions was not ideological but was determined by practical considerations, as they were competing to be the rst and only group to get the
attention of the president and of the men in power. The intrigue that
this competition generated created an atmosphere of mistrust among
the groups. Of all the groups that were involved in this morass, the
league of the patriotic left was the most successful, much to the chagrin
of all the other groups. Its achievements can be measured by its success
in amassing in its hands all the instruments of power one year before the
death of President Nasser. It controlled the media, the legislative council, and the security apparatus.
THE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT
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It is not uncommon in any political system to have people congregate

in groups. This is a natural right and a legitimate way to express their
concerns. In the countries that have a pluralistic system of government,
these groups take the form of political parties. In the Egypt of the 1960s,
however, these groups were allowed to exist only if they were willing to
accept to be united under the umbrella of the one political party. In practice, however, this unity did not take root except at the times when
President Nasser himself was involved. Nassers overwhelming popularity and political acumen made him the perfect person to heal the differences and affect reconciliation. Unfortunately, the president stopped
playing that role after the defeat of 1967. The burden of the responsibilities consequent upon the defeat left no time for anything else but the
preparation of the country for the impending battle to regain the land
that had been lost to the Israelis during that war. During the years that
followed the war and until the time of his death in 1970 President Nasser
was fully involved in the problems that arose as a result of the defeat,
supervising the building of a new and more effective army, conducting
the military operations that engaged the enemy in what became known
as the war of attrition, and engaging in the diplomatic battle on the
international front.
The withdrawal of President Nasser from playing any role in the
political organization resulted in the disappearance of the spirit of compromise and reconciliation that he had championed and the escalation
of the role of confrontation. This latter role was carried out mercilessly
by the league of the patriotic left, which became the unchallenged leader
of the political organization after the withdrawal of the president from
its affairs. This led to the dissolution of the alliance and the rise of the
unchecked power of the league. It ran the party as a secret organization.
Decisions were taken abruptly and at random and were based on information provided mostly by the shady characters employed by the notorious security apparatus. It is possible that this conspiratorial attitude
was due to the old guards fear of the machinations against it of the other
groups or of the foreign intelligence agencies that were known to have
targeted Egypt at that time. There is indeed good indication that the
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activities of these intelligence agencies were substantially increased

before and after the 1967 war.
The effect of the confrontational policy of the league of the patriotic left was devastating. It not only helped dissolve the alliance, but it also
created an atmosphere of fear and revulsion among many. This atmosphere helped President Sadat to gain the support of the people to succeed President Nasser after his death in 1970. He gained even greater
support when he purged the entire old guard in May 1971, despite the
obvious transgressions that were committed to enforce this purge. A
special court with exceptional powers was hurriedly established to carry
out the trial of the members of the league. Those among them who were
members of parliament were stripped of their membership in a raucous
session that passed its verdict with no regard to the law.
The support that the new president got for purging the old guard in
spite of these transgressions shows the intensity of hate that the public
had developed toward them. It also shows the nature of the atmosphere
that prevailed at the time, which encouraged many to endorse the candidacy of Mr. Sadat for the presidency of the republic and to stand with him
when he confronted the old guard some months later. I was among the
rst members of parliament who voted to recommend putting the name
of Mr. Sadat for public referendum for the presidency of the republic.
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5
Years of Hope and Despair
19681981
he period that followed the humiliating defeat of Egypt and the

Arabs in the 1967 war against Israel was a difcult and painful
one. It brought a sadness mixed with a feeling of anger that was
directed at the media for their outright lies. The media had led Egyptians
to believe that they had an unconquerable army, which they saw disintegrating in front of the enemy in a matter of hours. Like millions of
Egyptians, I was deeply distressed by the defeat. It grieved me in a way
that put me off doing things that I had always looked forward to doing
every year. Among these was my yearly trip in June to the coastal town of
Ras al-Barr to set up my cabin for use during the summer. I used to hire
a contractor to rebuild it around a wooden frame that he covered with
mats made up from bamboo stems gathered from the nearby lakes of the
northern reaches of the delta. At that time summer homes were built to
be temporary structures so that they could be moved in response to the
advance and retreat of the shoreline.
Our cabin was the rst to be erected on the waterfront in a new
development that formed the western extension of the old town of Ras
al-Barr. For many years after it was built in 1955 it was the only structure
in that development; this made the beach in front of it almost private
and the view from it open and unobstructed. Situated at the conuence
of the Damietta branch of the Nile delta and the Mediterranean Sea, Ras
al-Barr was one of the most enchanting spots in Egypt; it overlooked the
sea on one side and had the Nile shoreline with its palm trees in the
YEARS OF HOPE AND DESPAIR
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background. There we spent some of the happiest times of our lives in

the company of members of our extended family and the many friends
whom we happily hosted.
My family shared the sadness that came with the 1967 defeat. My son
Kareem and my daughter Sawsan, who were then fourteen and thirteen
years old respectively, showed an understanding of the reasons that held
me from tting our beautiful cabin for use during the summer. They did
not complain or raise any questions as to why we were not spending the
summer in the place they had always joyfully anticipated going to and in
which they had spent every summer since their birth. When I nally
decided to go and look at the condition of the cabin by the end of July,
I found out that most Egyptians seemed to have shared with us this feeling of despondency. I found the resort almost empty; hardly any families
had gone to set up their cabins for use that summer.
This sadness in the wake of the 1967 war reected itself also in our
decision not to move to our new villa, which had just been nished and
handed over to us by the contractor a few days before the start of the war.
We had been in the habit of passing by its site every day to make sure that
the work was progressing in a manner that would satisfy our needs, and
we were looking forward to making it our home. But it remained empty
until November of that year, when we nally decided to move into it.
I specically mention these two incidents to remind the readers,
especially those who did not witness that period in the history of Egypt,
of the atmosphere of gloom that shrouded the nation after the defeat of
1967. Naturally that feeling of sadness was not universal. There were
some who did not share with the majority of Egyptians their sadness and
who hated the revolution and wished that the war had nished it and
driven out its leader, President Nasser. But these were a minority. The
overwhelming majority wanted the regime to continue, despite the many
reservations they had. They feared that its fall would afrm the victory
of Israel and would cost Egypt its independence. This fear brought out
the masses to demonstrate in the streets of the cities of Egypt when
President Nasser announced his resignation from ofce on June 9, 1967;
they were clamoring that he withdraw his resignation and continue in
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the ofce of the presidency. The demonstrations showed that the masses refused to accept the defeat as nal and wanted to continue the ght
under Nassers leadership to eliminate the consequences of that war.
The defeat changed President Nasser. He became convinced that the
military establishment, which had been responsible for the defeat, had
to be reorganized and had to get new leadership that would bring discipline to it and restore it to performing its sole function of defending the
country. For that end it had to forsake all interference in the affairs of
civil society, an activity it had been systematically carrying out for close
to a decade before the war. I have already alluded to this interference in
the previous two chapters of this book when the military establishment
infringed on civil society by building parallel organizations, conducting
inquiries and investigations, and passing arbitrary and irreversible judgments that used to raise fear in the hearts of the people. Its unaccountable interference in the affairs of government departments and the political organization disrupted their work and corrupted the army itself. I
am certain that the complete history of the 1967 war will only be known
when all the documents that are related to these parallel and unaccountable activities become available. I am certain that these activities and the
corruption that accompanied them must have opened up opportunities
for foreign intelligence agencies to penetrate the defense establishment.
Whatever the case may be, President Nasser made the decision to get rid
of the army leadership and to take the matter of building a new army into
his own hands. This was a good beginning that ushered the birth of a
new era for the revolution and for President Nasser himself.
The failure of the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli forces to the
internationally recognized borders of Egypt, as had happened in the case
of the 1956 war, was a great disappointment. It made a diplomatic solution to the problem of the occupation of Arab lands out of the question.
With the loss of hope of a diplomatic solution, President Nasser had no
other choice but to rely on himself and to rebuild his nation to make it
ready for the impending battle of liberation, which he expected to be
long and arduous. The president took the matter seriously. He started by
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mobilizing his own people and recruiting from among them a new leadership, which was chosen for its honesty and competence to be in charge
of the nations public ofces. This decision gave me and my likes a
chance to hold an executive ofce, a chance that would have been impossible in the atmosphere of opportunism that was prevalent before the
defeat of 1967. In that atmosphere, as I have explained in chapter three,
I was being chased out of the universities, none of which offered me
even an ofce to work in or a laboratory in which to carry out my
research. I had even considered leaving Egypt altogether.
Another indication of the serious intent of the political leadership to
mobilize the nation was its willingness to accept criticism and to listen
to views that were different from its own. It abandoned the use of mottos and slogans and allowed discussions of the problems of Egypt, which
it now came to acknowledge. Taking advantage of this new atmosphere,
I published in al-Ahram newspaper an article entitled The extent of the
civilization challenge that Egypt faces, which appeared on August 2,
1967, less than two months after the end of the war. This article was
selected among the most signicant hundred articles that had appeared
in al-Ahram during its hundred-year history for inclusion in the book
Witnesses of the Age that celebrated the occasion in 1986. In that article I
pointed out that Egypt had lost the war because it had lagged behind in
adopting the methods of modern civilization in administration and government. Its ability to build an army and to impose peace was not going
to be determined on the battlefront but rather on its ability to accept
and practice these methods, for the challenge it faced was primarily a
challenge of civilization, of which the military was but one facet.
The decision that the political leadership had taken, to put its faith
in the people and to try to get their support to meet the challenges of
the future, helped Egypt to avoid the disasters that could have followed
the defeat in the war. It was one of the wisest decisions taken. Such decisions are rare in the history of Egypt. They are far apart and have always
left a positive impact on the life of the nation. Looking back at the history of modern Egypt one nds that the last period in which a similar
situation obtained was at the end of the rule of Khedive Ismail in the
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1870s, when the khedive sought the support of the people after having
been forsaken by the great powers, which started conspiring against him.
He accepted to limit his powers and to share them with an elected legislative council that he established. This early and short experiment in
democracy and power sharing was terminated when Great Britain occupied Egypt in 1882 and the rule of Egypt reverted to autocracy legitimized by the occupying power.
After the 1967 defeat the political leadership ended its dependency
on the army and the intelligence apparatus because of their failure to
defend the regime, and instead reached out for the support of the people. This shift was reected in the measures that the leadership took to
help modernize and democratize government administration. It streamlined the work of the government and made it accountable. It made sure
that government and public sector appointments were made in accordance with the merit system. These reforms of the government administration were strictly adhered to until the war of October 1973, a war
that would have had no chance of success without such reforms. The
reforms were soon abandoned after the 1973 war. My own evaluation is
that the six-year period that elapsed between the two wars of 1967 and
1973 was one of the most luminous periods in the history of modern
Egypt. It was an indication of the great potential Egypt has when the
leadership works in tandem with the people. During this period the
army was rebuilt and thousands of young men were trained in the art of
modern warfare in an unparalleled atmosphere of enthusiasm and
sacrice. Egyptians worked hard under their new leadership in a spirit of
devotion that would be hard to believe for those who had not witnessed
it. The results of this devoted work are reected in the economic indices
of the period. Workers productivity increased and the balance of trade
improved, for the rst time in many years to the benet of Egypt. It
makes me sad to see many people falling prey to the oft repeated view
that aims to show Egypt as a defeated and wrecked country in the wake
of the 1967 war, and belittles the sacrices made during this period by its
young people, whose youthful years were spent in the ring line, and by
its workers and farmers, who worked hard and selessly to contribute to
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the welfare of the nation. I regret to see that this period does not get the
appreciation it deserves as a model to be emulated. I have a hunch that
the exaggeration of the 1967 defeat is designed to convince Egyptians
that they have no other choice but to capitulate to Israel.
During the challenging years that followed the 1967 defeat I was able
to reorganize the mining organization over which I presided at the time,
and take it to new heights, as I have explained in an earlier chapter.
Thanks to the enthusiasm and devotion of the workers during that period it was possible to attain those remarkable achievements and successes. Barely two years after it began, that enthusiasm lost part of its
momentum as a result of the atmosphere of tension created by the group
of the old guard that took over power in the sole political organization.
That group aimed to control the party and monopolize the attention of
President Nasser. It used its connections to drive a wedge between the
president and those of his associates who were not counted among its
men. I imagine that Dr. Aziz Sidqi, the minister of industry with whom
I worked closely, was one of the targets of the groups intrigue. They did
their utmost to ruin his relationships with his associates. Despite these
intrigues our work continued unabated because of the tacit support that
we got from President Nasser, who seemed not to pay any attention to
the reports and petty intrigues of the old guard. The president seemed to
have his own agenda and plans to effect a take off for Egypt under the
leadership of some able elements that he was nurturing. That take off
never materialized; three years after he had found his way to the people
the president died.
President Sadat, who took ofce after the death of President Nasser
in 1970, purged the old guard group, thereby creating a new atmosphere
that allowed us to continue in peace with the serious work that we were
engaged in. My guess is that this purge of the old guard was destined to
come about even if President Sadat had not taken the reins of power.
During the rst year of his presidency President Sadat raised the popular slogans of democracy and the rule of law. The people welcomed the
presidents repeated declarations about the importance of democratic
rule. These declarations received credibility when the president appeared
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on television attacking the intelligence agencies and promising to diminish their role and to make them accountable for their actions. During the
program the president burnt many of the tapes that had been illegally
recorded by these agencies. Rumors circulating after this appearance
claimed that the tapes the president had burnt were those that were about
him. Among the welcomed reforms that the new president had introduced was the inclusion in the new constitution, which was put for
plebiscite in 1971, of a clause that would limit the duration of the presidency to two terms only. It may be of interest to point out here that this
clause was never applied. The president soon reneged on it and then cancelled it altogether in a plebiscite that he ordered to be conducted when
his two terms of ofce were about to come to an end. To the same
plebiscite that carried the proposal to cancel that clause, he added another proposal to make Islamic sharia the only source for all legislation. By
adding this controversial and emotionally charged proposal to the
plebiscite, the president was sure to get the approval to cancel the constitutional clause that prevented him from running for a third term in ofce.
The moves that the president was signaling in the rst months of his
presidency were temporary and were not indicative of the new policies
that he was planning to introduce. Fully engaged by the occupation of
Sinai, the president wanted to chart a new course for its liberation by
involving the intercession of the United States in the solution of the
problem. He started a policy of rapprochement with the United States,
which was made at the expense of Egypts relationship with the Soviet
Union. To this end he sent many signals to the United States encouraging contacts with it through secret channels. He cancelled the SovietEgyptian friendship pact that had been signed a few months earlier, and
he dismissed and sent back home the Soviet experts that were in Egypt.
When these signals did not work he entered the war in 1973. The
Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and were able to set foot in Sinai.
At this point the stage was set for the intercession of the United States
to make the deal that President Sadat had always yearned for.
The deal did not come without a price. It had its effects on many
aspects of life in Egypt. Among the most signicant was that which
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changed its economy from one that emphasized production to one that
depended on services. This led to the marginalization of industry and
the entire manufacturing sector in the national economy. This marginalization was part of a complete plan designed to prepare Egypt for the
role it was expected to play in a new Middle East that was being hatched
up in the United States and in which Israel was to be integrated. I do not
know whether President Sadat was aware of this plan or not; all I know
is that he went ahead and carried out all the plans of that grand design.
It is possible that his eagerness to recapture Sinai, which Egypt had lost
during the 1967 war, was the only motive that made him go ahead with
this change. True to his aspirations, Israel withdrew from Sinai after it
signed a treaty with Egypt in 1978. In this treaty Egypt recognized the
state of Israel, established diplomatic relations with it, and promised to
live in peace with it and to refrain from all activities that could spoil their
relations. In return, Sinai was given back to Egypt, which agreed to keep
it as a buffer zone with limited military presence.
I do not want to go into the details of the events and deliberations
that led to the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli accords for they have been
the subject of the writings of those who participated in them, starting
with Henry Kissinger, Anwar Sadat, and Moshe Dayan and ending with
Jimmy Carter, Ibrahim Kamel, and Butrus Butrus Ghali. Looking back
at these accords twenty ve years after they were signed I can now venture to say that these accords were part of a grand design to build a new
Middle East in which Israel would be accepted and guaranteed to live in
security in the sea of Arabs that surrounds it from every side. The design
conceives Israel as a central power, deriving its security not only from its
military power and its monopoly of the weapons of mass destruction but
also from its economic prowess. In order to achieve that two conditions
had to be satised. The rst was to make sure that the Arab nations surrounding it were not united in any form, that there was no place for any
talk about pan-Arabism. In this respect the design had great success.
The Arab nation has become so estranged that it has become extremely
difcult to assemble its heads of state under one roof. The Arabs have
no one to blame but themselves in this regard. They have declared wars
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on one another and have mobilized their media to belittle and to occasionally ridicule the concept of Arab unity. They left the Arab League to
disintegrate and to become an impotent institution.
The second condition for the success of this design was to make sure
that none of the surrounding Arab countries had a viable and an independent economy that could intimidate or challenge the hegemony of
Israel. Of all the Arab nations only Iraq and Egypt were close to building a viable economic base. That base, along with the entire infrastructure, was completely destroyed in the case of Iraq during the wars that it
waged against its neighbors. Many Arab countries participated in these
wars and all supported the ruinous sanctions that were imposed on Iraq
after the 1990 war with Kuwait.
In Egypt, the disintegration of its productive base occurred with the
consent of its elite, which was wooed to abandon production and to
enter the world of the service economy. Egypt was lured to take this path
by the economic package that the donor countries extended to it in
order to rescue its economy. The package included opening the door for
the immigration of workers especially to the Arab countries, the encouragement of the tourist industry, the activation of oil exploration operations, and offers of aid and long-term loans.
I was an eyewitness to the process of dismantling the industrial base
of Egypt. It began with the dissolution of the industrial organizations
that supervised the work of the different companies, devised their future
plans, and made sure that the projects they were undertaking were viable
and properly executed. By dissolving these organizations the companies
were left on their own, without supervision or plans for development or
expansion. They were left to wither away as they were denied the budgets that they needed to run with any efciency. Worse still was the quality of the ministers of industry during that period, who were chosen
from among the most inept for the sole purpose of ridding the industry
of its honest and hard-working leaders and of stopping or holding back
many of the useful projects that were in progress.
I could cite many examples of projects that suffered from this new
policy, but I will only concentrate on one project, which I am picking
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from among many not because it was the most important but because it
was dear to me. This project was the establishment of an ofce of mining design, which I had already started with the help of the Polish mining ministry, as a section in the projects department of the Egyptian
mining organization. In this ofce I had hoped to train a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, economists, accountants, and others
in the art of planning and building mining projects, with the aim of the
proper exploitation of the countrys mineral deposits. The small ofce
that I had already started in the mining organizations projects section
was given the assignment to try its hand at laying down the plans for the
development of the Abu Tartur phosphate deposit that had been discovered in the central Western Desert of Egypt and whose reserves
exceeded one billion tones. The ofce took this assignment seriously. It
was weighing the best ways for the extraction and upgrading of the ore
and was busy studying the most viable methods for its development
when the minister of industry, in a surprise move, decided to withdraw
these studies from this ofce and relegate them to a foreign rm for a
fee of several million pounds sterling. My letter to the prime minister
asking him to intervene to cancel the ministers decision went unheeded. The decision cost Egypt dearly. It deprived her of an ofce that could
evaluate the viability of the mining projects that were being offered for
execution by local or foreign individuals or rms. Had Egypt had a viable
ofce for mining studies it might have avoided the disastrous fate of the
Abu Tartur phosphate project, which cost Egypt several thousands of
millions of pounds without any return. A more recent case in which the
government lost many millions of pounds of investment was that of the
Aswan steel project, which was to make use of the iron ore deposits outcropping to the east of the city of Aswan. After being lured to the project by a local investor who was able to entice the president of the republic to inaugurate the site of the project, the government discovered that
the whole endeavor was nothing but a hoax.
I also failed in my attempt to build a mining design ofce in the Arab
Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Arab League that was incorporated
in Amman, Jordan. As vice chairman of the company and member of its
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board of directors I proposed that the company consider building its own
ofce to study the feasibility of the mining projects that it was executing
across the Arab world rather than delegating this to foreign ofces, which
cost the company millions of pounds sterling every year. The proposal was
met with resistance and skepticism and was never implemented. The
assignment of these studies to the foreign enterprises not only made matters easy but was also very lucrative for those doing the assigning.
The last two years of my life as head of the geological survey and mining projects authority were lost in these futile attempts and in arguing
with the inept ministers of industry that I had to deal with. What
increased my chagrin was the ow of security reports about me that continued to reach the ministers and that no one had the courage to confront me with. By this time I had had enough of it all and I tendered my
resignation from my post in late 1977.
The exit from my job as head of the geological survey did not come
easily; it needed lots of maneuvering to take effect. The ministers letter
of acceptance of my resignation, which I received by return mail, was
not sufcient to release me from my duties, according to the personnel
manager of the authority, to whom I had forwarded the ministers letter
so that he could take the necessary steps to terminate my service and
settle my pension. I also wanted him to prepare the letters that I needed to present to the relevant authorities so that I could be issued a new
passport that would not mention my job as a government functionary;
this would allow me to travel from and to the country without having to
get the permission of anyone. The personnel manager was of the opinion that the minister did not have the authority to accept my resignation and that he had erred in doing so. He should have sent it to the
prime minister, who was the only person authorized to accept my resignation. I told the personnel manager that I did not want to wait until I
got that acceptance from the prime minister. His retort was that until
that letter from the prime minister had been received he could not do
much; he had to have an order instructing him to accept my resignation
and settle my pension. I suggested that if the problem pertained to an
order, what about accepting one that was signed by me, as the organiza-
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tions chief executive. He reluctantly accepted the suggestion and drafted an order in which he referred to the ministers letter in the preamble.
I signed the order that terminated my own service. My pension was settled at one hundred and ten pounds a month after a service of more than
forty years. My end of service indemnity came to two hundred and
twenty ve pounds.
When I left the organization no Egyptian institution came to seek my
expertise. Not one of the young men or women whom I had taught asked
me to give a lecture at, let alone join the staff of any of the universities or
research institutions in which they worked. Neither was I offered a seat
on the specialized national councils to which all pensioned senior personnel of the government were almost automatically appointed when
they left ofce. These councils were one of President Sadats innovations
to improve the material conditions of the pensioned senior members of
the government and also to provide a place for those senior functionaries whom he wanted to get rid of. Nobody expected anything useful to
come out of these councils, which were poorly funded and lacking in personnel. I mention these two examples not because I was unhappy I had
not been offered any of them, for I most assuredly would have refused
them had they been offered, but because I want to convey to the reader
the hostile atmosphere that I had to cope with after leaving my ofce.
The new head of the geological survey, who used to be one of my
aides, nurtured a hostile atmosphere toward me. As soon as he took over
my position, he purged the staff of my ofce, ransacked my workplace,
and ordered all members of the survey to abstain from contacting or
meeting me. He refused to attend the farewell party that the workers of
the survey organized for me. This party touched me enormously; the
workers showered me with expressions of recognition and love despite
the attitude of the new head of the organization. I have a hunch that this
attitude of the new head was instigated by no less a person than the minister of industry himself, who, I suspect, must have made a deal with the
new head of the survey to hound me and look into my actions to nd
what could incriminate me. That same minister tried to make a similar
deal with me when he asked me, after the resignation of the head of the
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industrial organization, to supply him with anything that could incriminate the man. True to this presumed deal, the new head of the geological survey ordered that a court case be raised against me in which I was
to be accused of appropriating a nancial reward without authorization.
This reward was the only remuneration that I had ever received above
my salary during my ten-year tenure as head of the geological survey and
mining organization. It was not paid by the Egyptian government but by
the Arab League as compensation for my work in preparing the by-laws
of the Arab mining organization. The case was a farce and baseless
because I had a ministerial order authorizing me to accept the payment.
When I was informed of the case I assumed that the new head of the
survey was unaware of this ministerial order. I hastened to send him a
copy of it but he insisted on going ahead with the case. The case was dismissed by the court in its rst session. The survey did not challenge the
decision of the court. A few days after the court decision, I received at
my home a group of lawyers of the survey who had worked on the case;
they came to apologize for having had to go ahead with a case they knew
was baseless and unjustied.
It was painful to see the geological survey squandering valuable time
in pursuing these trivia, neglecting its work and forsaking the traditions
that I had tried so hard to establish. Its activities shrank in size and deteriorated in standard. A case in question was that of the Annals, the journal of the survey that I had launched in 1970 to be a model of scientic
reporting; it declined in the kind and quality of papers it started to publish after I left ofce. The issue of the journal that appeared the year I
left ofce was shocking in many ways. It included articles that were not
pertinent to the work of the survey and that were not peer-reviewed.
Many of the articles that appeared in that issue had been previously
rejected for publication because of their poor language and bad logic.
One article had an introduction in which the author attacked me personally in a rude manner.
The pain and annoyance that came with incidents such as these convinced me of the wisdom of my decision to get away from this stiing
atmosphere. I decided to withdraw from public life and put all my
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efforts in my consulting work, which I had started after leaving ofce

and which used to carry me to London, Berlin, the United States, and a
number of Arab countries. The bulk of my work was with oil companies
that were exploring in Egypt. I did my work in the quietness of my home
in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. The work gave me the freedom to travel
abroad at any time I wished. I had accepted to work as a consultant to a
London-based company and as a research associate and an adjunct professor in Berlin Technical University and in the Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, Texas. This required that I spend some time every
year in Berlin and Dallas.
Soon after these events my family and I faced a crisis as a result of
the loss of Amm Ali, who had been working in our household as a butler (sufragi) for more than twenty years. He died when a car hit him as
he was on his way home on his bicycle. Our life was disrupted after his
death for he was an important pillar in our home. We depended on him
in managing its affairs; he was responsible for its cleanliness and for
supervising the care of its garden. He bought its needs, prepared its
food, handled its mail, deposited and withdrew money from the banks,
and he took care of our children when we were obliged to leave them
alone at home. He was also responsible for hiring the help he needed in
the house and in the garden. His honesty was exemplary and his
appointments were kept so precisely that one could adjust ones watch
accordingly. For twenty years he came to our home at seven oclock in
the morning to prepare our breakfast. Many times Wadad and I used to
leave him alone for the entire day in our villa, which came to be known
among our neighbors by his name. Amm Ali was a tall, dark, handsome,
and well-dressed man. His white garb (quftan) was always bright and
clean. He joined our household in 1955 when we were living in an apartment in the suburb of Maadi; he moved with us to our new villa and
remained with us until his death in 1978. I developed a great friendship
with him and used to spend hours talking to him. I found him aware of
the events and developments of the world, more so than many of the
people with whom I had to deal in the workplace. He used to follow the
news over the radio and he developed greater esteem for me when he
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heard of my meetings with President Nasser. Amm Ali was deeply religious. He had great respect for all religions and for all places of worship.
He also harbored great respect for his wife. When the Islamic fundamentalist tide overwhelmed Egypt in the 1970s some of his friends
reproached him for working for Copts, but he snubbed them and came
to me complaining about how ignorant those people were of the true
spirit of religion. Amm Ali had a well-built home in the district of Maadi
al-Khabiri, to the north of the Maadi suburb. He had been given that
house in compensation for the humble home he had lost during the high
Nile ood of 1942, which had washed away the homes of that district.
The Wafd government had rebuilt the district. Among the things that
brought satisfaction to our family was the fact that we had been able to
help Amm Ali improve his house and add to it two more oors to
accommodate his children as they got married.
Amm Ali was an honorable man. He kept his word, honored his
promises, and was prompt in his appointments. Despite the fact that he
had not attended any school, he was imbued with an education that distilled the legacy and norms of an old and venerable civilization untainted by a school or by aspirations that were difcult to fulll. We found
out that his children, who had gone to school, belonged to a different
and inferior breed. Amm Ali was the last of a generation that was fast
disappearing. He was difcult to replace. After his death we employed
many to serve in our home but they all gave us more trouble than service or comfort. Some were outright thieves who would not hesitate in
stealing anything of value that might be left unlocked. Others did not
keep their appointments, occasionally absenting themselves altogether
without giving notice. They were all and without exception liars who
would say what they did not mean. Our experience with drivers was
scarcely any better. We had one who misused our car and rented it when
we were away. We had another who drove recklessly, crashing the car and
costing us thousands of pounds.
The type of people who came to serve us at our home were not very
much different from those who entered the eld of business during the
period of the economic opening of the 1970s. They were closer to being
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crooks than entrepreneurs. I tried twice to enter the world of business

during this decade and vowed never to try my hand at it again. The rst
attempt was when I tried, together with some colleagues, to establish a
drilling company. As soon as the company was registered with the investment authority, the biggest contracting company in Egypt approached
me to ask to enter into partnership with our edgling company or else it
would establish a new company to chase us out of the market. I decided
to liquidate the company when it became clear to me that we would be
the losers whether we got into partnership with this big contractor or
not. My second experience was when I formed a company with some colleagues to manufacture new building materials that were to be introduced in Egypt for the rst time. I soon decided to resign when I found
out that some of my partners were conniving to run the company for
their own interests and without transparency.
These two experiences proved to me that carrying out any business
in Egypt was difcult unless one had good contacts with the people in
power. The country did not have the institutions that allowed any work
to be accomplished without the intervention of these powerful people.
This was true of any work whether related to taxes, litigation, registration, obtaining licenses, or authorizing bank loans. The nancial system
was old and dysfunctional. It did not protect privacy, stop corruptive
practices, or even make viable the use of bank checks. Several times I
failed to cash a check as it bounced because of lack of funds. Even a
court order could not help in cashing the check.
Retreating to the Desert

My failure to enter the world of business and the death of Amm Ali,
which made the service of my Cairo home difcult, encouraged me to
hasten with my plans to prepare the desert farm that I had bought in
1974 for my years of retirement, which I was now seriously contemplating. The farm was bought in one of the desert reclamation authority
early auctions. It was situated deep in the Western Desert of Egypt in
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the outskirts of the village of Bulaq, some thirty kilometers to the south
of Kharga town, the capital of the oasis bearing the same name. My family and I had fallen in love with this desert and its wide empty expanses
of land during our many visits to it. I was particularly charmed with the
oasis of Kharga, which I had become familiar with during my recurring
visits to it as I was following up on the progress of the work at the Abu
Tartur phosphate deposit.
The oasis of Kharga is one of the oases of the Western Desert; it was
the headquarters of the desert reclamation authority that was established at the end of the 1950s to reclaim and develop the oases of that
desert. This authority was responsible for the pioneering and multidisciplinary work carried out in this eld. The work included the study of the
groundwater reservoir of the Western Desert and northern Sudan. It
sunk hundreds of wells to determine the nature and size of the groundwater reservoir beneath that large stretch of land. It raised maps and
conducted scientic research, which was frequently done in cooperation
with international scientic organizations. It also embarked on a
detailed soil survey of the lands of the oases. It experimented with the
crops that were best suited for desert agriculture and carried out experiments to determine the optimum amount of water that was required for
their growth. It laid down hundreds of kilometers of roads, built an airport outside the town of Kharga, constructed housing units, established
many new communities, and reclaimed about 40,000 new acres of land
during the fteen-year period in which it was active.
Until the establishment of this authority, the oases of Egypt were
inaccessible places inhabited by a few people who lived in total isolation. I personally knew the oases when they were not linked to the valley of the Nile by asphalt roads and when reaching them was an arduous task that needed a great deal of preparation. At that time the economy of the oases and the very life of its inhabitants revolved around the
palm tree. Its crop of dates was exchanged for the cloth and other basic
necessities that were brought to the oases by caravans of traders from
Upper Egypt at the end of every summer season. Agriculture was then
limited to small areas around the few artesian wells whose waters were
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gushing to the surface and did not need to be lifted. The inhabitants of
the oases used to live in walled villages with narrow, roofed streets.
These villages were built so as to give protection to the inhabitants
from the frequent Bedouin raids to which they were exposed throughout their history, before peace had nally come to them toward the end
of the nineteenth century.
From the most ancient of times the oases were regarded as an integral part of Egypt where the central government in the Nile valley always
sought to have a presence and to establish a connection. During the
Roman rule of Egypt they became heavily populated. In addition to
being used to station the advance garrisons of the empire they were
extensively exploited to grow bumper crops of wheat, which were irrigated with the water that was tapped from the shallow water-bearing
beds of the groundwater reservoir of the oases. This was possible
because the Romans had mastered the art of well drilling, which allowed
them to reach these beds. The oases were also a place where the
Christians of Egypt found refuge from Roman persecution. The oases
still hold a large number of monuments of this period including remains
of dwellings, churches, monasteries, and burial grounds.
The extensive and unregulated use of the groundwater reservoir by
the Romans resulted in the drying up of the wells and the increase of the
salinity of the land. By the end of Roman rule in Egypt the oases were
almost depopulated; only a few inhabitants remained behind to live
around the few naturally owing artesian wells that tapped their water
from the deeper water-bearing beds of the groundwater reservoir. This
situation continued until the latter years of the nineteenth century,
when the oases received some attention when it was feared that they
could be overtaken by the forces of the Mahdi revolution that was raging in the Sudan at that time and that had already made incursions along
many of the unbeaten paths of the deserts of southern Egypt. The
Egyptian oases were incorporated into a new administration that had its
capital in the town of Kharga and to which an English governor was
appointed. He built for himself a palatial home to the north of the town
in a grove of palm trees. Since then Kharga oasis became an advanced
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outpost to which a yearly subsidy was sent and in which a deep well was
drilled by the central government every now and long then to increase
its water supply.
This situation lasted until the arrival of the desert reclamation
authority in the mid years of the twentieth century and the appointment
of Abd al-Magid al-Gughayl of the army corps of engineers as governor.
Governor al-Gughayl led and coordinated the extensive program of
development of the oasis. His leadership qualities were superb. He was
young, aggressive, and devoted to his work. His amiable personality
made him beloved by the inhabitants of the oasis, many of whom he
knew by name. I became acquainted with Governor al-Gughayl when he
represented the district of the Western Desert in the parliaments in
which I was a member. I became closely associated with him when I was
occupied with the Abu Tartur phosphate project in which he was keenly interested and whose progress he closely followed. He ordered the
workshops of the governorate to build the temporary storehouses that
the project needed. The governor was also keenly interested in following
up and encouraging the work of the desert reclamation authority, which
was progressing with enthusiasm due to a devoted group of scientists and
engineers. The spirit in which the work was done created a pleasant
atmosphere, which together with the natural beauty of the oasis made
the idea of living in it and making it the place of my retirement very
attractive. I entered the rst auction that the desert reclamation authority announced for the sale of farm lots and bought myself a twenty-ve
acre palm grove near the village of Bulaq, some thirty kilometers to the
south of Kharga town.
When my friend Hassan Fathi, the well-known architect, came to
know of my wish to build a home on that farm he was kind enough to
modify a plan that he had originally prepared for my home in Maadi to
t within the atmosphere of the area. I went ahead and built the farmhouse with the help of a builder who had been trained in the art of using
adobe and building domes by Hassan Fathi himself. The builder was a
member of the team that Hassan Fathi had recruited to construct the
administrative building in the village of Baris to the south of the oasis
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that he had been commissioned to put up in the early 1970s. We tted

our house with simple furniture.
I built our house in the southwest corner of the farm on the edge of
the desert, which bordered the house on two sides. The western side was
the edge of the vast Western Desert while the southern side was saline
and abandoned lowland. The site was beautiful and enchanting. My wife
Wadad, my son Kareem, and my daughter Sawsan fell in love with the
place and we made sure that we would spend every holiday available to us
in it. The long distance that we had to drive to it did not deter us from
going there regularly. The distance that separated this house from my
home in Maadi measured six hundred kilometers, a distance that took
ten hours of driving to traverse. The rst three hundred and fty kilometers of this distance lay along the narrow, old, and highly congested
Upper Egypt road that ran along the western bank of the River Nile. The
driving along this stretch of road until it branches off to the Kharga
desert road to the north of the town of Asyut was extremely treacherous.
The road was not ready for long-distance travel; there was not a single
decent place along it where one could have a rest or a snack or even go to
a decent bathroom. This used to cause discomfort to the entire family.
The times we spent in the oasis were extremely happy. We enjoyed
working on the farm, traveling to all corners of the surrounding deserts,
and collecting specimens of the implements and other artifacts that we
saw fast disappearing in front of our own eyes as the oases opened up to
the world. We saw the effect of the introduction of the plough, the
pump, and other modern agricultural machinery on the ways of farming,
and the falling into disuse of many of the old implements that had been
used since time immemorial. This change happened in a matter of a few
years. We wanted to collect as many as we could of these old implements
that we had hoped could make the nucleus of a museum.
Among the remarkably rapid changes that we witnessed was the
change in the position of women in the oasis society. When we rst came
there the woman was a prisoner of her home. She was not allowed to leave
it except on rare occasions, so much so that the saying went that a woman
was allowed to go out of her home only twice in her lifetime, once when
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she went to her new home when she got married and the other when she
was taken to her grave when she died. In less than ten years we saw this
changing completely. Girls started going to and graduating from schools
and holding different jobs. We even knew one married woman from the
village of Bulaq who accepted to work as a teacher in an Arab country,
leaving her husband behind in the oasis to take care of their child.
Much of the credit for these changes must go to the desert reclamation authority, which opened schools, drilled many deep wells, and
pumped their water, via cement-lined canals that extended for hundreds
of kilometers, to the new land that it had reclaimed. It then sold this land
at a reasonable price to the farmers of the oases or to the migrant labor
that was enticed to leave the overcrowded villages of Upper Egypt for
this new land. The authority was also responsible for the introduction of
modern agricultural machinery and for the use of the car in transportation. In making these changes the authority was conducting a new social
experiment that aimed at building a modern egalitarian community.
As I settled down in my new home, I started to teach myself the art
of farming and to get to know something about the palm tree. I bought
a number of books and the necessary implements to start farming the
small piece of land that I had set aside in front of my home for that purpose. Contrary to the impression that I had always had about the palm
tree that it did not need much care to grow, I found out that it was one
of the most labor-intensive trees and needed a lot of care. It was so
impotent that it could not do anything by itself including its pollination,
which had to be done by hand. I also learnt that farming was a tough
undertaking that needed a great deal of physical tness to perform. It
was rare to nd anyone above the age of forty who could work at it, and
this told me something about why Egyptian farmers craved to have large
families with as many children as possible so that they could take over
the farming of the land when the farmer got old.
My experience in agriculture in the oasis permitted me to become
acquainted with the problems that made desert agriculture costly and
limited in return. Foremost among these was the high cost of extracting
and transporting water from the wellhead to the reclaimed lands. The
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fact that the water that reached the reclaimed lands of the oases was
delivered free of charge did not warrant the neglect of its cost when
assessing the viability of desert agriculture, for that cost was borne by
the national economy to the tune of no less than one thousand Egyptian
pounds per feddan (acre) of reclaimed land. One of the major problems
that faced desert agriculture was that most of the land was poorly
drained and with time tended to become saline. Many areas were not leveled and most lay in closed basins with no external drainage. Another
serious problem that made desert agriculture costly was the need of its
areas to be protected from the sand-carrying winds, to which most of
them were exposed and which led to the accumulation of dunes. This
accumulation was usually prevented by going through the additional
expense of surrounding the land with trees. The harsh weather also had
its toll on the limited number of plants and crops that could survive that
weather. In addition, desert agriculture suffered from the many problems that beset the agriculture industry in Egypt as a whole with regard
to its nancing and its lack of supporting services and marketing opportunities. I have lived to see the limited results of the experiment of the
desert reclamation authority in desert agriculture. Despite the great
effort and the devotion given to that experiment I have seen the thousands of feddans that were abandoned and the dozens of wells that dried
up or suffered a substantial decrease in their discharge.
Despite the effort and money I invested in our farm, I got little if any
return except for the few beautiful hours I spent in it with my family and
with the many friends who shared with us the love for the place. My
home in the oasis became almost like a club where many of the writers
and artists of Egypt met. Of these I may single out the artists Inji Iatun,
Abd al-Ghani and Reaya Abu al-Inayn, and Gazbiya Sirri, who were
introduced to the desert and its charm during their visits. I may also
mention among those who became regular visitors to our home in the
desert the German ambassador to Egypt in the 1970s, Hans Steltzer, and
his wife Traute, who fell in love with the desert and accompanied us on
many of our trips across the deserts of Egypt. Among the Egyptians who
were introduced to the desert through their visit to our home in the
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oasis was Gamal al-Utay, the well-known attorney and the former minister of culture, whose visit seemed to have impressed him to the extent
that he mentioned it in the article that he wrote about me in alMussawar magazine of July 23, 1982.
My coming to the oasis surprised many and inspired many queries
among the local population. Some thought that I must have gone there
because of a treasure that I had discovered, being the expert who knew
the land of Egypt and its hidden wealth. Some of the local people looked
at me as an intruder who had come to exploit their land and use his
inuence to withdraw more than his share of water to irrigate his farm,
thus depriving them of getting their fair share of water especially during
the summer months when the demand exceeded supply. The few
extremists who belonged to the fundamentalist groups, which were nurtured by the government during the 1970s, spread the rumor that I had
come to the oasis to lead a massive Coptic immigration to it. When I
started building my home they propagated the rumor that it was in reality a church. This rumor found receptive ears; many believed it including a former governor of the district, who repeated it to a group of geologists who were visiting the oasis and who had asked him about me.
This was related to me by one of my former students who had attended
that meeting. When I installed an antenna on my home to operate a
small meteorological station to record the speed of the wind, the matter was reported to the security apparatus as a radio transmittal station
to communicate with Israel. A security ofcer was soon dispatched to
my home to investigate.
The atmosphere in the oasis became even more poisoned from the
mid 1970s, when the entire desert reclamation project was neglected and
lost the attention of the new president. The budget of the project was cut
and its employees and technicians were transferred to other jobs, leaving
the project to disintegrate. This was done in compliance with a political
decision that had been taken by President Sadat to liquidate the legacy of
President Nasser, who had started the project and whose name was associated with it. Many of the names of the new hamlets and villages of that
project were reminders of the mottos and signs of President Nassers age.
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The break that occurred between President Sadat and the Muslim
fundamentalist groups toward the end of his rule in the late 1970s and
shortly before his death in 1981 called for more forceful security measures. This gave the men who were responsible for their application in the
oasis extraordinary powers that lent the oasis a distressing and distrustful atmosphere. The only road that connected the oasis with the valley
was blocked by many impediments and checkpoints manned by security
ofcers, who stopped the cars and asked intrusive questions of all the
passers by. What added to this distressing atmosphere were the heightened tensions that came after the assassination of President Sadat, when
the oasis became a refuge for the fundamentalists of the city of Asyut in
Upper Egypt when they ed to it after their insurgency was quelled in
1981. With these added security measures, the tranquility and stillness of
the oasis, and our dream to spend our retirement years there in peace,
came to an end.
The Crisis of 1981

After resigning my public ofce and withdrawing from the eld of politics, I looked forward to spending more time with my family, something
I had been unable to do before because of the two jobs that I had held.
I therefore decided to pick from among the consulting work that came
to my ofce only those jobs that did not stipulate a deadline. I wanted
to enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle. So after leaving parliament in 1976 I
took the decision to withdraw completely from the world of politics and
not to join any political organization or party. On the one hand, I felt
that fteen years in the eld of politics was quite enough and, on the
other hand, I did not want to identify myself with the new policies that
President Sadat had introduced. I therefore declined two offers that the
president made to me via his brother-in-law and close condant, the late
Mahmud Abu Wafya, in 1978 and 1979 respectively. The rst was an invitation to join the National Democratic Party that the president was
forming at the time, and the second was an invitation to become a
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founding member of the labor opposition party, which the President was
forming to act as an opposition party and which he thought would t
me, since I did not want to be a member of the government party. I
also declined to become a member of the right wing al-Ahrar party.
For close to ve years and for as long as President Sadat was in ofce,
I abstained from any political activity whatsoever. During those years I
did not attend any political meeting and did not write any articles or
express any points of view in any newspaper or other medium.
Nevertheless, I followed with interest the changes that President Sadat
was introducing to carve a place for himself in the midst of the overwhelming legacy that President Nasser had left. He wanted to get rid of
that legacy so that he could embark on a new policy of his own and begin
wooing the United States, which he wanted to win to his side. He thoroughly believed that the United States owned ninety-nine percent of the
cards of the Middle East game and that it alone had the key to any solution with Israel. He thought that by abandoning Nassers legacy he
would be sending a signal of friendship to the United States. He could
not nd a better ally to help him lose that legacy than the groups of
political Islam that had been taking refuge in Saudi Arabia, accumulating money and leading the campaign against President Nasser. President
Sadat invited these groups to come back to Egypt, where he generously
offered them leading positions in the government and the public sector
and allowed them to invest their money in so-called Islamic activities in
the elds of banking, education, and many other business ventures.
Under their inuence the face of Egypt started to change. New mottos
began appearing, mixing religion with politics. Egypt had now become
the country of science and faith, and the presidents name was given a
new emphasis by adding the rst name of Muhammad to it. Talk about
the application of the Islamic sharia law became common even when
there was no consensus, even among its students, about its limits or
about its position vis--vis the problems of the modern world. Great
effort was exerted to emphasize Islam in education.
Egypt changed under the inuence of these groups, which were given
free rein to propagate their ideas by distributing books and cassettes
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that were locally produced or imported; these called for sedition, the
hatred of the religious other, and extolled the virtues of returning to the
fundamentals and norms of Bedouin societies. They were well funded by
Arab oil money. The extremists were left to control a large number of
mosques and the Friday prayer became a noisy demonstration; the sermons were transmitted by loud megaphones all over the city. Many
women started to cover their heads and/or their faces out of fear or out
of conviction. In the universities the students who belonged to the fundamentalist groups were allowed to adorn the walls and bulletin boards
with their announcements and to intimidate students and professors.
The government itself subscribed to this new atmosphere; its television
programs were interrupted to air the call to prayer and they became
loaded with religious programs and the appearance of a new cast of stars
from among the religious leaders. In addition to these obvious changes,
there were the less obvious and less advertised measures that the president took to please his new allies, such as his intent to reduce the role of
the public sector in the national economy, and his refrain from any mention or discussion of the concept of pan-Arabism.
The president thought that these changes would be sufcient to win
him the support of Saudi Arabia, which would then provide him with
funds, and of the United States, which would classify Egypt among its
allies. However, all these measures were not enough. Saudi Arabia wanted
more concessions from the Egyptian government before it would channel
its funding to it rather than to the fundamentalist groups it was supporting at the time. The United States wanted Egypt to undertake the fundamental structural changes to its economy that had been proposed by one
of the International Monetary Fund missions to Egypt. Given the circumstances, the Egyptian government found no way out but to comply
with these demands, which included among others the cancellation of the
subsidies that the government advanced on many of the basic commodities used by the average citizen, such as bread, cooking oil, cloth, tea,
sugar, and butane bottles. That decision was taken in January 1977.
As soon as the new prices were announced the people poured out
onto the city streets to protest the governments action. The protest was
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spontaneous; nobody seemed to have organized it. It was so strong and

sudden that it surprised and shook the government and the leadership.
The protest started in Cairo and soon moved to Alexandria and from
there to the various cities of Egypt. It began peacefully and ended in
stone throwing, arson, and the destruction of property. Most of the
attacks were directed at the centers of government authority such as
police stations and security ofces and at the symbols of agrant consumption such as nightclubs, expensive cars, and ve-star hotels. The
demonstrations were so widespread that the president, who was on his
way home from Aswan to Cairo, was advised to avoid landing his plane
at Cairo airport and to divert it to a military base, where it landed. From
there the president, who was deeply apprehensive, declared a state of
emergency and a curfew on the city of Cairo and ordered the deployment of army units in many large cities.
After the subsidies were re-installed peace returned to the street but
not to the president, who felt that he had been abandoned by his own
people and that the groups of political Islam that he had fostered had
proved to be of no great help. He also found himself facing a deteriorating economic situation in the country. He could not depend on the erratic help that came from the Arab oil states, which were asking him for
more concessions that he could not deliver. He also found that he could
not rely on the United States because of the many conditions it wanted
to see fullled before it was willing to advance any aid. Faced with this
difcult situation President Sadat felt he had no option but to do what
no other Arab leader had dared, namely to appeal to Israel in the hope
that he could nd there the support that he had failed to get from his
Arab colleagues and the door through which he could reach the heart of
the United States. The president made his decision to visit Jerusalem and
to start building bridges with Israel, an act which many leaders of the
world had been urging him to do for a long time.
At this juncture I want the reader to note that it never occurred to
the president to appeal to the people and seek their assistance in solving
the economic problems that Egypt was facing. This alternative was not
on the table. It did not represent a possible substitute for the help he
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was seeking from outside powers: the Arabs, the United States, the
Soviet Union, and now Israel. It is true that in public the president
always had good words to say about the people of Egypt, whom he
described as the descendants of a civilization going back seven thousand
years, but deep in his heart he did not believe in their potential or their
effectiveness. He was enthralled by everything foreign. The Egyptian
graduate students who were studying in the United States in the 1960s
remember him beginning his talk to them, when he was on an ofcial
visit to the United States, by envying them the opulent and good life
they were enjoying. I suppose that the president did not recognize that
work and production are the foundations of the wealth of nations or that
they play any role in the lives of those nations subjects. His personal
experience pointed to this. After all, in his childhood he had seen the
owners of the land enjoying an opulent lifestyle without doing any work.
In his mature years he had seen the sheikhs of Arabia drowning in wealth
without exerting any effort. In fact, the entire life of the president did
not involve any productive work. It seemed that President Nasser was
aware of this shortcoming, and never relegated to him the portfolio of
any ministry engaged in production of any kind. All the jobs he had held
before becoming president were connected in one way or another to the
eld of public relations. He was the editor of the revolutions daily paper,
then the president of the Islamic Conference and nally the speaker of
parliament. A cursory look at the names of his condants and assistants
or at his choices for the ministers of production makes clear that they
were not appointed on the basis of their knowledge or expertise. He did
not hesitate to appoint third rate engineers as ministers of industry and
a police ofcer as a prime minister.
The success of the new policy toward Israel that the president had
initiated with his visit to Jerusalem depended on the suppression of the
rising opposition to this policy from all sides of the political spectrum.
The most vociferous and publicized opposition came from the forces
that the president himself had unleashed when he declared his political
open door policy two years before the 1977 popular uprising. He now
had to back away from many of the reforms he had then introduced.
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He halted the application of the principle of freedom to form political

parties. He shunned the policies that would have given his regime a
democratic face. He muzzled the parliament that was the result of the
elections of 1976. About fty independent members had been elected
to this parliament. They were among the most vocal critics of the policies of the president, uncovering cases of corruption that had become
rampant during the 1970s, many of which approached the president
himself or his close associates. He also closed down two governmentowned magazines (al-Talia and al-Katib), red the editor of a third magazine (Rose al-Yusuf) and interrupted the publication of the left-wing
weekly al-Ahali several times until it was forced to close down. He
chased many journalists and forced many to nd refuge in countries
outside Egypt. A mass emigration of Egyptian journalists took place
during the 1970s, so much so that it is said that close to one fth of the
registered members of the journalists syndicate immigrated to the
Arab countries or to Europe.
The greatest infringement on the rights of the citizen occurred with
the passage of the law that was appropriately described by Dr. al-Utay,
the well-known legal expert, as the law of ill repute. The law dubbed
the safety of the citizen and the nation prohibited all demonstrations,
considering them illegal acts aimed at disturbing the public peace. It
included a life sentence in prison with hard labor for anyone participating in or playing a role in organizing such gatherings or in joining a strike.
The president signed the law in front of the people and in their presence in a ceremony that was aired on government television the day it
was passed by parliament on February 3, 1977. It was voted upon in a
plebiscite a week after it was signed by the president.
In March 1979 the president signed the Camp David accords that
ended the state of war with Israel and established normal diplomatic,
economic, and cultural relations with it. It also removed all barriers that
had prevented the free movement of persons or prohibited the exchange
of goods. The signing of the accords took place in the White House
under unusual if not difcult conditions. The Egyptian minister of foreign affairs who was accompanying the president refused to attend the
THE CRISIS OF 1981
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signing ceremony since he objected to some of its terms. I was at that

time on a stopover in Washington D.C., visiting Dr. Said al-Naggar in his
ofce in the World Bank. He invited me to move to a nearby room that
was tted with a television to watch the signing ceremony. The president
looked upset and seemed to be unsure of himself or of the wisdom of
what he had done. That uncertainty, however, seemed to evaporate with
the ood of praise that the American media had showered upon him.
Some of the praise was so exaggerated as to seem ridiculous. The
American television channels were mobilized to support him in his stand
against the massive refusal of the accords that came from all corners of
the Arab world. This campaign succeeded in convincing the president of
the propriety of his action, which he attributed to his far sightedness and
to his political acumen. As he mounted the plane back home he chided
the Egyptian journalists who were accompanying him for not having recognized his genius as the foreign journalists had done.
The aftermath of the signing of the accords was earth shaking. It was
the source of great joy in Israel. It signaled the beginning of the realization of its long-range plans to build the country on the entire land of
Palestine. It removed Egypt, the strongest Arab nation, from the arena
of the Arab-Israeli conict and gained its neutrality if not its friendship.
In the Arab world it was met with great anger. Decisions were taken by
the Arab nations to sever all relations with Egypt and to move the headquarters of the Arab League from Cairo to Tunis. In so doing the Arabs
contributed to the realization of Israels goal to fragment the Arab
world. In Egypt itself the reception of the accords was lukewarm at best.
Many had a wait-and-see attitude, hoping that the termination of hostilities with Israel might have a positive effect on the economic prospects
of the country and help improve the living conditions of the populace.
Many others did not share this view. The political left in all its shades
ercely resisted the accords. So did the political Islamic forces, notwithstanding the blessing that the accords had received from the ofcial religious establishment. The Islamic forces that were closely associated with
Saudi Arabia were angered by the derogatory remarks that the president
had uttered against the rulers of that kingdom.
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Thus the presidents new policy toward Israel found cautious support
from the people of Egypt and massive opposition from the Arab countries as well as from many inuential circles within Egypt itself. Even
Israel did not give him the support he needed. Rather than offering him
its backing, it treated him with disdain and arrogance. Menachem Begin,
the Israeli prime minister who was his counterpart in signing the accords,
used every opportunity to humiliate him and to disparage Egypts policies
and history. He seized every opportunity to lecture the president about
the historical rights of Israel in the land of Palestine and to reiterate the
oft-repeated claim of the Israelis that the responsibility for the tension in
the region rested with the Arabs. He demanded from the president that
the Egyptian Jewish community, which had left Egypt many decades earlier, be compensated for the assets that had been conscated or nationalized by the Egyptian government. He also asked him to eliminate all
infringements that had taken place on the synagogues and the graveyards
that belonged to the community. Despite the displeasure that the president obviously felt as he sat listening to these long lectures, he found it
expedient to comply with all that was asked of him. He saw to it that the
assets of the Jewish community in Egypt were returned to their heirs, who
were now dispersed in all corners of the globe. It took a great deal of
effort to locate these heirs, an effort that helped enrich many. Despite
this compliance and good will on the part of the president, the blows of
Mr. Begin continued, the most painful of which came with the Israeli air
force raid on the Iraqi nuclear facility that was carried out immediately
after a meeting that Mr. Begin had held with President Sadat in Egypt.
The timing of the raid gave the impression that the president had been
informed of the raid and that he had condoned it.
Matters at home did not fare any better. He could not deliver on his
promise to bring prosperity to Egyptians after the signing of the accords.
The Western countries did not come to his rescue and did not deliver
the aid they had promised him and that he had hoped to use to bring
about that prosperity.
Added to these difculties were the endless battles that the president
went through with the many forces that disagreed with his policies. He
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entered into a confrontation with the lawyers and journalists syndicates. He clashed with the political parties of both the left and the right.
He collided frequently with parliament and manipulated matters to
purge from its ranks some of its prominent opposition members, namely Kamal al-Din Husayn, his former colleague on the revolutionary council, Abd al-Fattah Hasan, the well-known member of the old Wafd party,
and Kamal Ahmad of the Nasserist party. He also clashed with the intellectuals, whom he labeled as the gentlemen of the cities and whom he
accused of not knowing much about the soul of their country. He even
fell out with his old allies, the different Islamic groups that he had
helped create, who declared a jihad against his regime and started carrying arms with the intent of assassinating him. Finally, he angered the
Copts, frequently reminding them that they were a minority living in a
Muslim country under a Muslim president.
During this period the president tried to project a humanitarian image
for himself in an attempt to mitigate the harshness of the actions that he
took against his enemies. He used the television and the radio, where he
had regular interviews that lasted for hours in an attempt to accomplish
this goal. Many a time these interviews had the opposite effect and
became the subject of derision and ridicule. The interviews were mostly
lacking in depth and typically simplistic. This was not unexpected from
someone who was known not to be well read and not to be surrounded by
knowledgeable people. According to the testimony of many who knew
the president closely, even the reports that were of immediate concern to
the governing of the state were conveyed to him verbally and in abbreviated form; he seldom read a report in its entirety. The newspapers were
also used to communicate this humanitarian message. In some unforgettable coverage, a leading newspaper published on its front page an article
about the personal life of the president and how he spent his day from the
time he woke up, including details of his morning exercises and the kind
of breakfast he usually ate. The article lled a whole page and was
adorned with many photographs. It became the subject of ridicule.
In contrast to the humanitarian image he wanted to project to the
public, there was the other image he wanted to convey to his enemies to
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instill fear in their hearts. He was the head of the Egyptian family who
bestowed and denied; his was the nal word. He frequently referred to
his people, his minister, and his ambassador. He was also the redoubtable
head of the armed forces, often appearing attired in a strange military
outt that was especially made for him by a European designer and holding a eld marshals staff.
The president did not seem to think that the opposition he had created inside Egypt was of any consequence. It did not represent, in his
opinion, any challenge to his rule. He was certain that as long as he had
the support of the United States, which he was condent that he had
gained, his grip on power was guaranteed. That condence was shaken
after his visit to the United States in the summer of 1981, where he got
a lukewarm reception. During that visit he found out that he was no
longer the star he used to be when he was conducting the negotiations
of the Camp David accords and the Egyptian-Israeli treaty. A new
administration had come to the White House and Ronald Reagan, the
new president, did not know him and did not seem to care to develop a
special relationship with him. The whole Middle East region did not
represent a priority to the new Republican administration. The problems of the region lost a great deal of their urgency after the signing of
the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. In addition, the new president and his
party did not want to devote much time to reconciling the differences
of two small nations as had been done by Jimmy Carter, the former
president, and for which he had been severely criticized. President
Sadats visit to the States that year proceeded without the usual fanfare
and his meeting with President Reagan was lukewarm at best.
Nevertheless the Egyptian newspapers were replete with the successes
that the visit had achieved.
The not so enthusiastic reception the president received in this visit
must have made him suspicious of the intentions of the United States,
whose support he feared he might have lost. The case of the Shah of
Iran, who was his guest in Egypt at that time, must have come to his
mind. Here was a monarch that the United States had considered as its
principal ally in the critical and strategic Persian Gulf region and who
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had served the United States like no other, and yet the United States had
not come to his rescue and had abandoned him when the Khomeini revolution erupted.
As he mounted the plane that took him back to Egypt, the president
appeared nervous and tense. Once back in Egypt he started to give rambling speeches in which he accused many people of conspiring against
him. He ordered the intelligence service to watch and eavesdrop on
many prominent personalities whom he thought could lead a coup
against him. One of these personalities was Abd al-Salam al-Zayyat, the
former vice-prime minister, who was a good friend of mine and who was
my companion in many parliamentary missions. I single out Mr. alZayyat from among the many personalities that the president ordered to
be watched because my only visit to his home changed the path of my
life and put my name among the list of conspirators against the president, even though my visit had been merely to wish the man a speedy
recovery from the heart attack that he had suffered.
The president put the Soviet Union at the top of his list of enemies.
He was certain that it had plans to remove him from power. His deteriorating relationship with the Soviet Union made him suspicious of its
intentions. He thought that Mr. al-Zayyat might know something about
those intentions. Al-Zayyat had a good relationship with the Soviet
Union. After all, he was the president of the Soviet-Egyptian Friendship
Association. The president reasoned that anyone who would be
involved in a plot that had any relationship to the Soviet Union would
come into contact with Mr. al-Zayyat. So he ordered that Mr. al-Zayyat
be put under the surveillance of the intelligence agency. When I visited
Mr. al-Zayyat in his home I was led to his bedroom where he was lying
in bed. There were two journalists sitting by his bed. As I entered he
welcomed me heartily and soon raised the question of the strained relationships between Muslims and Copts, which were being fueled by the
doings and utterances of the president. He warned that these doings
could bring about a serious split in the nation. I joined those that were
present in condemning these deeds. He announced that he and a large
number of people planned to write a message to the president warning
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him of the seriousness of the path he was taking in this regard. He asked
me if I would be willing to sign that message and I answered in the
afrmative. I then left his house. As it happened the message was never
written and no signatures were sought from anybody. Nevertheless the
details of my visit, recorded by the listening devices tucked in the bedroom of Mr. al-Zayyat, were taken as proof that I was participating in a
plot to instigate sectarian strife, an accusation that would put me under
the axe of the ill-reputed 1978 law of protecting the social peace. The
president must have been engaged daily in listening to the tapes that
must have come to him every morning from the different homes on
which he was eavesdropping. He must have asked that my name be
added to the list of conspirators against his regime, which he started
preparing after his return from his visit to the United States in the summer of 1981 or even before that date.
While in the United States in the summer of 1981, I heard that my
name was included in a long list of 1,500 personalities from whom the
president had decided to safeguard the nation. The list was published
in the Egyptian newspapers after a long and rambling speech by the president in parliament. The word safeguard was one of the innovations
that the president introduced to replace the infamous and hated word
jail. The publication of the list in the newspapers was unprecedented
and indicative of the disrespect the president had for the law and the
principles of human rights, the upholding of which had always made the
government carry out its arrests and jailing in secret and without any
advertisement. Nevertheless, this publicity was of some use; it gave my
sister the chance to telephone me from Cairo to inform me of my fate.
She advised me to stay where I was until things cleared up.
The news came as a great shock to me; it frustrated my plans and put
me in a situation that I was not ready for. I had to cancel my plans to go
back to Egypt within two weeks and I had to do something about the
consulting work that was awaiting me there. I had to nd for myself a
source of income, for I had no money; the little that I had in the States
I had already spent in buying a house on the outskirts of Washington,
D.C., to be the home of my daughter Sawsan, who was soon to be mar-
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ried. I did not hold any job; I had just left my post in Southern
Methodist University as an adjunct professor for the year. In addition, I
had not planned to be away from Egypt beyond the month of September.
I had not left the keys of our Cairo house behind with anyone. Neither
had I made any arrangements for the people who worked for us in our
household or in my ofce to be paid. I had not made arrangements for
the expenses and maintenance fees of our house or our farm in Egypt. I
did not even have my checkbooks with me or my bank account numbers.
We had no winter clothes. The solution of all these problems was not
easy. In the rst place, the atmosphere in Egypt was so loaded and tense
that my sister preferred to telephone me from a nearby Cairo hotel
rather than from her home for fear that it might be under surveillance
by the security agencies. I could not ask the help of a former student of
mine who had settled in the States and had become a United States citizen to deliver the keys of my Cairo house to my sister during the visit
he was planning to Egypt at that time. He shunned me when he knew
that my name was on the list. In fact, people were avoiding me and I
could not nd anyone who was ready to look after my farm and home in
the oasis. On the contrary, many led the guardsman left on the farm to
look after its daily affairs to believe that I had gone for good and would
never come back to see the farm. Some even suggested that he should
share its produce with them. When I reappeared on the farm after a
years absence the man could not believe his eyes. His reaction was that
of someone who had seen a dead man come back to life.
The situation remained uid for two weeks until my sister arrived
from Cairo to attend my daughters wedding with the latest news. She
returned to Cairo carrying the keys of our home and the power of attorney to settle many of our affairs and to transfer to us some funds from
our savings. She also carried a message to Dr. Gamal al-Utay to look
after my case in Egypt, which he gladly accepted without asking for any
remuneration.
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6
My Life as an
Egyptian American
19812003
he decision to make the United States our new home set off great
changes in our lives. Realizing that it would be a long time before
we could go back to Egypt, my wife Wadad and I started to extricate ourselves from our commitments in Egypt. I resigned from my
retainer jobs with the oil companies, and from carrying out the large and
open-ended project of the preparation of a new geological map of Egypt
and the writing of a new version of my book The Geology of Egypt, which
some oil companies working in Egypt were funding. Wadad, who held a
professorship at the American University in Cairo, applied for a one-year
leave of absence without pay. That was followed by her resignation from
her post at the end of that leave.
Barely one month after the announcement of the list of detainees,
which included a variety of personalities of every shade of political activity, right and left, Muslims and Copts, old and young, President Sadat
was assassinated while reviewing the Egyptian army as it was celebrating
the anniversary of the October 6 war. The presidency went to the then
vice-president Hosni Mubarak; the transition was orderly and peaceful.
There was a small insurgency by an Islamic group in Asyut in Upper
Egypt that was soon quelled. For the rst time in many years a relaxed
atmosphere reigned over the country. The case of the detainees was one
of the pressing issues that faced the new president. It became even more
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pressing after the death in jail of Dr. Abd al-Azim Abu al-Ata, the former minister of irrigation and water resources, because he was denied his
medicine. Immediately after this incident the new president decided to
release all the political prisoners and to meet them in his ofce. The
detainees left the jail to the presidential palace directly. The case of Abd
al-Salam al-Zayyat, with which my name was associated, was sent to the
court, which exonerated all defendants and chastised the governments
action. I thought that this verdict would exonerate me too but Dr. alUtay told me that this was not the case as I was not an appellate in that
legal action. He told me that the closing of my case might require me to
appear before a security ofcer for questioning, which he promised to be
short, but I refused. My case remained in suspense until the month of
October 1982 when Dr. Utay informed me that all was clear for me to
go back home and that the Egyptian authorities would welcome my
homecoming.
It is possible that the campaign that was launched by the Egyptian
newspapers pleading for my exoneration had its effect on this decision.
The eminent commentator Ahmad Baha al-Din penned two consecutive columns in al-Ahram newspaper about my case. Dr. Reda Muharram,
professor of mining at al-Azhar university, wrote a long article in alAhram al-iqtisadi of July 5, 1982, entitled Tragedy of an Egyptian
Scientist, in which he asked the government in the name of the scientic community and in the name of all the citizens of Egypt to rescind
the injustice that was inicted on me. The article and the title prompted me to send to the magazine a comment which was published on
August 2, 1982, in which I retorted by saying that it would be better to
describe my case not as the tragedy of a scientist but rather as the
tragedy of a nation.
I am singling out Dr. Muharrams article not only to express my
thanks to him but also to note that he was the only member of the profession I had served who rose to my defense. He did that even though he
was not one of my students and did not even know me personally. All he
knew about me then was my name, about which he said in his article that
it would be no exaggeration if we were to associate it with Egypt.
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Rushdi Said is best known for his well-known book The Geology of Egypt,
which is considered by all earth science workers throughout the world as
the denitive work on the subject.
I received with joy the news that I would be able to go back to Egypt.
My wife Wadad had gone once before me during the summer to look
into our affairs, which were utterly disrupted; she did what she could to
mend them. Now both Wadad and I were on the plane heading for
Cairo. As the plane landed in Cairo airport we were whisked out of the
plane and a special car took us to the VIP lounge where a ministry of the
interior representative took our passports to stamp them while we waited in the lounge. There we found many of our friends and members of
our families who came to welcome us back home. Deputies representing
the prime minister and the minister of the interior were also present.
The following morning I met the prime minister and the minister of the
interior, who greeted me warmly. I could not nd out from them the reason my name had appeared on the list. The minister of the interior
assured me that the government had nothing against me and that the
late president himself, for reasons that were not obvious to him, must
have ordered the inclusion of my name on the list.
Before my connection with Egypt was resumed, I spent the rst year
of my new life in the United States trying to reorganize my life and to
look for a job that could keep me aoat. The rst six months were spent
in the Institute of Earth and Man, Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, Texas, which agreed to change my schedule and to take me back
during that semester. The job was temporary but it gave me a breathing
space to nd a place for myself in the world of consulting. No one from
Egypt or any of the Arab countries came forth to offer me a consulting
job. Neither did I hear from my colleagues who occupied some of the
highest positions in the United Nations and other international organizations, where experts were recruited from all over the world to carry
out most of their work. During these difcult days I thought of selling
my library that I had left behind in Cairo, especially after receiving a
message from my sister that the library was getting dusty and was being
attacked by mites. I advertised that intention in one of the scientic
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journals. Not one offer came from Egypt or from any of the students
who knew the library and had made use of it in their research. Several
offers came from foreign institutions; I chose from among them a
research group that formed the core of African studies in the Technical
University of Berlin. They were familiar with my work and had been
inuenced by it. In 1983 they agreed to house it in one place in their
department.
My farm in Kharga oasis was on the verge of being looted had it not
been for the group of German scientists who had taken over the work on
the geological map of Egypt project; they rented the house on the farm
to be a base for their work in the desert. Before the arrival of the
German expedition I had tried to nd someone who would take care of
the farm and the house to no avail. Most, if not all, people wanted to
avoid having any dealings with me.
During this crisis I saw human beings at their worst and also at their
best. I came across the clerk in the bank I was dealing with who stopped
the payment of a check that I gave to my sister because he had read my
name in the newspapers in the infamous list that the government wanted to safeguard the country from. The manager of the bank rescinded
the decision of the clerk and reprimanded him. I also saw some of my
former students, whose careers I was instrumental in advancing, intrigue
against me in order to get the consulting jobs that I had. Some journalists who knew my position on many issues and who had frequently written about me favorably and with great enthusiasm turned around and
repeated the accusations that the infamous minister of the interior who
prepared the list of detainees was circulating against me. On the other
hand, there were those gallant people who did not hesitate to come to
my help. There was that noble stand of the hundreds of intellectuals who
stood by me and fearlessly expressed their support.
After a few months in the States several retainer jobs were offered to
me and I started to make a name in the consulting world. The reestablishment of my Egyptian connection gave me further support. I soon
regained the editorship of the rewriting of my book The Geology of Egypt
and became a consultant to the project of the new geological map of
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Egypt, whose supervision had been given to the German scientists, who
were from the Technical University of Berlin. The rewriting of my book
took close to seven years and was nished in 1990. Balkema in Holland
published the resulting new edition. The credit for the publication of
that book goes to my friend Coy H. Squyres, the former head of the
Conoco oil company in Egypt, to whom I dedicated the book in
acknowledgment of his effort in bringing the project to fruition and in
affording me the opportunity to devote my time to its writing. Coy is
truly a unique person. He worked as a geologist for oil companies that
were active in the Middle East for over thirty years; most of those years
were spent in Egypt. In 1962 he was in Libya when The Geology of Egypt
was published. Apparently he was impressed with the work, and he
arranged a trip for the petroleum geologists working in Libya to visit
Egypt to examine some of the geological sections that were described in
the book. He asked me to lead the group of geologists to some of these
sections. Since that time I have maintained a close relationship with Coy.
I have great admiration for his administrative abilities, especially in
devising balanced solutions that maintained both the interests of his
company and those of Egypt, the country he loves.
New World
During the year that followed the appearance of my name in that infamous list my wife and I made every effort to adapt our ways to living in
the United States, which we had by then decided to make our new home.
We hesitated to break the news of this decision to our children, who
were planning to go back to Egypt as soon as they nished their residencies. They had no intention of staying in the United States and had
repeatedly made that clear to us. But when we broke the news to them,
we were surprised that they welcomed our decision. They told us that
they had changed their minds because of what had happened to me. We
therefore went ahead and formalized our residency papers and started
preparing the home that we had earlier bought for the use of our daugh-
NEW WORLD
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ter and her husband to be our home, now that she had left the
Washington area to accompany her husband who had been accepted in
the University of Connecticut to complete his studies in dentistry. Our
nancial situation improved over the course of a few months after our
decision to stay. I was retained by some oil companies and received several consulting contracts.
Our decision to make the United States our home required us to
make a lot of adjustments. Despite the fact that both my wife and I
knew the United States and were full of admiration for its achievements
and way of life, we missed Egypt, the country where we had spent the
greater part of our lives and the place that had made the subject of my
research and studies; these had taken me to every corner of it and had
made me aware of its potential. We were glad that our relationship with
Egypt had been straightened up and that I had regained some of my old
consulting work, which enabled us to spend most of the winter season
in Egypt. For this purpose we kept an apartment for our use in the district of Maadi in Cairo where we had lived for many years. The location
of our new home in the Washington, D.C. area on the east coast of the
United States reduced the travel time to Egypt. We found living in that
city convenient and pleasant. In addition to its being the home of my
wifes brother, it is cosmopolitan and frequently visited. It stands in
contrast to the smaller towns, where the atmosphere is provincial and
life is unexciting.
We have lived in that house in the outskirts of the Washington,
D.C. area ever since, longer than any other house that we have lived in.
We love the house, which is tucked in the woods. It is contemporary
in style with ample glass windows. It is minutes away from the capital
beltway and sits on two-thirds of an acre of land. It has an independent suite, which we have frequently used to host many of our guests
who have come to visit us during the twenty-two year period we have
occupied the house.
For the rst ten years of my stay in the United States my time was
fully occupied with the many consulting jobs that I had to attend to. The
extensive travel and pressing deadlines that these jobs required left little
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spare time for me. Nevertheless, I had to carry out this work not only to
provide a decent living but also to make sure that I completed the
required years of work and paid enough taxes to the United States treasury so that I could lay claim to social security benets, and in particular
to the medical care for senior citizens that goes with them. That I was
not able to do until I reached the age of seventy-three.
A good part of my consulting work was done in Egypt and Germany,
where I became a consultant to the project of the new geological map of
Egypt. I spent a large amount of my time in Egypt and became fully
immersed in its affairs, thanks to my friend Coy H. Squyres who made
this possible by arranging my Berlin connection and by giving back to me
the task of rewriting of my book on the geology of Egypt. This task gave
me the opportunity to visit Egypt regularly, to keep an ofce there, and to
travel throughout its deserts as frequently as I deemed necessary. It also
kept me in close touch with the local and international scientists who
were working on Egypts geology; this helped me to pursue and maintain
an extensive database on it. This was one of my most enjoyable assignments not only because it kept me abreast of the developments in the
eld, but also because of the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere in which it
was carried out. That atmosphere has pervaded my life ever since I
became free to visit Egypt after the September 1981 ordeal. The warm
reception I received and the sympathy and support of people from all
walks of life have washed out any bitterness that I might have harbored.
In the United States I made new friendships with a group of
Egyptians who had preceded me in making the States their home and
who were still keeping their Egyptian connections. Among these new
friends were poets, scientists, and men and women of letters. They were
the odds and ends of a generation of young and bright intellectuals who
were lured by the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time the
United States was seeking talent to help build its scientic base during
the years of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. During these two
decades a wave of distinguished immigrants reached the shores of the
United States. This wave was totally different from that which started to
come to the States from the mid 1980s. This new wave of immigrants
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came mostly from third world countries, from among their poor and
uneducated. They had the muscles that were required to perform the
mean work that the expanding economy of the United States was in need
of and that no one wanted to do. Anyone living in the Washington, D.C.
area cannot fail to see that all work related to house cleaning, gardening,
garbage collection, construction, and other manual labor is being done
by this wave of new immigrants, who were given an advantage in the new
immigration laws or who were allowed to enter the country illegally with
the tacit approval of the authorities. The composition of the labor force
in the United States today is similar to that which prevailed during the
countrys formative years when its economy was expanding and was in
need of a workforce to handle the hard jobs of agriculture, mining, and
construction. That force was brought then from Africa through the slave
trade and from Europe and the Far East through the mass immigration
of the poor. Naturally the similarity between the two periods relates only
to the composition of the labor force; the conditions of todays working
masses are considerably better.
The United States at present has no great interest in attracting talent. The great advances it has made during the past twenty years in the
elds of science and technology have increased its condence in its institutions of learning, which it is now assured can provide it with all the talent it needs. In fact, the United States has a surplus of well-trained scientists and engineers that it wants to send to other countries.
The majority of the Egyptian-American community belongs to the
new wave of immigrants. The members of this wave are busy eking out
a living and adapting to the new ways that they had come to live with and
which many nd difcult to accept. The religious institution plays a central role in the life of the new immigrants. It is their refuge and the place
where they nd comfort and support when they face a problem or want
to shelter their children from the easily accessible excesses that the new
society offers. It is difcult to reach this new wave of EgyptianAmerican immigrants outside the religious institutions to which they
belong. It is equally difcult to arouse their interest in the public life of
their new country. No wonder that the Egyptian-American community
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has failed so far to build a single viable association or gathering that

could bring its members together even on the local level. It has also
failed to have any presence in any of the major Arab-American organizations. Most of the gatherings of Egyptian-Americans at present are made
up of a group of friends who share similar views and have common interests. In my case I have found joy and satisfaction in the company of some
members of the older wave of Egyptian-American immigrants, as well as
with a number of workers in international organizations that are located
in Washington. We usually meet either in my home or in the cozy Zorba
caf in downtown Washington. The affairs of Egypt make the subject of
a good part of our conversation.
The few Egyptian-Americans who are still interested in the affairs of
their old country nd themselves in the difcult situation of reconciling
the policies of their new home country toward the Middle East and the
interests of their old country. They have not yet developed the political
or nancial clout to change that policy or to have an impact on it. They
also have found out that the maze of think tanks and university departments that deal with Middle Eastern studies cannot be taken as neutral
and objective sources of information or of an analysis of the events of
that region. These institutions are totally politicized and their studies
are usually conducted with the subtle aim of proving that a stable and
peaceful Middle East can only be attained under the hegemony of a powerful Israel. To attain that goal all Middle Eastern countries have been
prevented from establishing a strong army, developing any weapons, or
having a missile system beyond a certain range. They have to change
their ways to accept Israel in their midst even if that country continues
to maintain a strong army and hold its frightful arsenal of weapons of
mass destruction. The alternative idea of working toward a Middle East
in which Israel would develop into another Levantine country living in
peace with its neighbors in a nuclear-free region is a hard sell and is considered impractical.
Most if not all of these think tanks and the university departments of
Middle Eastern studies are relatively new. The majority were established
during World War II or in its wake during the Cold War that raged
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between the western powers under the leadership of the United States
and the Soviet Union. Before that time the United States had little interest in the Middle East or any other region outside the western hemisphere, which it had always considered its own sphere of inuence. Prior
to World War II the American presence in the Middle East was limited
to the small church missions that were sent to the region for humanitarian purposes. They established several institutions in the elds of education and health that were manned by young, idealistically motivated
Americans. Some of these institutions are still standing today, providing
the region with the same services they had always advanced with compassion. Among the institutions that are still standing to this day are the
American universities in Beirut, Istanbul, and Cairo, the Tanta hospital,
and the mission schools in Cairo and Asyut. These latter schools pioneered in womens education. My mother was one of many who had the
chance to receive her education through these schools. Among the many
other institutions that were built by these early missions was the
YMCA, which was founded in Cairo in the early years of the twentieth
century. I joined it as a boy and remained a member of it until my early
youth. I beneted greatly from its services as I have already explained in
an earlier chapter. I found the atmosphere in the association liberal, nonintrusive, and conducive to bringing about the best of ones talents. I do
not remember that any of the Americans who were running it ever
attempted to change my political views, which were extremely nationalistic, or to talk to me about my religious beliefs. In fact, all the
Americans I came across in that association were kind, compassionate,
understanding, and willing to go out of their way to help others.
I know that many will not share with me my views about the positive
impact of these early missions on the life of Egypt because of what they
have been used to hearing about their presumed role in supporting the
imperialist powers or in contributing to the missionary work of proselytizing Muslims to Christianity or orthodox Copts to Protestantism. All
these are judgments that are not validated by the facts, at least in the
case of the American missions. Anyone who is remotely familiar with the
history of these missions knows that they were established by highly
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motivated and idealistically driven religious individuals who made their

decisions to work overseas because of their urge to alleviate suffering and
serve humanity.
Whatever the case of these institutions may have been in the past,
their situation today is completely different. Those that were able to survive and are still working in Egypt to this day were able to do so because
they avoided being totally politicized and attempted to strike a middle
of the road course, acting as a bridge between the Egyptian and
American cultures. Taking into account the tense atmosphere that has
pervaded Egyptian-American relations through most of the years of the
past half a century, these institutions have fared very well indeed.
The situation of the Middle East institutions in the United States, on
the other hand, is totally different. They have been wholly politicized
and their leadership has fallen, for the most part, into the hands of a partisan group of ideologues who are leaving little place for anyone else with
a different point of view. This situation is affecting the EgyptianAmericans working in these institutions, many of whom have found it
expedient to follow the lead of these partisans. In so doing they alienated themselves from the pulse and interests of their old country.
Whereas I was still closely tied to Egypt, my two children pursued a
life that made their attachment to Egypt more casual. Although both
carry fond memories of Egypt and enjoy their occasional visits to it, their
work, their careers, and the responsibilities that came with them made
their contact with Egypt less than what they would have loved to see
developing. Within two to three years of our stay in the States our two
children nished their studies and embarked on their careers. Kareem,
our eldest son, got married to Sue, the English girl he had met in Cairo
years before and who had joined him in the States. When he nished his
residency in internal medicine, he decided to take a job in Munising, a
little town in Upper Peninsula, Michigan, on Lake Superior. At that time
the town was sorely in need of medical doctors and the offer that was
given to him was so enticing that he decided to accept it despite the
harsh weather and remoteness of the area. Looking at it twenty years
later that decision was wise. Kareem made a name for himself and
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became a very successful doctor. He has a beautiful house overlooking

Lake Superior. During the summer months, when we used to visit him,
the weather becomes amiable and the whole Upper Peninsula with its
studded lakes and open spaces turns into a very beautiful and enchanting place. Kareem developed an interest in shing and became an excellent sherman. He often supplied us with fresh sh for our meals when
we accompanied him on his frequent shing trips to the shores of the
Atlantic or Florida, where he now owns a beautiful second home.
Kareem and Sue have two daughters, Nadia, 17, and Mariam, 16, and a
son, Adam, who is 15.
Our daughter Sawsan got married to Sameh, her classmate and friend
in September 1981. The marriage ceremony took place in the Coptic
church in Washington, D.C. and was followed by a reception in the grand
hall of the Cosmos Club of which I had become a member. After a short
honeymoon, they came back to stay with us in the home that we had
bought a few months earlier. Their stay was temporary until Sameh
found a place in the University of Connecticut school of dentistry to
pursue his graduate studies. Sawsan followed him and left her residency
in Fairfax Hospital in the Washington area to seek a new residency in
anesthesiology. When they nished their residencies three years later
they returned to the Washington area to practice their professions.
Sameh opened up an ofce for oral surgery that soon became one of the
best known and most successful ofces in this specialty in the area.
Sawsan tried her hand in joining a group of anesthesiologists but found
the job demanding and unt for a mother and decided to join one of the
health maintenance organizations, where hours of work were pretty
much set in advance. Sameh and Sawsan bought a large and beautiful
house in the Great Falls area overlooking the Potomac River. They had
two daughters, Nefret, 18, and Isis, 12, and one son, Ramsey, 14. Tragically
Sawsan and the entire family were traumatized by the untimely death of
Sameh at the age of 43 in December 1998. He suffered from a blood cancer that debilitated him the last two years of his life. Sameh left a great
vacuum in the lives of many people. His place in the life of the community can be gauged by the one-column obituary that the Washington Post
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devoted to him. His death left Sawsan broken in heart and with new
responsibilities that she has faced with courage and determination. She
insisted on doing them all by herself and to be both the mother and the
father of her three children.
None of our grandchildren speaks Arabic and none is remotely interested in Egyptian affairs or culture. Although both of their parents love
Egypt, have very fond memories of their lives in Egypt, and enjoy their
visits to it enormously and to the full, they have failed to convey that
fondness to their children. They have even failed to get them to join the
Coptic Church, despite the fact that they were baptized in it. Nefret, the
most spiritually oriented of my grandchildren, left that church to join
other Christian groups not far from where she lives. Her brother and sister followed her and joined these groups. There they found the teachings
and activities more in tune with the pace of life in the United States.
Whether the case of my grandchildren can be taken as an indication of
what will happen to the younger generation of Copts who were born in
the United States remains a moot question. It surely represents a challenge to that church. Only time will tell whether the aggressive plan that
the church is pursuing at present to keep the younger generations within its bounds will succeed.
In contrast to our children, our contacts with Egypt remained strong.
My consulting work as well as my teaching assignments in both Berlin
Technical University and in the Southern Methodist University were all
about Egypt. I followed its news closely. My life in the United States
allowed me to view Egypt from a distance and to contemplate its affairs
and prospects. I sent some of my comments and analyses to several
Egyptian newspapers and magazines, where they were published. Some
one hundred and seventy articles appeared in print over the past twenty
years. Many of the articles aroused great interest and were the subject of
many comments. In 1996 I decided to assemble some of the most salient
articles in a book that was published by Dar al-Hilal in 1996 under the
title Fact and Fiction About Present-day Egypt. The lead article of the book
carried the same title; I wrote it for al-Hilal literary magazine in January
1995. The article dealt with the skewed income distribution in Egypt; its
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conclusions were based on day-to-day observations and on patterns of

consumption rather on the government issued statistics that I considered
unreliable. I estimated that close to fteen percent of the population gets
more than seventy-ve percent of the countrys gross national income.
This segment of the population, which I dubbed the oating segment, is
the one that has the sole use of all the modern gadgets. It owns all the private cars and close to eighty percent of all telephones. It is the sole user
of credit cards and all bank accounts above fteen thousand pounds a
year. Its members are the ones whose names appear in the social pages of
the newspapers when they get married or have a newly born child and in
the obituary pages when they die. It represents the segment with a disposable income to which all businessmen appeal in order to sell their
goods and services. This is the privileged class that the government is
mobilized to serve. It widens the streets for their cars and reserves the
Mediterranean coast to the west of Alexandria for their exclusive use,
building villas for their summer vacations to which it happily extends
water and power lines for hundreds of kilometers. The upper twelve percent of this segment, representing less than two percent of the entire
population, lays its hands on forty percent of the wealth of the nation.
In contrast, the bulk of the people, representing close to eighty-ve
percent of the population, gets no more than twenty-ve percent of the
wealth of the nation. It lives in unhealthy and overcrowded houses in districts that are deprived of the most basic services. Its children go to inferior schools from which many drop out and join the labor force under
harsh conditions where they are usually underpaid and abused. This segment does not participate in public life. It has no access to people in
power or to the decision makers. Members belonging to this segment are
not allowed to assemble in any way and they are not allowed access to
any channel where they can express their views. This article aroused
great interest when it was rst published and was the subject of many
comments. It was described by a leading journalist in the London Arabic
daily al-Hayat as a photographic image of todays Egypt.
In addition to this lead article the book contained several other articles that were concerned with the judicial use of the natural and human
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resources of the country. The book was highly acclaimed and obtained
the Cairo Book Fair prize in 1996 for the best work of the year. It is now
in its second printing.
My scientic writing, which I had always looked forward to, had to
wait until I could nd the time to devote to it. Throughout my career I
had wanted to write two scientic books, one on the river Nile and the
other on the Egyptian desert, the two subjects about which I had spent
a lifetime amassing a large amount of information. An opportunity
availed itself in the academic year 1989/1990, when I received an invitation from the Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin to spend that academic year as a fellow. The institute invites every year forty scholars
from all over the world to conduct research on any subject of their
choice. During that year the fellows are free of any obligation except for
giving one lecture to their colleagues at any time during the year to outline the nature of their research and the results they have reached. The
institute lies in a beautiful spot in Berlin in the trendy Grune Wald district. It provides its fellows with comfortable accommodation and food
that is served in a gourmet restaurant under the supervision of a Parisian
chef. In addition to secretarial help, the institute has a reasonable library
with access to European libraries through the inter-library loan system.
I devoted all my time during that year to writing a book on the river
Nile, which was nished and published in 1993 by the Elsevier publishing company. I translated the book into Arabic and it was published by
Dar al-Hilal, Cairo, in the same year. I wrote the book in simple language
so that I could share with the common reader some of the exciting conclusions that I had reached with regard to the origin of the river, its
beginnings, and the many changes it has assumed until it reached its
present-day shape. Among the other exciting results that were dealt with
in the book were the uctuations in the amount of water that the river
has carried throughout its history, especially since the rise of the ancient
Egyptian civilization, and the impact that these uctuations have left on
the country. The book then traced the history of the utilization of the
waters of the river by humankind since the rst settlements along its
banks several hundreds of thousands of years ago. During this long time
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the rivers environment changed and humans evolved from being hunter
gatherers, to shing, to farming using the natural phenomenon of the
ood, harnessing the river until they were able to fully control it by the
building of the Aswan High Dam. The nal chapter of the book dealt
with the future uses of the waters of the river and the problems that its
riparian states will face in the future as their water needs increase. The
book was hard work for me for it touched on many subjects that were
not in my eld of specialization, and I needed to familiarize myself with
their basic principles and their latest results. My book on the Nile was
chosen as the best work in the eld of science by the Cairo Book Fair in
1993. It is now in its third printing.
The other book that I had hoped to write on the deserts of Egypt
never materialized. I started to research that book during another stint
at the Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin in 1995, when the intriguing
subject of the role that the desert had played in the rise and fall of
ancient Egypt diverted me. The result of that research appeared in a long
article in the journal Sahara (volume 9,1997). In this article I argued that
the desert furnished Egypt with most of the raw materials that had kept
it abreast with every technological innovation preceding the onset of the
Iron Age. Until that age the energy needs of Egypt were small and were
provided by nature or by a small supply of wood that was supplemented
by the importation of additional quantities from the Levant. However,
iron was a high-temperature industry that required large quantities of
wood, which ancient Egypt did not have and could not acquire. The
delay in ancient Egypts inauguration into the iron age speeded its fall,
which thus seems to have been due, in large measure, to an energy crisis.
It seems that the books and articles that I wrote left an impact on the
younger generation of writers and intellectuals in Egypt, who showered
me with their praise and commented about my articles with great admiration. Most of those who wrote about my works did not know me personally; they included practically every writer who had started his or her
literary career in the 1960s. I often wonder what it was that could have
impressed them that much. Nagib Mahfouz, the Nobel laureate and the
master of the Egyptian novel, may have partially answered that question
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in his column in al-Ahram newspaper of June 7, 1976, that he devoted to

my lengthy interview with Tareq Habib on his program Autograph, which
was aired on Egyptian television. Mahfouz wrote that he had been
enthralled with what I had said about my scientic work so much so that
he was annoyed by the many musical interludes that had encroached
upon his glowing feeling of delight in science and what it stirs in the
imagination and brings to the spirit. As to the program itself, he wrote
that it had allowed him to become aware of the work of a scientist who
is known outside his country more than in his own and of his dreams for
his countrys economic and social progress.
One of the earliest acts of appreciation of my work came in 1994
from al-Gil Center for Social Studies of Youth, which is run by the leader
of the early 1970s university revolt Dr. Ahmad Abdallah. The center
decided to offer me a popular honorary recognition for the services I
have rendered to Egypt. Until that time I had no personal knowledge of
Ahmad Abdallah; I had only heard about him during the universitys student revolt of 1971/1972. President Sadat had summoned some members
of parliament to discuss the students insurgency and to give them
instructions before sending them to the university to negotiate with the
students. I was among those who were summoned and was blamed, as a
professor in the university, for not having brought up the students well.
When I expressed my sympathy with the students, the president
dropped me from the delegation that went to negotiate with the students. I did not know what exactly had prompted Dr. Abdallah to pay
tribute to me until he himself told me many years later that he was distressed to know from my article in al-Hilal magazine in 1991, on the
occasion of the ftieth anniversary of my graduation from college, that
I had not received a single recognition from Egypt since 1962, when
Gamal Abd al-Nasser handed me the Science and Arts Medal (rst class).
Dr. Abdallah decided to remedy this situation.
As time went by more people and institutions came to recognize and
appreciate the contributions I have made. On the occasion of my eightieth birthday al-Hilal magazine devoted an entire section of its May 2000
issue to write about my contributions in science and public life. The geo-
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logical survey of Egypt celebrated my birthday by holding a special meeting that was attended by many of my former students and colleagues. AlMinya university, on the initiative of Dr. Atif Kishk, professor of soil science at the faculty of agriculture, organized a reception for me that was
attended by the student body and the staff and in which I was showered
with praise by professors and students whom I had never met before and
who pointed out how much my works had changed their lives.
The recognition that I received from the scientic institutions abroad
was overwhelming. I was elected an honorary fellow of the Geological
Society of Africa in 1982. The following year I was given a citation from
the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, Southern Methodist
University, for my efforts to improve science in the Middle East. Three
years later I was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical
University of Berlin for transforming the geological survey of Egypt into
an internationally recognized institution of applied research, and for the
excellence of research work that inspired generations of students and scientists. The same year I was awarded the Nachtigal Medal from the
Geographical Society of Germany, a medal which is awarded to explorers.
Among its earlier recipients were such illustrious names as Schweinfurth,
Scott, Schackleton, Peary, and others. In 1989 I was elected a fellow of the
Geological Society of America and in 1994 I became a fellow of the Third
World Academy of Science. Finally, I was granted the Pioneer Award by
the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in 2003. The citation
mentioned that the award was bestowed upon me for my contributions
to the geology of Egypt and the Middle East, which opened up vast areas
of application in the eld of petroleum geology.
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Chronological
Table of Events
Below is a chronological table of some of the major events frequently referred to in
this autobiography. Readers who are not familiar with recent Egyptian history
may nd it useful to refer to it to follow the sequence of events mentioned in this
autobiography.
Egyptian revolution for independence led by the Wafd
1919 The
party under the leadership of Sad Zaghlul. The revolution
began after the delegation (wafd in Arabic) that went to Paris to lobby
for the independence of Egypt failed to achieve its goals at the peace
conference held at the end of World War I. The resultant peace treaty
that was signed in Versailles in 1919 did not heed the president of the
United States Woodrow Wilsons Fourteen Points, in which the right
of all nations to independence was specically mentioned.
February Great Britain, the occupying power, made a uni1922 Inlateral
declaration granting Egypt limited sovereignty. The sultan became a king and Egypt was allowed to have a constitution and its
own administration.
constitution was drafted along the European model, in
1923 The
which Egypt became a secular state. The Wafd party boycotted the drafting committee and was not represented on it. However
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS
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it accepted the constitution as drafted and entered the rst elections

that were held one year later. It won a sweeping majority.
The constitution remained in force, except for a short time in the
1930s, until it was cancelled by the ofcers revolution in 1952. During
the thirty years in which the 1923 constitution was in force, the Wafd
party was not allowed to govern except for a few years, despite the fact
that it won the overwhelming majority of the seats of parliament in
every election that took place during that period. No sooner would the
Wafd party take the reins of government than the king would use his
prerogative of dissolving parliament and dismissing the government.
Zaghlul, the leader of the 1919 revolution, died and Mustafa
1927 Sad
al-Nahas succeeded to the leadership of the Wafd party.
and Great Britain signed a treaty whereby Egypt was
1936 Egypt
granted sovereignty and Britain was allowed to keep a base in
the Suez canal area and the right to defend Egypt from any outside
attack to which it may be exposed.
War II. Egypt took a neutral position but
19391945 World
became the theater of military action when the
Italian and German armies attacked it from their bases in Libya.
Hundreds of thousands of troops of the allied armies came to the
defense of Egypt. Their presence caused enormous disruption in the
economic and social fabric of the country. Immigration to the cities
increased and Cairo became a large metropolis. There was a severe
shortage in housing and the prices of commodities and services
increased greatly; wages did not keep pace with prices, leading to the
appearance of corruption on a large scale. The war years also saw the rise
of a new bourgeoisie that made its wealth from providing the services
needed for the armies that were stationed in Egypt.
German army invaded Egypt from Libya. It routed the
1942 The
allied army and chased it along the coastal road to al-Alamein,
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some fty kilometers to the west of Alexandria. This imminent threat

caused the British to ask King Faruq to appoint a government that could
bring stability to Egypt and cope with the threat to which Egypt was
exposed. The king was asked to bring back to power the popular Wafd
party. When the king hesitated, his palace was surrounded by British
troops and the king was left with the choice either to appoint Mustafa
al-Nahas, the leader of the Wafd party, as prime minister or abdicate. He
appointed al-Nahas. The appointment was met with the greatest relief
among ordinary people but caused anger among many young men, who
abhorred the intervention of the British in Egyptian affairs.
year saw the birth of the state of Israel in accordance
1948 That
with a United Nations resolution that gave the Jews part of
Palestine. The resolution was not accepted by the Arabs and a war
between the Jewish settlers and the Arab armies raged. The Arab armies
were defeated and Israel grabbed more land than was allotted to it by the
United Nations resolution. The defeat caused furor in the Arab world and
especially in Egypt, which saw mounting anti-foreign feeling and the rise
in popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially among the youth.
years that followed the defeat of the Egyptian army in
1952 The
1948 were years of anger and unrest culminating in the burning
of Cairo in January 1952. Six months later, on July 23, a group of young
army ofcers took over power, forcing the king to abdicate and ushering
in a new phase in the history of Egypt. Parliament was dissolved, the
constitution abolished, and all political parties banned. All executive and
legislative powers were vested in a revolutionary council made up of
about ten army ofcers. Among the rst decisions that the council took
was the issuing of land reform legislation in which land ownership was
limited to a maximum of one hundred feddans (acres) per owner.
in Egypt was abolished and Muhammad Nagib, the
1953 Royalty
senior military ofcer and gurehead of the revolution was
appointed president of the new republic.
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year witnessed a schism in the revolutionary council that

1954 That
resulted in the removal of Muhammad Nagib and the accession of Gamal Abd al-Nasser to the ofce of president of the republic. A
treaty with the British was signed in which Egypt gained its independence and Britain was allowed to keep a token force in the Suez canal
zone. During this year the new regime purged the universities of their
liberal and left-wing professors, a measure that was dubbed the universities massacre.
joined India, Yugoslavia, and Indonesia in founding the
1955 Egypt
non-aligned movement at a meeting that was held in Bandung,
Indonesia. During that year Israel conducted a raid on the Gaza strip,
which was under Egyptian control, routing the Egyptian army. The embarrassed military regime in Cairo asked the United States to supply the
Egyptian army with arms. When the United States hesitated, Egypt went
to the Soviet Union, which supplied it with the necessary armaments.
World Bank withdrew its offer to nance the Aswan
1956 The
High Dam, which was to be built to the south of Aswan for
the storage of the waters of the Nile. In retaliation Egypt nationalized
the Suez canal, an act that was not accepted by Britain and France. On
October 29 the two countries, together with Israel, waged a war against
Egypt. In a blitz movement Israel took the Gaza strip, which had been
under Egyptian control since 1948, and the entire peninsula of Sinai. The
British and French landed in Port Said and were pushing south toward
Suez when they were forced to stop their advance and to withdraw from
the lands they had occupied in response to a United Nations resolution
that was adopted unanimously and by the United States and the Soviet
Union. Israel was also forced to withdraw to its borders. The British
withdrawal also involved the withdrawal of the token force that had been
stationed in the Suez canal in accordance with the 1954 treaty, thus making Egypt fully independent. British and French interests in Egypt were
sequestrated or nationalized. Nasser came out of the crisis victorious and
became a national hero who had stood up against the designs of major
224
4/10/04
0:00
Page 225
imperialist powers. He also became a hero in the Arab world, which had
supported Egypts ght.
ambitious industrial ve-year plan was launched. The plan
1960 An
included the building of a steel mill, a variety of metallurgical,
manufacturing, food, fertilizer, and textile industries, and a naval base.
At the end of the ve years the gross national product generated from
industry exceeded that from agriculture for the rst time in the history
of Egypt.
Arab national zeal that the 1956 war engendered resulted
1961 The
in the rise of a movement that called for Arab unity. Syria was
the rst Arab country to propose a union with Egypt. In 1958 that union
became effective and the two countries abolished their names and
founded The United Arab Republic. In 1961 that union was dissolved.
During that year Egypt adopted a socialist stance. It nationalized the
banks, and other enterprises that employed more than fty workers. It
also limited further the ownership of agricultural land, reducing it to a
maximum of fty feddans per owner rather than one hundred feddans as
had been originally stipulated in the agrarian reform act of 1952.
principles that revolutionary regime had been agitating
1962 The
for were promulgated in a charter that was adopted by a convention of appointed delegates of the working forces of the country. The
charter reiterated the identity of Egypt as part of the Arab world, the
important role of the public sector and the adoption of a socialist program. The charter emphasized the alliance of the working forces of the
country in a single party which was dubbed the Arab Socialist Union.
dissolution of the union with Syria prompted the leader1964 The
ship of the revolution to reach out to the people and build a
participatory democracy. It established a party, the Arab Socialist Union,
that was supposed to be an umbrella organization for all the working
forces of society. It also conducted elections for a parliament. During
225
4/10/04
0:00
Page 226
that year Egypt and the Soviet Union celebrated the diversion of the
course of the river Nile at Aswan in preparation for the building of the
high dam that the Soviet Union had agreed to nance.
June 5 Israel waged a war against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.
1967 On
In six days it routed the armies of the three countries and occupied great chunks of their lands. It took over the Golan Heights from
Syria, the West Bank and Jerusalem from Jordan, and the peninsula of
Sinai from Egypt. The United Nations resolution that ended the hostilities stopped short of asking Israel to withdraw to its borders. After long
negotiations a resolution was passed by the United Nations in November
1967 recognizing the inadmissibility of the occupation of territories by
force. That resolution was vague enough to have various interpretations
and has not been implemented to this day (2004). Three days after the
defeat of Egypt in the 1967 war, Nasser went on Egyptian television to
declare his responsibility for the defeat and to announce his resignation
from his post. A popular show of support made him return to his post,
where he decided to revamp his policies and to start anew. He concentrated his efforts primarily on the rebuilding of the army. He purged its
old leadership, introduced modern methods for its training, and recruited university graduates for its ranks. In the meantime, the Arabs refused
to accept defeat and vowed, in a meeting of the heads of their states in
Khartoum, Sudan, to continue the struggle to liberate their occupied
lands. They also decided to sever diplomatic relations with the United
States. Egypt continued to engage the Israeli army in a war of attrition.
died on September 30 and Anwar Sadat succeeded
1970 Nasser
him in the presidency. The new president continued to follow
Nassers steps in engaging the Israeli army in a war of attrition and in the
preparations for a nal war to reclaim the lands that had been lost. In the
meantime, he started sending signals of his willingness to see a peaceful
resolution to the Arab-Israeli conict, but these were not taken seriously. University students rebelled, demanding reform and a rm date for
the launching of the war of liberation.
226
4/10/04
0:00
Page 227
Syria and Egypt waged war against Israel to lib1973 InerateOctober

their occupied lands. The Egyptian army succeeded in
crossing the Suez Canal and in establishing a bridgehead in the Sinai
peninsula. The oil producing Arab states decided to join in and to stop
their oil shipments to all countries considered sympathetic to Israel.
After sixteen days of hostilities, arrangements for disengagement were
underway under the supervision of the United States. Egypt considered the war a great victory that had brought back prestige to its
armed forces.
Sadat took credit for the successes achieved during
1974 President
the war and became condent of his leadership. He started to
forge a policy of his own away from Nassers legacy. He developed what
he called the open door policy, which emphasized the role of the private sector and foreign investments in the development of the national
economy. The public sector was neglected. He also opened up to the
United States and resumed diplomatic relations with it. He attempted to
build a popular base around a core of Islamic fanatics to advocate his new
policies. He invited the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, who had
ed to Saudi Arabia during Nassers time, to come back to their country.
He disbanded the socialist alliance and broke it up into right, left, and
center platforms. These platforms were the nuclei of a multiparty system. The parties were only allowed to be formed in accordance with a
law that imposed many restrictions.
new policies failed to alleviate the economic problems of
1977 The
Egypt, forcing the president to seek help from the
International Monetary Fund, which suggested slashing the subsidies
that the government placed on basic foods and commodities. Once that
decision was declared, food riots took hold of the streets of Cairo and
most other cities. The riots were so intense that the government had to
cancel its decision with regard to the subsidies. The president decided to
visit Israel and to seek peace with it. He visited Jerusalem and addressed
the Knesset. The visit was considered a betrayal by all Arab states, which
227
4/10/04
0:00
Page 228
decided to sever their relations with Egypt and to transfer the Arab
League from Cairo to Tunis.
a series of meetings between the Israelis and the
1979 After
Egyptians in which the president of the United States Jimmy
Carter was involved, a treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel in
which Israel vowed to give back Sinai to Egypt and Egypt vowed to normalize relations with Israel and to exchange diplomatic missions with it.
The treaty and the policies of Sadat were criticized by many sectors of
the society. Both the left and the right were opposed to his policies.
Sadat decided to put all his critics in jail. A list of
1981 President
1,500 personalities made up of former ministers, leading journalists, and religious leaders (including the Coptic patriarch) were jailed.
One month later the president was assassinated while reviewing the
armed forces celebrating the victory of the 1973 war. Hosni Mubarak
became the president of the republic.
228
Science and Politics index
3/10/04
23:57
Page 1
Index
Abd al-Nasser, Gamal 128, 130, 141,
15256, 161, 16365, 168, 169, 172,
181, 181, 191, 194, 219, 224, 226
Abu Tartur Phosphate Project 80,
10105, 10813, 176, 183, 185
Ain Shams University 59, 69, 70
Al-Ahram newpaper 128, 144, 154, 156,
157, 159, 170, 204
Alexandria University 59, 69, 70
al-Utayfi, Gamal 136, 138, 148, 149, 189,
195, 202, 204
American Association of Petroleum
Geologists xii, 220
American University in Cairo 56, 57,
203, 212
Annals of the Geological Survey of Egypt
97, 179
ArabIsraeli wars (1948) xvi, 40, 42, 223;
(1967) xiv, 67, 73, 74, 83, 100, 141,
142, 147, 162, 164, 167, 168, 170, 171,
174, 226; (1973) xiv, 105, 142, 171, 173,
175, 203, 227
Arab Mining Company 176, 179
Arab Socialist Union (ASU) 132, 133,
15262, 225
Aswan High Dam xiii, 86, 126, 218, 224,
226
Berlin Technical University 180, 206,
207, 215
Boys Department YMCA 24, 25, 39, 212
INDEX
Cairo University 29, 40, 47, 51, 52, 55,

59, 64, 74, 122
Camp David accords 174, 19597, 199,
228
Constitution (1923) 17, 22, 31, 38, 221, 222
Constitution (1971) 127
Copts xv, 4, 5, 17, 18, 38, 41, 44, 45, 60,
61, 107, 12933, 13638, 158, 160, 162,
181, 198, 200, 203, 212, 215
Cromer, Lord 45
Faculty of Science, Cairo University 29,
37, 53, 55, 5872
Faruq, King 34, 41, 223, 224
Fathi, Hassan 81, 185
food riots 1977 19294, 227
Geological Society of Africa 220
Geological Society of America 220
Geological Survey of Egypt 81123, 176,
177, 179, 220
Geology Department, Faculty of
Science, Cairo University 30, 5872
Hamayoni firman 1856 18, 129, 130
Harvard xi, 9, 5357, 64, 125
Hawwara tribe 18
Haykal, Muhammad Hassanayn 128, 154
Ibn Taymiya 112
Ikhwan al-Safa 36
Iltizam system 6
Industrialization program xiii, xiv, 126,
175, 225
229
Science and Politics index
3/10/04
23:57
Page 2
Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin

217, 218
Inter-Parliamentary Union 14551
Ismail Kedive 6, 170
Israel xvi, 40, 42, 43, 105, 142, 149, 151,
172, 174, 175, 189, 191, 193, 194, 196,
197, 198, 211, 223, 226, 227, 228
Jizya tax 3
Joint Research Programs 6468, 95, 96,
11621
Kaolin deposit 99101
Kharga Oasis 102, 18290, 206
Marxism 87, 163
mining companies 71, 7381
Mubarak, Hosni 203, 228
Mukhabarat (Intelligence apparatus) 74,
10508, 171, 200
Musa, Salama 29, 30, 35, 81
Musharrafa, Ali Mustafa 48, 49, 59
Muslim Brotherhood 41, 43, 48, 60, 61,
223
Nachtigal Medal 220
Naguib Mahfouz 30, 218
al-Nahas, Mustafa 33, 34, 40, 222, 223
Nile 12, 217, 218
Nuclear Raw Materials 11314
Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) 149, 150
Pan-Arabism 174, 192, 225
Parliament, Egyptian 39, 13251, 225
Ras al-Barr 55, 167
Red Sea Phosphate Co. 48, 73, 75, 77, 78
religious right (see also Muslim
Brotherhood) 3133, 41, 60, 62, 127,
129, 130, 135
230
remote sensing 11820

Revolution (1919) xv, 11, 21, 22, 31, 32, 35,
38, 221; (1952) xvi, 31, 39, 40, 43, 88, 223
Sadat, Anwar 114, 120, 122, 133, 136, 138,
140, 151, 161, 165, 172, 174, 175, 178,
189, 190203, 22628
Saudi Arabia 191, 192, 196
Security apparatus (see also
Mukhabarat)15658, 160, 16264,
189, 202
Sharia Islamic law 17391
Shukri, N.M. 48, 49, 59
Sidqi, Aziz 71, 80, 81, 106, 172
Southern Methodist University 180,
202.205, 215, 220
Soviet Union 82, 86, 151, 194, 200, 209,
212, 226
Stetson, Henry 55, 57
Suez War 1956 28, 127, 140, 169, 224
Switzerland 2, 30, 51, 52, 146
Taha Husayn 32, 33, 81
United States 53, 54, 67, 95, 173, 19194,
199212, 215, 226, 228
Wafd Party 21, 3134, 36, 40, 43, 223
Wali, Ali 10609, 161
Wendorf, Fred 6468
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
57
World War II xiii, 2, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34,
3739, 42, 44, 47, 51, 52, 54, 59, 62,
75, 84, 146, 147, 211, 212, 222
Yaqub Fam, educator 24, 25
Zaghlul, Sad 21, 32, 33, 222, 223
INDEX
Science and Politics illustrations
3/10/04
23:58
Page 1
The authors mother (seated to the left of the headmistress) at her graduation
from the American School at Azbakiya, Cairo, June 1899
The authors father, 1911
The cover of al-Musawwar magazine,

3 September 1926: Egyptian girls at
Cairo railway station on their way to
study in England; the authors sister
Inam stands fourth from the left in
the front row
3/10/04
23:58
Page 2
Yaqub Fam, educator

and head of the Boys
Department, YMCA,
1937
Students and faculty of the Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Egyptian

University, bidding farewell to Professor Jean Cuvillier, 1939; the author is
third from the right in the back row
3/10/04
23:58
Page 3
Permit issued by Egyptian Intelligence to the author in 1941

to visit Gebel Muqattam on the outskirts of Cairo
The class of the marine biological lab, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 1949
3/10/04
In front of the Sphinx, 1951
23:58
Page 4
In the laboratory, Faculty of Science,

Cairo University, 1957
At the Industrial Fair with Husayn al-Shafi, former and future vice-president
of the republic, and Aziz Sidqi, minister of industry, 1969
3/10/04
23:58
Page 5
In front of the experimental mine, Abu Tartur plateau, Western Desert, Egypt, 1971
At the end of the 1974 season at Bir Tarfawi, Western Desert, Egypt
3/10/04
23:58
Page 6
At the Interparliamentary Conference, Tokyo, 1974, with Gamal al-Utayfi
With Coy Squyres at a reception in

1977
Professor Scholz, President of the

Geographical Society of Germany,
conferring the Nachtigal Medal,
1986
The authors house in Kharga Oasis, designed by Hassan Fathi, 1978
3/10/04
23:58
Page 7
Relaxing on the Congress lawn, Washington DC, with Fawzi Haykal (left)
and Kamal al-Sawi after taking part in a demonstration in support of
Palestine, 1996
Celebrating the authors eightieth birthday, Great Falls, Virginia, 1999
3/10/04
23:58
Page 8
With Wadad, 2003
With Mr. Abu al-Hasan, head of the Geological Survey of Egypt, in front of
the auditorium named after the author, 2004

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Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

The American University in Cairo Press

Science and Politics in Egypt

The American University in Cairo Press

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

2 The Formative Years

3 Ventures in Science: My Years at the University

4 Ventures in Politics, 19611976

Science and Politics in Egypt

The General Secretariat of the Arab Socialist Union

5 Years of Hope and Despair, 19681981

6 My Life as an Egyptian American, 19812003

Chronological Table of Events

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

his is the English edition of my autobiography, a work that was

Science and Politics in Egypt

phy translated into English; Kareem has helped in the translation of

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

ment of institutions of civil society, in the absence of which people

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

year, while visiting London on my way to the United States from

Science and Politics in Egypt

nobleman from the Fourth Dynasty. I immediately saw the similarity.

Science and Politics in Egypt

My grandfather died before my father was born. My father was raised

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

The conditions under which my grandfather left his village have

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

tem. Despite his expanding and relatively booming business my uncle

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

bothered in any way by her fasting. Neither was he a regular churchgoer;

Science and Politics in Egypt

The Search for Roots

Science and Politics in Egypt

THE SEARCH FOR ROOTS

Science and Politics in Egypt

Marriage certicates are equally difcult to nd. Marriages were

Science and Politics in Egypt

graveyard had become part of the downtown area. The government at

THE SEARCH FOR ROOTS

Science and Politics in Egypt

Science and Politics in Egypt

THE SEARCH FOR ROOTS

Science and Politics in Egypt