AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT

IN SEARCH OF HAVEN AND SEEKING FORTUNE: THE

ECONOMIC ROLE OF OTTOMAN ARMENIAN MIGRANTS
IN BRITISH-OCCUPIED EGYPT (1882-1914)

by
BEDROS PUZANT TOROSIAN

A thesis
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts
to the Department of History and Archaeology
of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
at the American University of Beirut

Beirut, Lebanon
May 2019
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Samir Seikaly, my mentor

and advisor, for his guidance, time, support, and inexhaustible patience. My sincere
thanks also go to my two Professors Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn and John Meloy for their
valuable suggestions and encouragement.

I would also like to thank Dr. Antranik Dakessian of Haigazian University for
his advice and encouragement during my graduate studies.

My special thanks to my “grandmother” Marlene Melconian-Setrakian who

stood by me throughout the period of my graduate studies.

Finally, I thank my dear mother, sister, and sincere friends for their love and
patience throughout my study.

v
 AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF

Bedros Puzant Torosian for Master of Arts

Major: History

Title: In Search of Haven and Seeking Fortune: The Economic Role of Ottoman
Armenian Migrants in British-Occupied Egypt (1882-1914)

When referring to economic activities in Egypt most historians highlight the role
played by other non-Muslim minorities, namely, Greeks and Jews, while passingly
mentioning the fact that Armenians were at most neighborhood shopkeepers – a term
used by the British Agent and Consul-General, Lord Cromer.
This thesis reconstructs the multi-layered economic ventures of Ottoman
Armenian migrants in British-occupied Egypt. By stark contrast to the early nineteenth
century, when they figured principally as high government employees, the new
immigrants, comparatively larger in number, but still constituting a small proportion of
the total Egyptian population, eventually featured prominently in the many segments of
the Egyptian economy not, to be sure, massively in agriculture, but certainly evident in
the services sectors, as restaurateurs, medics, lawyers, architects, photographers,
journalists, jewelers and, more modestly, craftsmen, mechanics, tailors, and
shoemakers. They even ventured into an economic realm which, at the time was
regarded as a European/Western preserve, namely industry, represented by their great
successes in cigarette production for local and international consumption.

vi
 CONTENTS

Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………….. v

ABSTRACT………………………………………………….. vi

A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION………………………… x

Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………. 1

A. Arabic Sources…………………………………………………………… 2

B. Armenian Sources………………………………………………………… 3

C. English and French Sources…………………………………………….... 4

II. ON THE ROAD TO EGYPT….…………………..……. 7

A. Infiltration …………………………………………………………….. 7

B. Later Nineteenth Century Armenian Immigrations to Egypt ………… 9

C. The “Push” and “Pull” Factors Leading to Later Armenian Migrations 12

to Egypt ……………………………………………………………………

III. TOWARDS A BROADER OVERVIEW OF

ARMENIAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN EGYPT
(1882-1914)……………………………………………. 16
A. The Geographical Distribution of Armenian Businesses in Cairo and
Alexandria ………………………………………………………………… 17
11

vii
 B. Armenians in the Egyptian Economy ………………………………..... 19

1. Agriculture and Landownership ……………………….……... 19

2. Services…….………………...................................................... 26
a. Food Industry and Hotel Services ……...………………… 26
b. Health Care and Medicine ………………...……………... 14
30
c. Insurance Firms ………….…………….…….…... 1
35
d. Transport………………………………………………….. 17
38
3. Printing………………………………………………………... 39
4. Artisans, Craftsmen and Architects…………………………… 42

IV. A LITTLE ARMENIAN KINGDOM OF CIGARETTES

AND CAMERAS: EGYPT DURING THE FIN DE
SIÈCLE ………………………………………….…….... 49
A. Cigarettes ………………………………………..........……………….….. 50

1. From Small Tobacco Merchants to Entrepreneurs: The Birth of

Armenian Cigarette Workshops and Factors in Egypt …….…. 50
2. The Egyptian Armenian Cigarette in the Local and the Global Market 55
3. Labor Strikes in Armenian Cigarette Factories in Egypt...................... 59

B. Cameras …………………………………………………………............. 63

1. Armenian Photographers in Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt............... 63

2. The Economic Ventures of Onnig Diradour and the Birth of Kodak
Company in Egypt..................................................................................... 69

viii
 V. BETWEEN THREE NATIONALISMS: OTTOMAN,
ARMENIAN, EGYPTIAN ………………...........................
72

VI. CONCLUSION....................................................................... 84

Appendix

I. ILLUSTRATIONS……………………………………. 88

II. ADVERTISEMENTS………………………………… 95

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………… 104

ix
 A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION

I follow the transliteration style employed by the International Journal of

Middle East Studies. Proper names are reproduced as they are conventionally written.

x
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Much of the growing literature on Armenians in modern Egypt tends to shed

light, almost exclusively, on early nineteenth century notable figures, who served under

Muhammad „Ali and later under Khedivial governments or foreign control. Moreover,

when referring to economic activities in Egypt most historians highlight the role played

by other non-Muslim minorities, namely, Greeks and Jews, while passingly alluding to

the fact that Armenians were at most neighborhood shopkeepers – a term used by the

British Agent and Consul-General, Lord Cromer. In his article “The Transformation of

the Economic Position of the Millets in the Nineteenth Century,” Charles Issawi, for

example, merely alludes to the economic role played by a rising Ottoman Armenian

minority in Egypt during the British occupation. Other economic and labor historians,

among them Roger Owen, Joel Beinin, and Zachary Lockman do not allot more than a

passing reference to them as well. It was this fact, among others, not strictly academic,

that drove me to investigate the economic role of the Armenian community in Egypt

and conclusively verify whether it was as insignificant as the preceding authors,

including Cromer, have suggested or demonstrate that it was more varied, more

complex, and more rooted in the various segments of the Egyptian economy, even

spilling beyond it, and becoming involved in a broader, world economy as was the case

with tobacco and photography.

In my attempt to reconstruct the reality of Armenian socio-economic life in

Egypt, and very much like a jigsaw puzzle, I gathered bits and pieces of information

from a multiplicity of tapped and untapped, primary and secondary sources, mainly in

1
English, French, Armenian, and Arabic, encompassing periodicals, almanacs, memoirs,

and other archival materials. Apart from their usefulness in re-conceptualizing the role

of the Armenian minority in Egypt, these sources could conceivably be employed to

unravel the multifarious aspects of modern Egyptian and broader world history.

A. Arabic Sources

Traditionally, Armenians and their history have rarely been attributed much

importance in Arabic historiography. Fortunately, however, both interest in the

Armenians and writing about them, has recently experienced marked advances, in

particular in Egypt. In 2014, for example, Cairo University established a Center for

Armenian Studies, to be followed soon after by the University of Damanhur. Quite apart

from the political implications of the establishment of these centers, this development

has resulted in the appearance of a string of academic publications, devoted to the study

of the Armenian past in Egypt‟s modern history. This interest is best exemplified by the

on-going work of the prominent new Egyptian historian Muhammad Rif„at, who even

before the establishment of the Center for Armenian Studies at Cairo University, has

already authored two books in a new historiographic venture meant to re-introduce the

role of the Armenian community into the historical record. Both books, respectively

Tārīkh al-jāliya al-armaniyya fī miṣr: al-qarn al-tāsi‘ ‘ashar (History of Armenian

Community in Egypt: The Nineteenth Century) and al-Arman fī miṣr (Armenians in

Egypt, 1896-1961) represent a major breakthrough on account of their systematic

recourse to the utilization of archival governmental records and files relating to

Armenian individuals who were employed in Egyptian government service or in many

of its authorities.

2
B. Armenian Sources

Owing to the laborious and systematic efforts of the personnel of the National

Library of Armenia in Yerevan, a large number of Armenian primary sources are being

digitized and hence are becoming more and more easily accessible for researchers and

historians interested in all aspects of Armenian history. Among the Armenian sources

that are currently available online were memoirs, periodicals, and almanacs. In terms of

memoirs, I mainly relied on the retrospectively-written accounts of the two “Yervants,”

namely, Yervant Aghaton and Yervant Odian, both of them fleeing Sultan Abdül

Hamid‟s oppressive policies in 1896, and eventually landing in Egypt. Apart from their

many other uses, both accounts are important in terms of understanding the underlying

reasons compelling Armenian immigration worldwide and to Egypt in particular. More

important is the fact that they constitute an inner view of what it meant to be Armenian

in Egypt and the strategies employed to achieve a modicum of success in their new

country of adoption.

From the historiographical viewpoint, however, among all the Armenian sources

available on the website of the Armenian National Library, the most important were the

Armenian newspapers published in Egypt for example Arshaluys and Miyutyun. Though

sometimes not available in their entirety, the recently digitized issues of the Egyptian

Armenian press “…offer a wealth of information about the social, political, economic

and cultural life of the past.”1 Indeed, without the material they incorporate about the

varying socio-economic activities of Armenians in Egypt in fields such as medicine,

1
Stephen Vella, “Newspapers,” in Reading Primary Sources: The Interpretation of Texts from Nineteenth
and Twentieth-Century History, ed. Miriam Dobson and Benjamin Ziemann (London: Routledge, 2009):
p. 192.

3
photography, and cigarette production and consumption, this thesis would be virtually

impossible.

C. English and French Sources

In addition to these sources, the thesis also depended on recently discovered

original archival material. As Michelle T. King has rightly put it, “that which the

Archive preserves and hides, the historian brings to light.”2 As a history student, I was

thrilled to unearth hitherto unexploited documents currently kept in the British Library

and the United Kingdom National Archives relating to Onnig Diradour and his famous

Cairo Photographic Store, as well as the Hadjetian Cigarette Company. These valuable

sources, dating back to the years 1910-1911, primarily, consist of several personal

correspondences, balance sheets, and company records bringing to light the successful

economic experiences of two Ottoman Armenian families settled in Egypt and engaged

in the more lucrative and Armenian co-dominated sectors of the Egyptian economy,

notably, those of photography and cigarette production. What is important about these

documents is that they underscore the often-neglected Armenian engagement in global

trade. The Diradours, for instance, through trade in photographic equipment and

products drew the attention of the giant Kodak company, which in the typical

aggressive capitalism of the time, bought it out in pursuit of establishing a conglomerate

that had aspirations for a global empire.

2
Michelle T. King, “Working With/In the Archives,” in Research Methods for History, ed. Simon Gunn
and Lucy Faire (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012): p. 14.

4
 The French-language almanacs and directories like the Indicateur Égyptien3 and

L’Annuaire Égyptien4 (also called the Egyptian Directory) were equally useful. Four

issues of the two sources are available online, covering the years 1897 to 1913. The

Egyptian Armenian Almanac5 comprising several years is also available online, and was

indispensable for my project.

Although designed exclusively for businessmen and others seeking economic

opportunity in Egypt, these sources, have been described as “quasi-encyclopedias,”6

they are, in fact, “gold mines,” for researchers on account of containing numerous

advertisements and alphabetically arranged, detailed and extensive lists of a wide range

of professions practiced by both indigenous and non-indigenous elements of Egyptian

society including Armenians, at a time when the country was at the peak of its

economic boom. Another benefit offered by the almanacs is that they empower the

visualization of the geographical spaces in which people of diverse ethnicities and

vocations operated.

Here, I must add that in the course of my research, I also looked into the

American and British Consular Reports, which although useful in other respects,

unfortunately, did not yield much information regarding Armenian individual or even

collective economic activities in Egypt. Nevertheless, the material involved yielded

much information about the economy of which the Armenians were a part. Moreover, I

would have gathered ample information about the economic performance of Armenians

3
Published by Stefano G. Poffandi from 1887 to 1911. See René Maunier, Bibliographie Économique,
Juridique et Sociale de L’Égypte Moderne (1798-1916) (Cairo, 1918): p. 20.
4
Published starting from 1886. Ibid.
5
Published from 1914 to 1918, first in Cairo and then in Alexandria.
6
Jean-Luc Arnaud, “Artisans et Commerçants des Villes d‟Égypte à la fin du XIXe siècle. Une source
peu exploitée: Les Annuaires,” Études sur les Villages du Proche-Orient XVIe-XIXe Siècles (2001): p. 3,
7, 9.

5
had the various issues of English-language periodicals like the Egyptian Gazette and the

reports of the British Chamber of Commerce been available.

In the current chapter, after discussing the types of the various primary and

secondary sources which I consulted, the second chapter traces the historical roots of the

advent of Armenians to modern Egypt, and then goes on to consider the complicated

“push” and “pull” factors that caused the later Armenian migration. The third chapter

attempts a closer analysis of the Armenian role in the many segments of the Egyptian

economy such as agriculture, food industry, healthcare and medicine, transport,

printing, crafts, and architecture. The fourth chapter focuses exclusively on Armenian

successes in the tobacco and photography businesses, both locally in Egypt and abroad.

The fifth chapter summarizes cultural and political trends among Armenian migrants,

with a special emphasis on the role played by the AGBU. A brief conclusion ends the

thesis.

6
 CHAPTER II

ON THE ROAD TO EGYPT

A. Infiltration

The presence of Armenians in modern Egypt more or less dates back to the early

nineteenth century. It coincided with the rise of Muhammad „Ali Pasha, the new ruler of

Egypt, to power. Naturally, to consolidate his rule in the country and achieve his

ambitious project of establishing a “modern” Egyptian state, the Pasha needed

personnel to assist him in the said process. At the time, the Pasha turned his attention

towards the Armenians, then residing in Ottoman domains. The motivations for

recruiting the latter were many. Among the important reasons were their acquaintances

with what Rouben Adalian has described as “Oriental languages and traditions,” non-

affiliation with any of the major European powers7, besides of course, their historic

Ottoman recognition as Millet-i- sadıka.

Initially, in the early nineteenth century, the Ottoman Armenian migration to

Egypt was a relatively slow and intermittent process. At first, Muhammad „Ali brought

in a few Armenian individuals from the different parts of the Empire, namely, Istanbul,

Izmir, and Ağın, among other places. The newly arriving Armenians mostly hailed from

the higher echelons of Ottoman Armenian society. In Egypt, they continued to preserve,

even improve, their former status by serving in the new administrative structures as

bureaucrats, financial advisors, and even, ministers. Among the early arrival to Egypt

was Boghos Bey Yusufian from Izmir, who eventually held a prestigious position in the

7
Rouben Adalian, “The Armenian Colony of Egypt during the Reign of Muhammad Ali (1805-1848),”
The Armenian Review 33 (1980): p. 116-117.

7
Egyptian state. For many years, he served as Muhammad „Ali‟s Minister of Commerce.

In addition to Yusufian, the Pasha also benefitted from the services of other Armenians

like Garabed Agha Kalusdian of Van, appointed as the director of the Būlāq Customs

House, and banker Yeghiazar Amirah of Ağın. Apart from these, the Pasha also

depended on the expertise of Armenian agronomists, craftsmen, and traders to raise

Egypt‟s economic standing in the regional and global market.

By mid-century or so, the number of Armenians in Egypt did not exceed 2000,

constituting the smallest non-Muslim minority of the country, but possessed some

economic potency.8 The British agent John Bowring clearly illustrated this fact in his

extensive report of 1840. He wrote that “the Armenians, though not numerous are

influential, and occupy many of the most elevated posts of government [in Egypt] …

adding their great acquirements in languages fit them peculiarly for the important

offices of secretaries and dragomans…”9

Naturally, realizing the accomplishments of their relatives in Egypt and

perceiving Muhammad „Ali Pasha‟s warm hospitality towards them, a number of

Armenian families, ultimately, settled in the not too distant Ottoman province of Egypt,

thereby joining their kinsmen residing there. Actually, this was the case with the

aristocratic Nubarian and Abroyan families of Izmir. On account of their close blood

ties with Boghos Bey Yusufian and upon the latter‟s strong recommendation, they too

ended up in Egypt. Muhammad Rif„at has pointed out that Yusufian also encouraged

the migration of other Armenians from Izmir, which explains why their numbers, at

first, far exceeded the number of those coming from other Ottoman provinces.10

8
Adalian, passim.
9
John Bowring, Report on Egypt and Candia (London, 1840): p. 10.
10
Muhammad Rif„at al-Imām, Tārīkh al-jāliya al-armaniyya fī miṣr: al-qirn al-tāsi‘ ‘ashar (Cairo:
1999): p. 80. In March 2014, the Library of Alexandria in Egypt commemorated the 170 th death

8
 The most famous among the early Armenian settlers of Izmir extraction was

Nubar Nubarian. Like his relative Boghos Bey Yusufian, he too rendered very many

services to the Egyptian state. Nubarian headed several Egyptian ministries such as

Public Works, Foreign Affairs, and Commerce. Added to these, at a later stage in his

life, Nubar even became Egypt‟s three-time Prime Minister (1878-1879, 1884-1889,

1894-1895) both under Ismā„īl and later the British, and is considered to be the founder

of the Egyptian Mixed Court System.11 We also know through Rif„at, who has

consulted the records of Armenian employees in the Egyptian state archives, that around

32 Armenian bureaucrats served in the Egyptian administration throughout the

nineteenth century.

Following these early developments, Armenian immigration to Egypt gradually

diminished, only to resume in the later part of the nineteenth century.12 Given the ample

material on the earlier history of the Armenian community in Egypt, I need not discuss

it any further. Instead, I will move towards a more detailed examination of the

resumption of Armenian immigrations to Egypt in the late nineteenth century,

considering that this thesis aims to highlight their later socio-economic successes

starting with the British occupation of the country up to the eruption of WWI.

B. Later Nineteenth Century Armenian Immigrations to Egypt

Following the intermittent migrations of the early nineteenth century and later,

Armenian immigration to Egypt gained a new impetus in the closing decades of the

anniversary of Boghos Yusufian, the first Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs. See “Fī dhikra wafāt
awwal wazīr kharijiyyat miṣrī,” (accessed May 4, 2019), http://www.ancme.net/news/729
11
Adalian, p. 117-133. See also Nubar Pasha‟s biography in French: Memoires de Nubar Pacha (Beirut:
Librarie du Liban, 1983), also translated into Arabic.
12
Rif„at, Tārīkh al-jāliya, p. 77, 428-429.

9
same century, particularly, after 1896, following the ambivalent policies of Sultan

Abdül Hamid II vis-à-vis the Empire‟s Armenian millet. By stark contrast to the earlier

period, this time, the newcomers came from diverse socio-economic and cultural

backgrounds.13

The Armenian migrations of the late nineteenth century were not as massive as

the contemporary Arabic press suggested or as some current historians want us to

believe. All in all, a relatively small number of Armenians came to Egypt in 1896,

probably not in excess of 3000 individuals. The main difference this time, however, was

that the newcomers arrived collectively and were classified as “refugees.” Nevertheless,

they were fairly well-received in Alexandria. They were sheltered in the premises of the

city‟s Armenian St. Boghos (Paul) Church, where they lived in tents and were cared for

by local Armenian notables including members of the Abroyan, Nubarian and

Tchrakian aristocratic families, women‟s auxiliary committees, European philanthropic

societies, and the Armenian Prelacy‟s Relief Committee.14

Upon their arrival in Egypt, the newcomers occupied news headlines of the local

Egyptian press. For the first time in modern Egyptian history, the Armenian presence in

the country was questioned and turned into a subject of contention between those who

evinced an accommodating stance and those who completely opposed it. The non-

accommodating camp used the economic factor, at times in exaggerated terms, to

defend their thesis. Al-Fallāḥ15 newspaper, for example, regarded the flow of

Armenians as a potential threat to the „poorer‟ or working class Egyptians as well as to

13
Anne Le Gall-Kazazian, “Les Arméniens d‟Égypte (XIXe-Milieu du XXe): La Réforme à L‟Échelle
Communautaire,” in Entre Réforme Sociale et Mouvement National: Identité et Modernisation en Égypte
(1882-1962), ed. Alain Roussillon (Cairo: CEDEJ, 1995): p. 502.
14
Muhammad Rif„at al-Imām, al-Arman fī miṣr, 1894-1961 (Cairo: 2004): p. 117-124.
15
al-Fallāḥ was a political, scientific and literary weekly established in Cairo in 1885, published until
1908 under the supervision of Salīm and Eliās Ḥamāwī.

10
the general Egyptian economy. It seems that al-Fallāḥ was mostly worried about the

fact that the new immigrants, added to an already inflated foreign presence, would in the

long run displace the native Egyptian labor force altogether. To abort such an outcome,

it called for expelling the recent refugees from the country.16 Similarly, the Miṣr daily17

also sympathized with the Egyptian workers, who in its opinion, were in peril of total

displacement by the outpouring of foreign elements into the country. On one occasion,

al-Ḥimāya newspaper openly stated that even under Ottoman sovereignty “Egypt was

for the Egyptians.”18 As it turns out, the influx of Armenians to Egypt did not only

cause dismay at the popular level, but also evoked some concern among the already

established Egyptian Armenians. Miyutyun19 (Union), the mouthpiece of the Armenian

General Benevolent Union (AGBU),20 counselled its compatriots not to migrate to

Egypt. “You will be miserable. There are no jobs here. Those arriving before you suffer

from the unbearable hot weather conditions during summer and unemployment…”21

Quite the opposite, some Egyptian newspapers stood in solidarity with the “persecuted”

Armenians and welcomed them in Egypt. Al-Ra’y al-‘ām weekly,22 for example,

denounced the fanatical and intolerant attitude expressed by its counterparts. Another

periodical called al-Ittiḥād al-Miṣrī, contrary to al-Fallāḥ openly called for the

extension of Egyptian government welcome and assistance to the destitute Armenians

16
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 118.
17
Miṣr was edited by Qayṣar and Samuel Tadrus al-Minkabādi in Cairo in 1895. Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 186.
18
Ibid, p. 119, 139-140.
19
The AGBU established its official organ called Miyutyun in January 1912. The journal began as a
monthly publication and continued as such until 1916. Then, Miyutyun, became a bimonthly periodical as
a result of the financial difficulties caused by the First World War.
20
The AGBU was founded in Cairo in 1906 through the efforts of Boghos Nubar Pasha and others. It is
discussed in some detail in Chapter 5. See the two-volume work about the AGBU, Raymond Kévorkian
and Vahe Tachjian, eds. The Armenian General Benevolent Union: One Hundred Years of History (Cairo,
Paris, New York, 2006).
21
“To the Immigrants,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, July 1913, p. 109.
22
It was a literary and political weekly newspaper published in Cairo by two Lebanese brothers: Iskandar
Shalhūb and Najīb al-Ḥāj starting in 1893 until 1908.

11
as a humanitarian gesture. According to Rif„at, the Egyptian government, however, was

reluctant to aid the refugees given the pervasive anti-Armenian sentiments in the

country.23

With the steady migration of Armenians to Egypt, a number of Armenian

Church institutions also began taking shape in the host country. Most of the arriving

Armenians belonged to the Armenian Orthodox Church. As a result, a church council

was established in Cairo that included both the religious and civil segments of the

community.24 In 1905 the Armenian Catholic community in Egypt was also granted its

own organic regulation thanks to the arduous efforts of Ya„qub Artin Pasha, himself a

Catholic, and a high ranking official in the Egyptian bureaucracy from 1878 until his

retirement in 1906.25 Perhaps, owing to Egypt‟s status as a de jure Ottoman province, no

legal complications confronted most of the incoming Armenians. They continued to be

treated as Ottoman subjects up to World War I. Their religious leader, the Prelate was

and served as the head of the community. Several institutions operated under his

auspices including Church estates, neighborhood churches and schools in both Cairo

and Alexandria.26

C. The “Push” and “Pull” Factors Leading to Later Armenian Migrations to Egypt

In the field of migration studies, scholars tend to draw a distinction between

what they describe as “push” and “pull” factors. The former refer to the underlying

23
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 119-121, 129.
24
About the Armenian millet see Najat Abdulhaq, Jewish and Greek Communities in Egypt,
Entrepreneurship, and Business before Nasser (London, New York: IB Tauris, 2016): p. 59.
25
Anne Le Gall-Kazazian, “La Construction de L‟Identité Arménienne dans le context Égyptien (1805-
1930),” in Modernisation et Nouvelles Formes de mobilisation sociale. Volume II: Égypte-Turquie, ed.
M. Wieviorka et al. (Cairo: 1992): p. 70.
26
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 253, 255, 270, 272. He has noted that in the 1890s, 83 % of Armenians especially
held what was described as the Ottoman nationality, while only 12 % were classified as locals, probably
those who were long settled in the country.

12
causes that drive individuals to leave their ancestral homeland whether freely or under

duress, while the latter relates to the inherent reasons, be they political, economic or

climatic properties, that serve to attract emigrants to a given destination.

The earlier Armenian migrations to Egypt, mostly voluntary, were for the most

part driven by Egypt‟s economic “pull” factors, represented, during the reign of

Muhammad „Ali, by steady demand for Armenians to serve in the wālī‟s expanding

administrative edifice and by his ambitious economic project. Immigration, therefore,

took the shape of a slow infiltration which in terms of number, was hardly noticeable

and provoked little reaction. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the

situation was quite different. To the magnetic “pull” factors were added more

compelling “push” factors which dramatically altered the character of Armenian

migration to Egypt. In addition to a general desire to evade high taxes to which

Armenians appear to have been subjected, they had to contend with rising anti-

Armenian sentiments, occasioned by radical Armenian political tendencies and

practices27, and, most of all, by the evolving Hamidian oppression following 1894-1896,

and by what appeared to be systematic Armenian victimization.28

But why did Armenians choose Egypt in particular among many other options?

In other words, what were its distinctive “pull” factors? In reality, Egypt had always

acted as a center of gravity pulling in people of diverse social, religious, political, and

economic backgrounds.29 Egypt‟s growing work opportunities and higher standards of

living encouraged people of various nationalities, including Armenians, to settle there.

27
The allusion here is to the Ottoman Bank incident in 1896.
28
The reference here is to what are usually described as the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1896. To read
about the Ottoman taxation policies during the 1890s, see Nadir Özbek, “The Politics of Taxation and the
„Armenian Question‟ during the Late Ottoman Empire, 1876-1908,” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 54/4 (2012): p. 770-797.
29
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 117-118.

13
At the turn of the century, Egypt, according to Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, possessed one of

the most flourishing economies in the Eastern Mediterranean owing to its rapid

integration into a world economy,30 characterized by its “laissez-faire” economic

system.31

Egypt was not only favorable for entrepreneurs seeking a fortune or workers

looking for higher wages, but it also served as a haven for politically active Armenian

revolutionaries agitating against the established Ottoman order. Egypt allowed

individuals to more openly pursue their nationalist causes and sometimes diffuse

“radical” ideas, by contrast to their own homelands, where they were unable to do so. In

his retrospectively-written memoirs Twelve Years Out of Istanbul, Yervant Odian,

himself an immigrant to Egypt, brings this fact to our attention. He recalls that the chief

Hnchak32 leaders of the KumKapı demonstration in Istanbul,33 namely, Arpyar

Arpyarian34 and Harutyun Jangulian35 settled on Egyptian soil in 1896, where they

pursued their nationalist struggle.36 Much like their Armenian counterparts, a number of

Italian anarchists, Russian leftists, and Young Turks flocked to Egypt and followed a

bewildering variety of political causes.37

30
Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010): p. 148.
31
Roger Owen, The Middle East in the World Economy, 1800-1914 (London: Methuen, 1981): p. 224.
32
One of the Armenian political parties founded in Geneva in 1887. See more about it in chapter 5.
33
The KumKapı demonstration was organized by the Hnchak Party in 1890. The main objective behind it
was to pressure the Sultan Abdül Hamid II regarding the implementation of reforms in the Armenian-
inhabited provinces of the Ottoman Empire as dictated by the 61 st article of the Treaty of Berlin (1878).
34
Arpyar Arpyarian (Istanbul, 1851 – Cairo, 1908) was an Armenian writer, and a political activist.
35
Harutyun Jangulian (Van, 1855 – 1915) was an Armenian political activist and a member of the Social
Democratic Hnchak Party. Following his participation in the KumKapı demonstration, he was exiled to
Acre, Palestine.
36
Yervant Odian (1869-1926) was an Ottoman Armenian satirist, who relocated to Alexandria in 1897.
See Yervant Odian, Twelve Years Out of Istanbul, 1896-1908 (Armenian) (Beirut, 1937): p. 149-151.
37
Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, “Fin de Siècle Egypt: A Nexus for Mediterranean and Global Radical
Networks,” in Global Muslims in the Age Steam and Print, ed. James L. Gelvin and Nile Green
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2014): p. 89.

14
 One ought not to forget that this rapid movement of people became feasible

thanks to the “major transport revolution” of the mid-nineteenth century allowing

individuals and families to travel from one place to another in the Ottoman Empire. As

Rif„at has mentioned, most Armenians who wished to leave the Ottoman domains had

merely to carry their baggage and head to the Ottoman capital Istanbul, where the

Khedivial, Russian and Norwegian steamships awaited them.38

Unfortunately, it is not easy to tell the exact number of Armenian migrants

relocating to Egypt in the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Various sources provide us with contradictory numbers. The Egyptian state censuses for

the years 1907 and 1917 computed the number to be between 7,747 and 12,854. These

fall short of the numbers presented by the Armenian sources like almanacs, newspapers,

and Prelacy Archives which suggest that around 10,000 to 17,000 Armenians resided in

the country during the same period. One thing, however, is certain: the number of

Armenians in Egypt at the outbreak of WWI could not have exceeded 20,000.39 Even

so, as the coming chapters will show, they had a role in the Egyptian economy much

larger than their small number suggests.

38
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 117-118.
39
Ibid, p. 241-242. By WWI, the number of Greeks in Egypt was between 56,735 and 82,658, while the
Italians counted 40,198. See Abdulhaq, p. 66.

15
 CHAPTER III

TOWARDS A BROADER OVERVIEW OF

ARMENIAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN EGYPT
(1882-1914)

In his book Modern Egypt, the British Consul-General of Egypt, Sir Evelyn

Baring, more famously known as Lord Cromer, wrote rather dismissively that the small

Armenian community in the land of the Nile consisted “… for the most part of

shopkeepers.”40 Though he did not say so explicitly, Cromer was implying that their

economic role, if not petty, was too insignificant to merit great attention. The image

which Cromer conjured was, in fact, incorrect as the incoming Ottoman Armenian

migrants and refugees, escaping from the political storms of the mid-1890s, had already

penetrated into the secondary and tertiary sectors of the Egyptian economy. It is true

that very many of them were involved in the more “popular” professions such as

tailoring and shoemaking among others, but it should also be pointed out that others

worked in more sophisticated fields including medicine, engineering, architecture,

photography, cigarette production, to name just a few professions, thus catering to the

needs of both the “lower” and the “upper” echelons of the Egyptian society.

Notwithstanding therefore their small numbers in Egypt, Armenians, in fact, figured at

all levels of the economic ladder. This chapter means to provide a broader and a more

detailed panorama of Armenian economic ventures in their new homeland and shed

light on some important, but usually overlooked, aspects of Armenian economic activity

at the dawn of the twentieth century. In this chapter, following an analysis of the

40
Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt, Vol. II (London, 1908): p. 219.

16
geographic concentration of Armenian businesses, subsequently, I will discuss the

Armenian presence in agriculture, services, crafts, and printing.

A. The Geographical Distribution of Armenian Businesses in Cairo and

Alexandria

Before discussing the various types of economic activities carried on by

Armenians in Egypt, it would be helpful to visualize their geographical spread in both

Cairo and Alexandria. How were the Armenian businesses organized and

geographically distributed in Cairo and Alexandria? Did the Armenians have their own

commercial or residential quarter in either of these two cities? Were they “ghettoized”

or not? According to what Rif„at has shown, most of the incoming Armenians, even

though some of them had rural backgrounds, were heavily concentrated in the two

cosmopolitan cities of Egypt, namely, Cairo and Alexandria. A smaller number of

Armenians appear to have lived in the non-cosmopolitan and rural governorates of

Lower and Upper Egypt. Relying on the Egyptian state census and on those of the

Armenian Prelacy‟s, Rif„at has concluded that in the period extending from 1896 to

1947 around 53.35 % of all Armenians lived in Cairo, 39.35 % in Alexandria, and a 7.3

% in all the remaining parts of Egypt.41 Armenians lacked a distinct “Armenian

Quarter” so to speak. „Ali Mubārak Pasha‟s monumental work al-Khiṭaṭ al-tawfīqiyya

published in 1882 attests to this fact.42 Moreover, an article about Armenians in Egypt

appearing in the Marseille-based Armenia43 newspaper in 1894 maintained that

Armenians lived among other peoples be they “Arabs, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, or
41
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 244.
I checked the second and third volumes of „Ali Mubārak Pasha‟s al-Khiṭaṭ al-tawfīqiyya al-jadīda li
42

miṣr al-qāhira wa bilāduha al-qadīma wa al-shahīra (Cairo, 1969-1970), where I did not come across
any Armenian street or quarter.
43
It was an Armenian newspaper published in Marseille by Megerditch Portukalian, following his
expulsion from the Ottoman Empire in 1885.

17
Italians.”44 Hence, borrowing Gudrun Krämer‟s terminology, Armenians were not

“ghettoized” or “segregated” in Egypt. In other words, using the terms of Krämer, it can

be confidently stated that Armenians in the country never “moved out of place” for they

were not confined to a „place‟ to begin with. Of course, this did not prevent them from

having their areas of residence close to their workplaces or in the neighborhood of

communal institutions such as Armenian churches and schools. Just to give a concrete

example, this happened to be the case in Bayn al-Surayn street in Cairo, where several

Armenian shops and businesses existed in the proximity of the St. Asdvadzadzin (St.

Mary‟s) Church and Cairo‟s Armenian Prelacy.45

Generally, Armenian businesses were located in either of the two cities‟ more

central economic quarters. In Cairo, they were found in the following streets: Bayn al-

Sūrayn, Mūskī, Azbakiyya, „Abdīn, Clot Bey, among other places. Armenian businesses

in Alexandria were mainly situated in Sherīf Pasha Street, and „Attārīn Mosque Street.

The probability of finding a larger number of Armenians practicing similar professions

in a single location was higher in the larger and more specialized market places such as

Sūq al-Kantu in Cairo46, where several Armenian restaurant owners, photographers,

shoe sellers, leather traders, existed side by side. Clearly, Armenians preferred to have

their shops in the more cosmopolitan and prestigious districts of Cairo or Alexandria

partly to increase their chances of benefitting from the presence of tourists, wealthy and

44
A Traveler, “Towards Egypt,” (Armenian) Armenia, November 17, 1894 and “To Egypt,” (Armenian)
Armenia, November 24, 1894.
45
“Impressions (in the Street)” (Armenian), Lusaper, 18 November 1905. Lusaper was published in Cairo
from 1904 to 1908.
46
Sūq al-Kantu was located next to al-Mūskī street, before the Jewish Quarter. See the 1920s map of
Cairo in Nancy Y. Reynolds, A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, The Cairo Fire, and the Politics of
Decolonization in Egypt (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2012): p. 31.

18
middle class Europeans.47 It is noticeable that several Armenian firms, at least in Cairo,

overlooked fashionable hotels like the Shepheard‟s Hotel and important institutions

such as the Imperial Ottoman Bank and the British barracks (in Qaṣr al-Nīl).48

B. Armenians in the Egyptian Economy

1. Agriculture and Landownership

The existing secondary sources shed some light on the earlier agricultural

activities of Armenians in Egypt during the rule of Muhammad „Ali, while their later

accomplishments in that field remain overwhelmingly ignored. In light of recent

archival disclosures, this section means to fill in the existing gaps by highlighting the

Armenian attempts at “modernizing” and upgrading Egyptian agriculture in reliance on

their wide knowledge and expertise previously gained in Europe.

Starting from the 1820s, a number of Armenian agricultural experts from

Anatolia and Cyprus were invited to Egypt to assist Muhammad „Ali in the introduction

of new crops to expand the country‟s agricultural output. Initially, the Pasha attempted

to boost the production of indigo in his domains. That is why he resorted to the

assistance of some Armenian agronomists to help in its plantation in Egypt. These men

were commissioned to cultivate better varieties of indigo brought from Cyprus, Kaiseri

and other places. But, with the flow of cheaper Indian indigo, its production

dramatically diminished, and was eventually abandoned. In the 1830s, perhaps, with a

view to having an expanded role in the market, the Pasha strained to boost the

47
Gudrun Krämer, “Moving Out of Place, Minorities in Middle Eastern Urban Societies 1800-1914,” in
The Urban Social History of the Middle East, 1750-1950, ed. Peter Sluglett (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse
University Press, 2008): p. 218.
48
See “Andon Tokatlian Tapissier et Décorateur,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, December 8, 1908. See also
“Do Not Lose the Opportunity,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, June 15, 1907. Azad Pem was first published in
Alexandria (1903-1906) and then in Cairo (1906-1907).

19
cultivation of opium in Egypt. To meet this goal, a number of Armenians were brought

from Smyrna, the center of opium production in the Ottoman Empire, to work on land

devoted exclusively to this crop. At the beginning, their efforts proved to be successful

as the country produced around 15000 to 20000 uqa49 of opium, but by the 1840s, the

number, according to British agent John Bowring, suddenly dropped because of its

“imperfect” quality.50 Another Armenian called Yusuf Effendi al-Armanī, according to

Rif„at, is also credited for having introduced Maltese tangerines into the country; at a

later stage that fruit, simply known as “Yusuf Effendi” was widely consumed in

Egypt.51

Generally speaking, unlike affluent Greek and some Syrian families for that

matter, Armenians usually abstained from investing in agricultural land ownership.

Some plots of land acquired by Armenians in Egypt were granted as gifts to high-

ranking Armenian civil servants working under Muhammad „Ali‟s and later Khedivial

governments. As Rif„at has demonstrated, hardly any Armenian thought of purchasing

agricultural property. In case they did, the area bought did not exceed a few hundred

feddans, the smallest being eight feddans or sometimes less. Only the aristocratic

Nubarian family steadily accumulated lands over an extensive period of time as a result

of generous donations and successive purchases. As a matter of fact, during the rule of

Khedive Ismā„īl, the Nubarians held around 2944 feddans, gifts received from the

Khedive.52 Nubar‟s son Boghos continued his father‟s legacy by purchasing more lands.

49
1 uqa equals 37.5 grams. See Charles Issawi, ed. The Economic History of the Middle East, 1800-1914:
A Book of Readings (Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 1966): p. 517.
50
Bowring, p. 23, 25.
51
Rif„at, Tārīkh al-jāliya, p. 121-124.
52
Rif„at, Tārīkh al-jāliya, p. 145, 147. It should be noted that Nubar Pasha was the founder of the Behera
Land Company in 1881. See Gabriel Baer, A History of Landownership in Egypt, 1800-1950 (London,
New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1962): p. 68. For Aṭyān al-Nubāriyya, see “Aṭyān al-
Nubāriyya,” al-Muqtaṭaf, December 1904, p. 1070.

20
In 1898, he was almost the only Armenian who bought around 2007 feddans of land

belonging to al-Da‟ira al-Saniyya.53 In the main, properties acquired by Armenians fell

in the districts near Cairo or Alexandria.54 Here it is appropriate to note that although a

leading figure in the Egyptian Ministry of Public Education, Ya„qub Artin55 had a

pivotal role in creating a growing body of literature relating to landownership in Egypt.

In 1883, he authored La Propriété Foncières en Égypte, which has become a landmark

publication relating to the history of private landownership in modern Egypt.56

It is obvious, from the preceding, that Armenians, unlike for example their

Greek counterparts, were not much involved in cotton cultivation, its ginning derivative

or sale. Still a few Armenian agronomists like Boghos Nubar and Yervant Aghaton put

in much effort to improve Egyptian agricultural endeavors. Apparently, on account of

his father‟s possession of vast agricultural fields, Boghos Nubar studied agricultural and

mechanical engineering in France and Switzerland. Upon graduation and after his return

to Egypt, Boghos embarked on a series of agricultural projects meant to introduce

agriculture mechanization into the country. Indeed, the year 1898 proved to be an

eventful year in Boghos‟ lifelong career. That year, he had a major hand in the creation

of the first Egyptian agricultural body known as the Khedivial Agricultural Society,

serving on its board as its vice-president for many years. In the same year, and thanks to

his ingenious intellectual talents and mechanical skills, he commenced the construction

53
„Ali Barakāt, Taṭawur al-milkiyya al-zirā‘iyya fī miṣr wa aṯārahu ‘ala al-ḥaraka al-siyāsiya (1813-
1914) (Cairo, Dār al-ṯaqāfa al-jadīda, 1977): p. 476. The total area of al-Da‟ira al-Saniyya amounted to
500,000 feddāns. Its “sale” aimed to enable the Egyptian state to repay its debts to European creditors.
See Samir Raafat, “Familiar Ground, the 19th Century Privatization of Daira Sanieh Doesn‟t Seem That
Distant,” Business Monthly Magazine, July 1997, (accessed April 21, 2019),
http://www.egy.com/historica/97-07-00.php.
54
Rif„at, Tārīkh al-jāliya, p. 146.
55
Ya„qub Artin (1842-1919) was an Armenian educator and government official. He was a member of
the Institut Égyptien contributing several articles to the Bulletin de L’Institut d’Égypte. He also authored
L’Instruction Publique en Égypte (1890) and Contes Populaires Inédits de la Vallée du Nil (1895).
56
According to Gabriel Baer, this is an important source for historians writing about the history of
landownership in Egypt. See Baer, p. 14.

21
of the “Nubari” steam plowing machine.57 Although its use did not spread in Egypt, it

nevertheless generated considerable professional recognition. It was first displayed in

the Egyptian section of the Paris Exposition in 1900. By this self-made invention and by

contrast to reliance on animal power, Boghos intended to increase the efficiency of

agricultural production by plowing more lands in a relatively shorter period of time.

Actually, this new technology had the capacity of plowing around 1,980 square meters

per hour or to put it differently approximately two hectares per day.58 It soon gained the

close attention of French agricultural scientists and became a subject constantly

discussed in the meetings of the Paris-based French Academy of Agriculture. In 1902,

in much appreciation and recognition of Nubar‟s “modernizing” endeavors, the

Academy, upon the recommendation of French agricultural engineer and professor

Maximillian Ringelmann,59 awarded the “Olivier de Serres”60 gold medal to Boghos,

the foremost agricultural inventor of the year.61 At a later stage, Nubar was also invited

to join the Agricultural Mechanics and Irrigation committee of the Société Nationale

d‟Agriculture de France as a foreign member.62 In addition to his plowing machine he,

in 1905, after many years of experimentation, also launched a special new type of cotton

crop, which became known as Nubari cotton. It had “… a more vigorous growth, the

foliage being heavier than in the other kinds.”63 Soon after, the Nubari cotton together

57
See the picture of the plowing machine in Appendix II.
58
Bulletin des Séances de la Société Nationale d’Agriculture de France, 1902, p. 671-672. In 1905, the
machine was priced at 40,000 francs. See “Séance du 5 Avril 1905, Presidence de M. Teisserenc de
Bort,” Bulletin des Séances de la Société Nationale d’Agriculture de France, 1905, p. 304-305.
59
As of 1887, Max Ringelmann (1861-1931) worked as a professor at the École Nationale d‟Agriculture
in Grignon. In fact, although an agronomist, Ringelmann is also credited for coming up with a theory
known as the “Ringelmann effect” in social psychology.
60
Olivier de Serres (1539-1619) was a sixteenth-seventeenth century soil scientist.
61
“Séance Annuélle du 17 Décembre 1902, Présidence de M. Prillieux,” Bulletin des Séances de La
Société Nationale d’Agriculture de France, Vol. 62, 1902, p. 796.
62
“Séance du 8 Novembre 1905 Présidence de M. Teissérénc de Bort,” Bulletin des Séances de La
Société Nationale d’Agriculture de France, Vol. 65,1905, p. 752.
63
Egyptian Agricultural Products (Cairo: Ministry of Agriculture, 1917): p. 49.

22
with other varieties of Egyptian cotton like Mit Afifi and Yoannovitch were planted in

French Algeria and Tunisia and for a while in the United States.64 But, much to the

regret of the US Department of Agriculture, the Nubari crop failed to acclimatize to

Arizona‟s climatic conditions.65 Nor did it displace other Egyptian varieties.

Nevertheless, his pioneering role as an agricultural expert was not overlooked. In 1905,

on behalf of the Egyptian state, Nubar participated in the founding meeting of the

International Agricultural Institute in Rome sitting on the same table with delegates

from the British Empire, Belgium, France, Italy, Romania, Netherlands, Hungary,

Germany, Austria, Canada, Spain, and Denmark.66

The memoirs of Yervant Aghaton entitled My Life’s Memoirs, recently made

available online in the National Library of Armenia, also attest to the role and

contribution of a French-educated Ottoman Armenian agricultural engineer in Egypt,

once holding the agricultural inspectorship of the Anatolian and Rumelian provinces of

the Empire.67 Like Boghos Nubar, Aghaton had also acquired his necessary expertise at

the prestigious École Nationale d‟Agriculture in Grignon in 1880. In late August 1896,

following the Ottoman Bank incident and the mounting anti-Armenian sentiment in

Ottoman territories,68 Aghaton defected to Paris, where he already possessed close

connections with a number of Armenian families including the famous Nubarians

(known for staying in the French capital several times per year, usually, during the

summer months). Due to the difficulties of finding permanent employment in France,

64
For the plantation of the Nubari cotton in Tunisia and Algeria, see “Coton en Tunisie,” Bulletin
Agricole de L’Algérie et de la Tunisie, July 1911, p. 508 and “Le Coton en Algérie et en Tunisie,”
Bulletin Agricole de L’Algérie et de la Tunisie, July 1911, p. 632. See also Thomas H. Kearney, Breeding
New Types of Egyptian cotton (Washington: US Department of Agriculture, 1910): p. 29.
65
M.R. Fourtau, “Le Coton Égyptien Aux États Unis,” Bulletin de L’Union Syndicale des Agriculteurs
d’Égypte, November 1909, p. 199.
66
Institut Internationale d’Agriculture, Comité Permanent Mai-Décembre 1908 (Rome: 1909): p. 20.
67
Yervant Aghaton, My Life’s Memoirs (Armenian) (Geneva, 1931): p. 31, 34, 85.
68
On August 26, 1896, in an effort to pressure the European powers a group of Dashnak partisans, one of
the three Armenian political parties, attacked the Bank Ottoman headquarters in Istanbul.

23
Aghaton, subsequently relocated to Egypt upon Nubar Pasha‟s suggestion. In fact, the

latter‟s son Boghos, although of a similar specialization, looked at Aghaton more as a

friend rather than a competitor and hosted him in his house in Cairo for nearly six

months.

As a new but a well-educated immigrant to Egypt, Aghaton in no time began a

successful career. He gained the respect of both Armenian and Egyptian elites as well as

forming close relations with other local agricultural specialists. Together with like-

minded Egyptian agronomists, Aghaton laid the foundations for the Egyptian

Agricultural Syndicate, which he headed for a number of years and in about 1909 was

declared its honorary president.69 By 1912, eight out of a total 147 members subscribed

to the Syndicate were Armenians.70 Boghos Nubar also supported the existence of the

Syndicate which, he hoped, would assist the Egyptian peasants in having access to

cheaper seeds and fertilizers as well as mechanical equipment to boost their

productivity.71 Aghaton gained even more fame by the dint of his French-language

articles on a multiplicity of agricultural topics like cotton growing and irrigation matters

published in the Bulletin de L’Union Syndicale des Agriculteurs d’Égypte.72 First, he

was appointed by Boghos Nubar as his land inspector, subsequently, he became general

supervisor of the lands belonging to the widow of Takvor Pasha Hagopian. Then,

Aghaton was invited to work as inspector in the vast lands of Prince Ḥusayn Kāmel, the

second son of Khedive Ismā„īl and later Sultan of Egypt, and was paid £E 25 for his

services. His name was also circulated by word of mouth among the aristocratic circles.

69
Aghaton, My Life’s Memoirs, p. 177.
70
“Liste des Membres de L‟Union des Agriculteurs Année 1911,” Bulletin de L’Union des Agriculteurs
d’Égypte, January 1912, p. 9, 11-14,
71
Boghos Nubar, “Les Syndicats Agricoles en Égypte,” L’Égypte Contemporaine, 1910, Vol. I, p. 197,
199.
72
For a comprehensive list of Aghaton‟s articles about Egyptian agriculture see Maunier, p.178-180, 182-
184, 186.

24
Then, upon Prince Ḥusayn‟s recommendation his brother Prince Ibrahīm, and his sister

Princess Niyamet, also appointed Aghaton as an inspector for their farms in Egypt that

earned him an income of £E 100 per month. As the saying goes, one success leads to

another. Ultimately, former Egyptian Prime Minister Riyāḍ Pasha and Khedive „Abbās

Ḥilmī II relied on Aghaton to administer their lands in Aswan, where sugar cane and

cotton were planted.73 As Roger Owen has stated, the fellah in Egypt barely used

chemical fertilizers. Aghaton, however, deviated from the norm. By utilizing chemicals

like Nitrate and Super Phosphate, two crucial plant nutrients, he contrived to increase

the fertility of the soil. At first, he experimented with these substances in the cotton and

wheat fields of Boghos Nubar. Then, encouraged by the dramatic increase in the crop

yields, he applied them on a larger scale including in Riyāḍ Pasha‟s lands.74

Interestingly, Aghaton‟s land experiences were also reflected in his Armenian-language

writings appearing in AGBU‟s Miyutyun. As a result of his continuing interest in the

agricultural life of the Armenian provinces of the Ottoman Empire, he wished to

convey, through his writings, the benefits of introducing new agricultural techniques

among the Armenian peasants laboring in the Armenian provinces of the Ottoman

Empire, whom he as a devotee of modernity, described as “backward” and “ignorant”

people, relying on wasteful methods of agriculture and land rotation.75

Although, the Armenians in general tended to veer away from the agricultural

sector, there were one or two instances in which the opposite was the case. The British

Consular Report of 1904 notes that two out of a total of 67 students studying at the

Egyptian School of Agriculture were Armenians, an exceptional fact given that

members of the community avoided enrolling in state-run technical institutions where

73
Aghaton, My Life’s Memoirs, p. 151-186.
74
Owen, p. 40, and Aghaton, My Life’s Memoires, p. 184.
75
Yervant Aghaton, “Advice to the Villager,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, August 1912, p. 125-126.

25
Arabic was the official language of instruction. Had the names of these students been

mentioned, it would have been possible to trace their future career paths.76

2. Services

a. Food Industry and Hotel Services

Much the same as any group of migrants leaving their ancestral homelands,

Ottoman Armenians settling in Egypt carried with them their professions, traditions, and

customs to their new destinations. Apart from establishing other types of Armenian-

owned shops highlighted in the course of this chapter, bakeries, pastries, restaurants,

cafés, and hotels were also on the list of Armenian businesses in Egypt. Pastry shops

and restaurants, in particular, played a significant role in preserving the newcomers‟

ancestral culinary heritage, but also appealed to local Eastern tastes as well as that of the

large “Ottoman” constituency in the country. By means of food, therefore, the

Armenians contributed to cultural interaction and exchange. A certain Armenag

Baldjian, originally from the Ottoman capital, revived homeland traditions by

specializing in the Istanbul çörek,77 especially, prepared for the Easter season and

selling other kinds of sweets like lokum (Turkish delights), Revani (an Ottoman Turkish

desert), Acıbadem (almond cookie), and the Tavuk göğsü (a Turkish milk pudding with

shredded chicken breast), one of the delicacies served to the Ottoman monarchs in the

Topkapı Palace.78 In addition to these, popular European sweets like biscuits, cakes,

patte d‟amande (a confection made from sugar and almond) and marron glacé (chestnut
76
Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finances, Administration, Condition of
Egypt and the Soudan in 1904 (London: 1905): p. 77. At the time, Etmekdjian was a student at the
Khedivial School of Arts in Egypt. In his article, he complained about Armenian indifference to the use of
Arabic, a language requirement for admission into government employment. See Boghos Etmekdjian,
“Egyptian Armenians: The Importance of Arabic and the State-Run Schools,” (Armenian) Lusaper, July
31, 1906.
77
A type of sweet
78
“Çörek Çörek,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, April 27, 1907.

26
candied in sugar) were also prepared by Baldjian in his shop in Cairo‟s Clot Bey street,

assisted by skilled Armenian assistants.79 Besides preparing sweets in Egypt, other

Armenians imported them directly from various Ottoman cities. A certain Boghos

Ohanian was well-known for importing more than 30 kinds of Turkish sweets from the

Ottoman port-city of Izmir to Cairo.80 A visitor to the Armenian-owned “Stambol”

grocery shop in Cairo also may have purchased the famous Haci Bekir81 brand of

lokum.82

Solely or in partnership with other Armenians or non-Armenians, new Turkish-

style restaurants also emerged in the different quarters of the Egyptian capital as well as

in Alexandria. M. Latchinian and A. Kosatl ran a restaurant in Wijhat al-Birka street in

Cairo, well-known as an entertainment zone in the Egyptian capital.83 Probably, owing

to the spread of the food business in this particular street, other Armenian-owned

restaurants having similar menus also came into being, in the process, creating some

competition between contending Armenian restaurants. Karnig Dadurian and

Megerditch Kalusdian opened the Kebab Royal Restaurant,84 to be followed by

Restaurant „Abbās of Shahrigian and Palamudian making Tandır kebabı (cooked from

lamb pieces), işkembe çorbası (a type of soup cooked in Istanbul made from tripe), and

the paça (a dish of boiled cow or sheep parts).85 Much the same as in Cairo, Armenian

79
“Worker is Needed,” (Armenian), Azad Pem, August 17, 1907. In a newspaper advertisement,
Armenag Baldjian expressed his dire need of two workers who will be assisting him in his work.
80
“Amdja Boghos G. Ohanian,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, November 29-December 12, 1908. Arshaluys
was published in Cairo from 1899 to 1914.
81
It is one of the popular firms in Istanbul producing lokum and various kinds of candies since 1777.
82
“Stambol Grocery Store,” (Armenian) Nor Jamanagner, December 1, 1906. Nor Jamanagner was
published in Cairo in 1906.
83
“Restaurant Montaza,” (Armenian) Lusaper, 6 April 1905. See Nancy Y. Reynolds, “Entangled
Communities: Interethnic Relationships among Urban Salesclerks and Domestic Workers in Egypt, 1927-
1961,” European Review of History 19/1 (2012): p. 120.
84
“The Kebab Royal Restaurant,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, August 21, 1912.
85
“A Pleasant Surprise in Cairo,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, May 14-27, 1914. In fact, another man by the
name of Vartan Toros also sold paça. See “Vartan Toros Bazar Murur” (Armenian) Lusaper, January 26,
1905.

27
restaurants in Alexandria also cooked a wide variety of Turkish foods. Restaurant Nor

Tar (New Century), for instance, advertised that it prepared a large number of Istanbul

dishes,86 whereas the Arevelian (Oriental) Restaurant, formed through the partnership of

Garabed Dirhemdjian and Sarkis Husaynidjian, sold the Turkish Döner made from meat

cooked on a vertical spit.87

Other than kebab, some Armenians as in the case of Andon Reshduni and his

Hnchak comrade Vahakn, broke away from the norm by serving the eggplant dolma

(stuffed eggplant) in their restaurant in Alexandria.88 However, rather surprisingly,

almost none of the sources mention the names of Armenian shops preparing the famous

bastırma, which, later on, became widely consumed. Their preparation of Turkish foods

and sweets must have attracted foreigners and local customers alike eager to try these

“new” foods. Of course, it should not be forgotten that cooking such dishes was also a

clear indication of the unchanging eating habits of Armenians expelled from their

ancestral homeland, in the process, acting as carriers of Ottoman Turkish culture as

mediated by their cuisine.

As in other parts of the Ottoman Near East, the number of cafés and hotels were

also on the rise in Egypt. According to the official British census of 1907, around 4,203

people were involved in this male-dominant business in Cairo, while it was half that

number (2,338 people) in Alexandria.89 In fact, in the midst of continuous migration to

Egypt, Armenians, of both genders, also started setting up their own cafés and hotels in

the abovementioned cities. The Armenian Café (known as Qahvet al-Arman) in Cairo‟s

Ezbek street, was among the first and most popular cafés established by Armenians in

86
“Restaurant Nor Tar,” (Armenian) Punig, September 28, 1901, p. 207. Punig was first published in
Cairo from 1899 to 1901 and then in Alexandria from 1901 to 1903.
87
“Oriental Restaurant,” (Armenian) Punig, March 14, 1903, p. 232.
88
Odian, Twelve Years, p. 151-152.
89
C.C. Lowis, The Census of Egypt Taken in 1907 (Cairo, 1909): p. 170.

28
Egypt as early as 1891 or even before,90 to be followed by numerous others starting

from the early twentieth century. In fact, cafés formed an integral part of the developing

Egyptian public sphere.91 The Grand Café Chicha in Cairo, run by Karnig Sirunian,

acquired fame for serving the hookah, mocha, coffee and various kinds of spirits to its

customers, who may have been deprived of these pleasures in local Egyptian

coffeehouses.92 As it turns out, Sirunian relied on his nationals to run his shop; he

appointed Arshag Adjemian director of the café and S. Sarkissian as the accountant.93

Revealing their renowned entrepreneurial inclinations, some Armenians preferred to

adopt Europeanized names for their cafés with the intention of attracting Europeans in

addition to their local clients. This holds true for the Cairo Café and Bar Aida, owned

by Lutfian in Cairo. In addition to spirits, it also included different kinds of mezes on its

menu.94 This is also true for Café Central d‟Abdine (owned by a certain Budakian), the

celebrated Café Riche (belonging to a Madame Sirunian in Cairo; probably a relative of

Karnig Sirunian).95

Besides cafés, Armenians also owned hotels in Egypt, although of a second or a

third class level, as Yervant Odian noted and the French almanac of 1904 has

confirmed.96 Naming hotels after certain Ottoman cities in Anatolia (probably the names

of areas where they came from) reflects Armenian attachment to their homeland and

may also mirror their deeply embedded nationalist sentiments. For example, one comes

90
Ibrāhīm „Abd-al Massīḥ, Dalīl Wādī al-Nīl 1891-1892 (Cairo, 1892): p. 155, (accessed June 16, 2018),
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008895046
91
Ziad Fahmy, Ordinary Egyptians: Creating the Modern Nation through Popular Culture (Stanford,
California: Stanford University Press, 2011): p. 145.
92
“Grand Chicha Café,” (Armenian) Bardez, November 1, 1903. The name of the café also appears in the
Egyptian directory of 1908. Bardez was published in Alexandria in 1903.
93
L’Annuaire Égyptien du Commerce de L’Industrie, L’Administration et la Magistrature de L’Égypte et
du Soudan 1908 (Cairo: The Directory Printing Office, 1907): p. 435, 610.
94
“Café and Bar Aida,” (Armenian) Avel, September 5, 1908. Avel appeared in Cairo in 1908.
95
L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p. 465, 519, 617, 1067.
96
Yevant Odian, Collection of Works (Armenian) Vol. 4 (Yerevan: Haybedhrad, 1962): p. 476.

29
across names like Hotel Trebizond (owned by a certain M. Kevorkian in Alexandria),

Hotel Samsun overlooking the Sea in Alexandria and Hotel Armenia (owned by Sarkis

Bulbulian) in Cairo.97 Owing to the dramatic growth of the tourist traffic in Egypt,

Armenian hotel keepers, as in the case of the café owners, were also inclined to adopt

Western names like Marie Boghossian‟s Hotel du Louvre.98

b. Health Care and Medicine

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Armenians also occupied a prominent

position in the fields of medicine and pharmacology in the Ottoman Empire. In fact,

several members of the Shashian dynasty of Istanbul, for instance, served as the

personal physicians to the various Ottoman sultans.99 Likewise, in Egypt, some

Armenian physicians and pharmacists in addition to a few midwives and nurses made

their appearance in the fields of medicine and healthcare, beginning in the early

twentieth century, self-employed or finding employment in foreign medical institutions.

Many of them carried their profession with them, while others gained their medical

expertise through studying abroad and then coming to Egypt. Back then, Armenians

aspiring to hold a degree in any field relating to the medical sciences attended

universities either in Europe or in the United States. But when such options were

unavailable, they studied instead at the Medical School of the Syrian Protestant College

(SPC, now the American University of Beirut), one of the oldest, Western-style medical

97
Stefano G. Poffandi, Indicateur Égyptien Administratif et Commercial 1904 (Alexandria, 1904): p. 109.
“Hotel Samsun,” (Armenian) Lusaper, August 16, 1906. “Hotel Trebizond,” (Armenian) Arshaluys,
September 10-23, 1908.
98
“Hotel Louvre,” (Armenian) Lusaper, March 14, 1908.
99
Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, Sisters of Mercy and Survival: Armenian Nurses, 1900-1930 (Antelias,
2012): p. 24-25.

30
institutions in the Ottoman Empire. Their virtual inability to use the Arabic language

meant they could not study in the Egyptian Medical School, Qaṣr al-„Aynī.

In fact, practicing medicine in Egypt was rather attractive for Armenian

physicians trained in Western institutions, having in mind that the country lacked a

well-established medical corps and because most well-to-do Egyptians refused “… to

seek treatment at state-sponsored hospitals…”100

Armenian physicians constituted about 0.6 % of the total numbers of working

Armenians in Egypt.101 They were not organized into a union similar to the Armenian

Medical Association of Constantinople founded in 1912.102 In light of the documents

consulted, it can be stated that the majority of the Armenian physicians in Egypt were

either dentists or doctors of internal medicine. For example, Drs. George Evliyan,103

Bedros Nicotemos,104 Vahram Yaqubian,105 Hovsep Vanlian,106 Keledjian, Kh.

Demirdjian were dentists, while Drs. Garabed Pashayan Khan,107 Yetvart Arsharuni,108

H. Gurunlian, A. Manugian, A. Gulmez,109 and S. Ezekyelian110 were doctors of internal

100
Hibba Abugideiri, Gender and the Making of Modern Medicine in Colonial Egypt (Farnham, Surrey:
Ashgate, 2010): p. 90.
101
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 366-367.
102
Churchill, p. 27.
103
Dr. Evliyan studied dentistry in the USA.
104
Dr. Nicotemos studied dentistry in Paris and practiced it there for several years before coming to
Egypt.
105
Dr. Yaqubian was a graduate of the University of Maryland in the USA after obtaining his BA from
the SPC in 1897. Hratch Kestenian, “A Portrait of Armenian Student Life at the Syrian Protestant College
1885-1920” (MA diss., American University of Beirut, 2015): p. 96.
106
A graduate from the Medical College of Constantinople.
107
A graduate from the Medical College of Constantinople in 1888. He moved to Persia following his
sentence to death by the Ottoman authorities, due to supporting the rising Ottoman Armenian nationalist
movement. After some years in the service of the Persian Shah Mozaffar ad-Din Qajar, Pashayan went to
Egypt, where he opened a clinic in Alexandria. There, he also established an Armenian school as well as a
printing house. Following the overthrow of Sultan Abdül Hamid II, Pashayan returned to Istanbul and
was subsequently elected as a member of the Ottoman parliament. “Doct. Pashayan Khan,” (Armenian)
Azad Pem, April 23, 1904.
108
A graduate from the Medical University in Paris, also settled in Alexandria.
109
Dr. Gulmez studied internal medicine in Germany and then returned to Egypt. His clinic was located
in Mūskī street. “Dr. A. Gulmez,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, December 26, 1906.
110
Dr. Ezekyelian studied internal medicine in the USA. His clinic was located in Alexandria. See “S.V.
Ezekyelian,” (Armenian) Punig, April 2, 1902.

31
medicine. Some practiced other medical fields such as gynecology. Dr. Esther L.

Jacobian was the only female Armenian gynecologist in Egypt, with her clinic located

in Cairo.111

As for their work possibilities, Armenian doctors in Egypt had several career

options. They could open their private clinics in Cairo or Alexandria (which was usually

the case), treat patients in missionary-run dispensaries or in privately-owned pharmacies

(most of the times belonging to their nationals) or work in hospitals. Of course, based

on the available examples, it appears that when Armenian doctors opened private

clinics, they did so in the important districts of Cairo or Alexandria. Drs. Kh.

Demirdjian, V. Yaqubian, and Keledjian, incidentally all of them dentists, had their

clinics in the vicinity of the Shepheard‟s Hotel, and may have been visited more

regularly by foreigners than their own nationals or by other Egyptians.112 Interestingly,

as an editorial published in the Cairene Nor Or (New Day)113 newspaper reveals, an

Armenian patient in Egypt usually opted for the services of European rather than an

Armenian physician considering the former as more “credible” and “trustworthy,”114

despite the fact that they may have graduated from internationally acclaimed western

institutions. By contrast, working class Armenians chose to visit the Armenian

physicians and dentists who were probably less costly and on certain week days offered

free consultation sessions for their “poorer” nationals in line with the dominant trend

prevailing in Istanbul.115

111
“Dr. Esther L. Jacobian,” (Armenian) Lusaper, April 4, 1908.
112
“Dr. Kh. Demirdjian,” (Armenian) Lusaper, December 6, 1904, “Dr. V. K. Yaqubian,” (Armenian)
Lusaper-Arev, January 8, 1910, “Dr. Keledjian,” (Armenian) Lusaper-Arev, April 5, 1910. Lusaper-Arev
was published in Cairo from 1909 to 1913.
113
Nor Or was published in Cairo from 1900 to 1901.
114
“Our Doctors,” (Armenian) Nor Or, April 21 – May 4, 1901.
115
A tradition practiced by Armenian physicians in Istanbul as well, who dedicated certain hours of their
day to treat “poorer” patients free of charge. See “Dr. A. Undjian,” (Armenian) Gavrosh, August 6, 1910.
Gavrosh appeared in Istanbul starting in 1907.

32
 On top of their regular clinic hours, some doctors like Arsharuni and Pashayan

spent their afternoons in the Tokatlian Pharmacy in Alexandria, where patients could

also consult Greek or Jewish doctors.116 Dr. A. Manugian also allocated some of his free

time healing patients visiting the Pharmacy d‟Afrique, owned by an Armenian, again in

Alexandria. 117 In Egypt, Armenians also ran pharmacies; among them were the

Khatchadurian brothers, owners of the Constantinople Pharmacy, and Boghos

Hagopian, owner of the Anglo-Egyptian Pharmacy (founded in 1904).118 In addition to

selling European and American readymade drugs, as most pharmacists of the time did,

they, too, prepared medicine based on French and British pharmacopoeia.119 As far as

one can tell from British Consular Reports, to do so they must have been licensed

chemists in line with the Egyptian Pharmacy Law of 1904 which prohibited non-

licensed chemists from running pharmacies or preparing drugs.120

Other than working in their own clinics or in pharmacies, some physicians such

as Dr. Abkar Dermarkarian, a graduate from the SPC Medical School in 1902, worked

in the eye department of the British-run Old Cairo Medical Mission performing “…

over a thousand eye-operations...”121 Similarly, Dr. Garabed Uzunian, immediately after

his graduation from the SPC, was employed in the American Mission Hospital in Cairo

for four years (1905-1909) and then became a medical officer in the Sudan

116
“Pharmacy Paros,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, July 29, 1905. In addition to this pharmacy, there was also
Pharmacy Ararat in Cairo in Bayn al-Surayn street owned by a certain K. Sarafian. See Poffandi,
Indicateur Égyptien 1904, p. 109. V. Yanopoulo was the Greek doctor visiting the Tokatlian Pharmacy
and Isaac Levi was his Jewish counterpart.
117
“Dr. A. Manugian,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, June 27, 1906.
118
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 367-368.
119
“Anglo-Egyptian Pharmacy,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, April 3, 1907.
120
Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finances, Administration, and Condition
of Egypt and the Soudan in 1905 (London: 1906): p. 73. According to the report, 258 licensed chemists
existed throughout Egypt, with the largest number in Cairo.
121
“Cairo Medical Mission of the CMS,” Egyptian Gazette, May 31, 1905. Also see 25th Anniversary of
the Armenian Students Union at the American University of Beirut (Armenian) (Beirut: Vahakn Printing
House, 1933): p. 86.

33
Condominium government (1909-1913).122 Besides serving in foreign institutions, some

Armenian physicians also found employment in local governmental hospitals. Dr.

George Ekmekdjian succeeded in working at the Egyptian and Sudanese military

hospitals for decades.123 Of importance was also Dr. B. Seropian, a graduate from the

Medical School of the Paris University. He arrived in Cairo as late as 1907 with his

French wife Jeanne Dubuc, incidentally also a graduate of the same university and a

practicing midwife. Some 12 years after practicing in the French capital, Seropian was

commissioned by the Egyptian Ministry of Public Instruction to prepare medical

textbooks for use in Qaṣr al-„Aynī hospital.124 But, why Seropian was chosen for this

task in particular is a question that still requires further examination. Naturally, as a

newcomer, Seropian was incompetent in the Arabic language and that is why he had his

works, namely, Mabādiʾ ‘Ilm al-Saḥḥa translated into Arabic by two “Syrian”

intellectuals; Amīn Taqīy al-Dīn and Anṭūn al-Jamayyil.125 Another book written by

Seropian and translated by al-Jamayyil was the Mabādiʾ ‘Ilm Waẓā‘if al-A‘ḍā’ wa

Tadbīr al-Saḥḥa. At the same time, and up to World War I, Seropian contributed

medical articles to AGBU‟s Miyutyun, on a multiplicity of topics including typhus,

malaria, and other prevalent diseases of the time, this way raising health awareness

among his nationals in Egypt and in the Armenian-inhabited Ottoman provinces, where

the publication was circulated.126 Needless to say, Seropian also allocated some of his

122
Kestenian, p. 99.
123
“Dr. George Ekmekdjian,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, September 28, 1907.
124
Abugideiri, p. 86-87.
125
Taqīy al-Dīn and al-Jamayyil were originally from Lebanon. They co-edited al-Azhar periodical in
Egypt starting from 1911. Eventually, the latter became the director of the famous Egyptian al-Ahrām
newspaper in 1932.
126
Suren Bartevian, The Golden Book of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (1906-1913)
(Armenian) (Cairo, 1913): p. 142.

34
busy time to his patients, who frequented his and his wife‟s shared home/clinic in

Cairo.127

Given the high infant mortality rates midwives were also indispensable in

British-occupied Egypt. Delivering children and diffusing public health awareness was

among a midwife‟s primary duties. We do not know how many Armenian women

actually studied in the School of Midwifery in Egypt created by Clot Bey in 1831-1832

under the patronage of Muhammad „Ali.128 It is, however, most likely that a certain

Mary Boghos, a practicing midwife, attended that school.129 According to the Egyptian

Directory of 1913, in addition to the latter, there were three other Armenian midwives

in Cairo.130 The School of Midwives and Nurses that came to be known as such after

1898 was more under British direction compared, for instance, with the Qaṣr al-Aynī

school. At a later stage, at least two Armenian women, namely, Rosa Kulundjian and

Yeranuhi Aladjadjian, were trained as nurses in the SPC School of Nursing, graduating

in the years 1908 and 1910 respectively, and then practicing their professions at the

Victoria Nursing Home in Cairo.131

c. Insurance Firms

Starting from the nineteenth century, several British insurance companies began

expanding throughout the vast British Empire and establishing new branches in the

different parts of the globe, including the Ottoman domains, where generous

capitulations were granted to foreign individuals and institutions. As Cornel Zwierlein

127
“Dr. B. Seropian,” (Armenian) Lusaper, December 3, 1907.
128
Abugideiri, p. 116-117, 134, 150.
129
“Mrs. Mary Boghos,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, November 17-29, 1899.
130
The Egyptian Directory 1913, p. 1596, (accessed April 29, 2019),
http://www.cealex.org/sitecealex/diffusion/etud_anc_alex/LVR_000084_IV_w.pdf
131
al-Kulliya, December 1911, p. 62 and al-Kulliya, January 1912, p. 100.

35
informs us, in 1865, the Phoenix Assurance Company and the Sun Fire Office set foot

in Istanbul, with the purpose of selling insurance policies against fire, a threat from

which the imperial city had frequently suffered. But, contrary to their expectations,

these companies gained a small number of clients during their early years of

operation.132

Despite earlier setbacks, American fire and life insurance companies began to

grow and eventually established subsidiaries in the various districts of the Ottoman

capital as in other parts of the Empire. Later, particularly, in the late 1890s and 1900s, a

number of European insurance firms came into being, usually run by non-Ottoman

citizens. Nevertheless, and as conveyed by the contemporary Istanbul-based Armenian

press, numerous Armenians were employed as general agents, directors, inspectors or

representatives of these companies. It is rather difficult to identify the real causes behind

the success of Armenians in this particular field. It is likely, however, that they

benefitted from their modern education as well as linguistic skills. A certain Simon

Kayserlian, first, served as the executive director of the French L‟Union Insurance

Company in Istanbul,133 and at a later stage of his life, he was appointed the firm‟s

general director in Turkey and Bulgaria.134 Similarly, in addition to its foreign

personnel, the New York Life Insurance Company appointed a certain A. Tchuhadjian

as the general inspector for its main office in Turkey.135 The Balkan Life and Fire

Insurance Company with its headquarters in Sofia made use of the skills and abilities of

132
Cornel Zwierlein, “The Burning of a Modern City? Istanbul as Perceived by the Agents of the Sun Fire
Office, 1865-1870,” in Flammable Cities: Urban Conflagration and the Making of the Modern World, ed.
Greg Bankoff et al. (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012): p. 86, 92, 97.
133
“Union Fire and Life Insurance Company,” (Armenian) Arevelk, March 14, 1896. L‟Union was
founded in Paris in 1828. The capital of the fire insurance section of the company was around 93 million
francs, while the life insurance section had a capital of 127 million francs. Arevelk appeared in Istanbul
starting in 1884.
134
“Union,” (Armenian) Arevelk, September 25 - October 7, 1899.
135
“La New York,” (Armenian) Arevelk, August 26 - September 8, 1902.

36
Arshag Undjian and A. Gureghian, acting as the firm‟s agent and inspector

respectively.136 Likewise, K. Fredian was commissioned to act as the representative of

La Phoenix Autrichien Insurance agency in the Ottoman Empire,137 and S. Manugian

held the directorship of the Bulgaria fire insurance firm.138 It is noteworthy that much

the same as in the Ottoman capital, in the early twentieth century, branches of the

above-mentioned insurance agencies also made their way into Egypt. In fact, in 1902,

according to the estimates provided by the French almanac Indicateur Égyptien, out of a

total of 135 insurance firms functioning in Alexandria and 79 in Cairo, three were

managed by Armenians in the former and two in the latter. Generally speaking, the

companies administered by Armenians in Egypt were in no way connected to the ones

in Istanbul with the exception of the Rossia agency (based in St. Petersburg), whose

agents or inspectors in the Ottoman capital, Izmir and Cairo during the turn of the

century were Armenians; A. Hurmuz, M. Morukian and Ohan Dervishian

respectively.139 In his turn, Mihran Khan Kalfayan, originally from Istanbul, perhaps

benefitting from his position as the Persian consul in Alexandria, acted as the general

representative of the Dutch Salamander Fire Insurance Company140 until his death in

1913.141

What is more important is that Henri Bey Demirdjian, once active in Egypt,

started a series of business initiatives including the general agency of both branches of

136
“Balkan,” (Armenian) Arevelk, July 31 - August 13, 1901.
137
“Le Phoenix Autrichien,” (Armenian) Arevelk, September 7-20, 1902.
138
“Bulgarian,” (Armenian) Arevelk, November 21 - December 4, 1901.
139
Stefano G. Poffandi, Indicateur Égyptien Administratif et Commercial 1902 (Alexandria, 1901): p. 79,
“Rossia Insurance Company,” (Armenian) Arevelk, September 14-26, 1899, and “Rossia Insurance
Company,” (Armenian) Ashkhadank, July 17-30, 1913. Ashkhadank was published in Izmir starting in
1909.
140
It was stationed in Amsterdam.
141
“Salamander L‟Alliance,” (Armenian) Punig, August 31, 1901. “The Newly Elected Ones,”
(Armenian) Azad Khosk, June 16, 1906, p. 121. The Salamandar insurance company had a capital of
3,125,000 francs. Azad Khosk was published in Alexandria from 1902 to 1908.

37
L‟Urbaine Insurance Company in Cairo and Alexandria, while leaving the Port Said

branch to a Frenchman called Gustave Riche.142 At a later stage, he even became the

president of the General Union of International Insurance Companies in Egypt.143 By

1907 other insurance firms also came to rely on Armenians in managing their state of

affairs in Egypt. For instance, Armenag Beylerian and M. Guesserian assumed the

general agency of La Sécurité and Union de Paris insurance companies in Alexandria.144

Added to these, an individual carrying the family name Ohanian acted as the vice

general representative of the American Mutual Life Insurance Company in Cairo.145

d. Transport

Armenians exhibited a keen interest in the Egyptian State Railways from its

inception in 1853. At first, in view of their close relations with the cream of Egyptian

society, the highest administrative ranks in the Railways seemed to be reserved for

several of the Armenian notables residing in Egypt. Nubar Pasha Nubarian was the first

to preside over all the public transport and railways in Egypt from 1857 to 1858, to be

followed by his son Boghos, who was appointed as the “national” director of the

railways from 1867 until 1879. Sometime later, Armenians reappeared as railway

directors particularly, from 1886 until 1898. Takvor Pasha Hagopian (1886-1888),

Ya„qub Artin (1888-1891) and Boghos Nubar for a second time (1891-1898) were in

charge of the Egyptian railways. Armenians alongside Greeks and Italians occupied

other high-ranking administrative positions in the Alexandria tram company as ticket

142
Poffandi, Indicateur Égyptien 1902, p. 79, 239, 351, 360. L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p.312
143
Demirdjian was probably a French citizen due to his membership in the French Chamber of Commerce
in Egypt and acted as a wine dealer in Alexandria.
144
L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p. 1025-1026.
145
Poffandi, Indicateur Égyptien 1902, p. 79. See also “Mutual Life Insurance Company,” (Armenian)
Arevelk, November 8-21, 1901.

38
vendors, telegraph officers or as inspectors.146 Karnig Tchebukdjian, the vice-president

of the Alexandria Tramway and Ramleh Railway companies, a position he held for

around eight years, is reputed to have employed around 300 ticket vendors from among

the newly arriving Armenian refugees. Their pay was so abysmally low that they,

according to On Barak as well as Beinin and Lockman, were driven with others to go on

strikes as happened in 1908.147 A similar incident also occurred three years later in

1911. The Near East, in fact, reported that in Alexandria alongside Egyptian, Greek,

Italian, and Austrian workers, Armenians, “… of whom there is an appreciable

proportion in the service of the company…,” also joined the strikers.148

3. Printing

Generally speaking, Armenian involvement in printing activities dated back to

the late eighteenth century with the publication of Aztarar (Intelligencer) in 1794, the

first Armenian language periodical, in Madras, British India, where a prosperous and a

vibrant Armenian minority existed.149 This was to be followed by other pioneering

Armenian publications in different parts of the globe including the Ottoman Empire. In

fact, in the nineteenth century, Istanbul was already transformed into what can be

described as an Armenian cultural center with the establishment of numerous printing

146
Rif„at, Tārīkh al-jāliya, p. 190, 192-193. On Barak, On Time: Technology and Temporality in Modern
Egypt (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2013): p. 74, 167.
147
Joel Beinin and Zachary Lockman, Workers on the Nile: Communism, Nationalism, Islam, and the
Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987): p. 64. Karnig
Tchebukdjian (1865-1911) moved from Istanbul to Alexandria at age sixteen, and eventually was
appointed as the vice president of the Alexandria Tramway and Ramleh Railway companies. He also
headed the Constitutional Ramgavar Party (founded in 1908) in Alexandria and served as the secretary of
the AGBU branch there. See “Obituary of Karnig Tchebukdjian, the Secretary of the AGBU Chapter in
Alexandria,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, February 1912, p. 24. See also “Karnig Tchebukdjian,” (Armenian)
Azad Khosk, June 16, 1906. Barak, p. 167.
148
“The Tramway Strikes at Cairo and Alexandria,” The Near East, August 23, 1911, p. 364.
149
Sebouh Aslanian, From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of
Armenian Merchants from New Julfa (Berkley: University of California Press, 2011): p. 87.

39
houses and periodicals there. This legacy was passed on to Egypt at a later stage, itself

undergoing what is generally known as the nahḍa and a print revolution.

In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Armenians flocking to Egypt,

mostly involuntarily, experienced what can be described as a „mini‟ Renaissance

pioneered by such immigrant intellectuals as Mary Beylerian,150 Yervant Odian, and

Smpad Purad, who moved to Egypt in the mid-1890s.151 Soon after their arrival,

Armenian journalism in Egypt experienced a dramatic growth, partly occasioned by the

revocation of Egypt‟s censorship law of 1881 and by the prevalence of what has been

described as Egypt‟s liberal moment.152 In direct or indirect consequence to these

developments, up to WWI, around 27 Armenian printing houses came into being in both

Cairo and Alexandria, which published around 173 books; some of them translations of

English-language novels into Armenian such as Shakespeare‟s Othello and several

Sherlock Holmes‟ novels.153 As far as one can judge, the printing houses not only

catered to the needs of the Armenian community, but also met the demands of other

ethnic groups including Arabs, Greeks, and Europeans given the multi-language

printing facilities they offered.154 Aside from printing houses, around 43 Armenian

daily, weekly and monthly political, literary and satirical periodicals made their

appearance. Among these were Nor Gyank (New Life), Punig (Phoenix), Hayeli

(Mirror), Arev (Sun) appearing in either Cairo or Alexandria. In addition to publishing

150
Mary Beylerian (1877-1915) was the founder of the Armenian feminist Artemis periodical in
Alexandria in 1902.
151
Smpad (1862-1915) moved to Cairo in 1895, where he published several periodicals until his return to
Istanbul in 1908.
152
Relli Schechter, “Press Advertising in Egypt: Business Realities and Local Meaning, 1882-1956,” The
Arab Studies Journal 10/11 2/1 (2002): p. 46.
153
The printing houses were owned by Sarkis Tarpinian, Yeghishe Torossian, Onnig Haleblian, K.
Nazarethian and others. See Suren Bayramian, The Armenian Book in Egypt 1888-2011: A
Bibliographical List (Armenian) (Cairo, 2012): p. 3-18.
154
“Printing House Askanazian,” (Armenian), Bardez, June 26, 1904. See also “Onnig Haleblian”
(Armenian), Neshdrag, February 1, 1908. Neshdrag appeared in Cairo in 1908.

40
Armenian periodicals, some presses also printed magazines edited by Armenians in

other languages like Yeni Fikr (by Diran Kelegian in Ottoman Turkish) and La Justice

(by Levon Fehmi in French).155 In his book The Arabic Press in Egypt, Martin

Hartmann confirms that as early as 1899 or even before an Armenian called Iskandar

Karkur was the founder and editor of the local al-Zirā‘a magazine.156

With the exception of AGBU‟s Miyutyun, most of the Egyptian Armenian

newspapers and magazines were the product of individual rather than collective

initiative. It was only after the First World War that Armenian political parties officially

began setting up their organs in Egypt.

Judging by the short lifespan of many of the Armenian periodicals, it is apparent

that a number of them suffered from lack of adequate financial resources. The more

successful ones, however, served as regular advertising outlets for several renowned

foreign firms, including the Syrian Sidnawi, the Jewish Stein department stores, and the

American Singer Sewing Machine Company. In one of his articles, Levon Larents,157 a

contributor to Azad Pem,158 commented on the early death of several Armenian

publications, noting that in many instances, newspapers, in general, had meager

financial means or were unable to collect subscription dues, without which no

publication, in the long-run, could survive.159 Ironically, positive political developments

resulted in the impoverishment of the Egyptian Armenian press. Inspired by the slogan

“liberty, fraternity and equality” of the Young Turk Revolution, some intellectuals such

155
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 570.
156
Martin Hartmann, The Arabic Press in Egypt (London: Luzac and Co., 1899): p. 44.
157
Larents (1875-1915) was originally from Samatya district. He studied at Robert College in Istanbul
and then following his brief stay in the USA, he moved to Alexandria.
158
It was first issued in 1903 in Alexandria through the efforts of Yervant Odian, but it subsequently
turned into the organ of the Reformist Hnchak Party in Egypt in 1906. See Suren Bayramian, The
Armenian Press in Egypt: A Bibliographical List (Armenian) (Cairo, 2005): p. 28.
159
L.L., “The Egyptian Armenian Press in 1906,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, February 9, 1907.

41
as Purad Smpad, Parsegh Shahbaz, and V. Kuchukian closed their journals and returned

to Istanbul in order to experience at first hand the new age of freedom.160

4. Artisans, Craftsmen and Architects

Despite, as this thesis has already shown, earning their living through practicing

diverse professions, the famous Karl Baedeker traveler handbook, the number one

guidebook for European tourists visiting Egypt, chose to describe Armenians as

“wealthy goldsmiths and jewelers.”161 However, after the influx of new migrants,

Armenians started appearing in other fields of economic activity as well. Rif„at‟s

estimates indicate that artisans and craftsmen constituted approximately 45.8 % of the

total Armenian labor force in Egypt.162

Much the same as their nationals engaged in other economic ventures, the

craftsmen and artisans of diverse occupations were also scattered throughout the various

districts of Cairo and Alexandria. In other words, they did not seem to have gathered in

a single spot with the exception of Cairo‟s ṣāgha street or Alexandria‟s France street.163

Apart from becoming jewelers, a considerable number of Armenians also featured as

watch vendors, tailors, dressmakers, shoemakers and haberdashers. All of the Armenian

craftsmen and artisans did not merely serve the needs of the working classes; some of

them thanks to the strategic geographical locations of their shops, succeeded in grabbing

the attention of the European haute monde in Egypt. For example, a shoemaker called

Aram had a shop facing the luxurious Savoy Hotel and was frequently visited by

160
Bayramian, The Armenian Press, p. 14.
161
Karl Baedeker, Egypt Handbook for Travellers (Leipzig, 1898): p. lix.
162
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 343, 345, 351.
163
The name of a street appearing in the L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p.1046-1047.

42
European customers.164 Added to this, their skills and tendency to keep pace with and

imitate European trends contributed to their success. The Belayan and Shishmanian

tailors in Cairo claimed American tailoring styles in their workshop.165 The Egavian

brothers in al-Maghrabī street in the Egyptian capital also designated themselves

“American tailors.”166 Some Armenian women, like other urban Egyptian women,

featured in the dressmaking business that allowed them to earn their daily living.167

Thanks to the available examples, it becomes obvious that some Armenian girls chose

to establish dressmaking workshops in Cairo, as in the case of the Azkabedian, and the

more reputed Malezian sisters.168 Perhaps, owing to their cheaper prices and similar

quality product, European residents preferred to buy their dresses from the Malezian

sisters as an alternative to buying them in Paris, the center of the fashion world, and the

more expensive at the time.169 Like dressmakers in Istanbul, the Malezian sisters

familiarized themselves with the recent trends through travelling to European capitals or

by using English or French-language fashion journals and catalogues becoming more

accessible during the British occupation of the country such as The Lady’s Magazine,

Journal des Demoiselles, and the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine.170 In the early

twentieth century, some Armenians, namely, the Ariyans and the Khatchadurians also

featured as skilled fez makers in Cairo, renowned for their high quality products.171

164
Alishan E., “Armenian Craftsmen,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, January 18, 1907.
165
“Belayan-Shishmanian Company,” (Armenian) Nor Or, February 21 – March 6, 1901.
166
L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p. 443.
167
Judith E. Tucker, Women in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1985): p. 86.
168
L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p. 453.
169
Alishan, “Armenian Craftsmen.” In fact, Chalcraft states that the local tailors and dressmakers
produced cheaper cloths and dresses compared to the ones imported from abroad. See John T. Chalcraft,
The Striking Cabbies of Cairo and Other Stories: Crafts and Guilds in Egypt, 1863-1914 (Albany, N.Y.:
State University of New York Press, 2004): p. 113-114.
170
See Nancy Micklewright, “London, Paris, Istanbul, and Cairo: Fashion and International Trade in the
Nineteenth Century,” New Perspectives on Turkey 7 (1992): p. 127, 132.
171
The Egyptian Directory 1913, p. 1614.

43
 Armenians also practiced shoemaking in Cairo and Alexandria. By that time, in

addition to the large influx of European shoes into Egypt, the local shoemakers also

increased the production of European-style shoes selling them at lower prices.172 To

reduce financial risks, some Armenian cobblers might have chosen to establish joint

workshops in collaboration with their male siblings such as the Khatchikian and

Ghazarian brothers in Alexandria, the Der Sdepanian, Kassardjian and Chahrossian

brothers in Cairo. Besides repairing old shoes, they also made new ones. With the

intention of gaining more fame, some Armenian cobblers also adopted French names

for their shops like Au Soleil, Lion d‟Or or Au Petit Parisien.173 As Armenian

newspaper advertisements reveal being responsive to the modern fashion trends in

Egypt, Armenian tailors, dressmakers and cobblers, also put ready-made European-style

dresses and shoes, ties, hats and socks on display.174 Just like the tailors and cobblers,

Armenian watch vendors and mechanics also performed repairs along with selling brand

new products. A client visiting Levon Gumushian‟s shop in Cairo‟s “main commercial

hub”175 Mūskī street, for instance, could have asked him to repair his/her watch and

when this proved to be impossible, could have bought a new one encrusted with nickel,

silver or diamond. It appears that he attempted to please all tastes and a diversity of

social classes; his prices ranged between 22 to 130 piasters for nickel watches, 50 to

200 piasters for the silver, and 120 to 2500 piasters for diamond watches.176 Of course,

Gumushian is just one example of an Armenian watch vendor in Cairo, there were

several others as well like K.E. Selvadjian, whose shop incidentally was also situated in

172
Chalcraft, p. 114
173
L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p. 461, 476, 492, 539, 1109.
174
“Hampar Tavit Merchant-Tailor,” (Armenian) Medrag, May 1, 1908. Medrag appeared in Alexandria
in 1908.
175
Samir Raafat, “The House of Cicurel,” al-Ahram Weekly, December 15, 1994, (accessed February 12,
2019), http://www.egy.com/judaica/94-12-15.php
176
“Levon Gumushian,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, November 17-29, 1899.

44
Mūskī street.177 It is also worth mentioning that back then, some watch sellers also

repaired gramophones and performed jobs that in some ways seemed to overlap with the

profession of the jewelers, given that they too traded in less costly jewelry, earrings and

rings.

Another sector in which Armenians showed mastery was repairing sewing

machines, especially, at a time when the renowned American Singer brand had invaded

numerous homes and tailor shops in the Middle East.178 As a former employee of one of

the branches of the Singer Company, conceivably in Anatolia where most of the given

company‟s agents were located, Sarkis Tashdjian (in Cairo), became proficient in

mending machinery carrying this trademark. This earned him an extra living for he was

employed in a Greek-owned arms-repairing and modification joint. This bit of

information also indicates that not all Armenians ran their private shops, but some of

them were employed by others; in this case by members of other minority groups.179

According to the Egyptian Directory of 1913, some Armenians carried the

profession of blacksmiths with them to Egypt. Two of the most prominent Armenian

figures in this field were Sarkis Madjarian and Sarkis Kaikdjian, both of them

specializing in the manufacturing of iron doors. What is interesting, however, is that

Madjarian even proudly advertised himself as the first importer of iron doors to Egypt

in 1896, following his escape from Istanbul, where he originally practiced the same

profession for more than 20 years (starting in about 1877).180

177
See, “K. Selvadjian,” (Armenian) Punig, September 1, 1899, and also L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p.
614. In fact, the shop had an advertisement in Arabic in the L’Annuaire Égyptien, see Appendix I.
178
Uri M. Kupferschmidt, “The Social History of the Sewing Machine in the Middle East,” Die Welt des
Islams 44/2 (2004): p. 201-204.
179
“Sarkis H. Tashdjian,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, September 24-October 7, 1908.
180
The Egyptian Directory 1913, p. xxi, xxiii.

45
 Armenians in Egypt also managed to penetrate what can be described as the

fields of applied sciences and arts like engineering and architecture. Unfortunately, the

sources consulted do not contain much information about the accomplishments of such

Armenian engineers like Ya„qub Dzaghikian, Agop Boyadjian, J. Margosoff.181 One

exception, however, was engineer-contractor Agop Hagopian, moving to Egypt in 1897,

where he immediately established a “workshop for mechanical repairs” in Cairo starting

in 1897. Besides various restorations, he tried to promote his recent invention, namely,

what he described as the Agopian‟s artesian well-system, which, it appears, had gained

much fame in England and Ottoman Turkey.182

Garo Balian, a graduate from the Imperial School of Fine Arts and a scion of the

famous aristocratic Balian family of Istanbul, whose members served as court architects

under six Ottoman sultans for more than three generations, was one of the renowned

Armenian architects in Egypt. At present, sadly, there is more literature on Balian‟s

ancestors in Istanbul than about him. Nevertheless, there is enough information to allow

us to reconstruct what was a brilliant career in Egypt.183 Garo Balian‟s picture and his

short biography appearing in Arnold Wright‟s Twentieth Century Impressions of Egypt

attest to this fact. We know that he permanently relocated to Egypt in 1903 after his

residence in Bulgaria for about seven years, where he had designed a number of

landmark buildings and monuments, most importantly, Sofia‟s Military Club and the

181
L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p. 466, 1106, 1186-1187 and Poffandi, Indicateur Égyptien 1904, p. 110.
182
The Egyptian Directory 1913, p. xvii.
183
To learn more about the Balians, see Hagop Barsoumian, “The Armenian Amira Class of Istanbul,”
(Columbia University, PhD Diss., 1980). See also Alyson Wharton, The Architects of Ottoman
Constantinople: The Balyan Family and the History of Ottoman Architecture (London: IB Tauris, 2015).
In fact, some of Garo Balian‟s (1872-1948) correspondences with Ahmad Shafīq Pasha, one of the co-
founders of the Egyptian University, are preserved in the Special Collections of Durham University.
Check the link (accessed February 13, 2019),
http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ark/32150_s18049g504c.xml

46
Monument of Liberty in Roustchouk commemorating the war between Bulgaria and

Serbia.184

Although a non-native young man and despite the fierce competition in Egypt,

Balian participated in important architectural projects and possessed well-established

contacts with local and foreign elites. During his early years in Egypt, Balian worked in

the offices of Dimitri Fabricius Pasha, the Khedive‟s chief architect. Together they

designed the buildings of several educational and commercial institutions such as the

Egyptian University (later known as the King Fu„ad University) and a number of

buildings owned by the Belgian Société Belge-Égyptienne de L‟Ezbekiyye (an urban

land company) among others. After Fabricius‟ death in 1907, Balian set up his own

architectural office and continued his „extraordinary‟ career in Egypt.185 Apparently, his

fame extended throughout Cairo and, especially, among the leading Jewish merchants,

namely, Moreno Cicurel and the Chemla brothers, who, in competition with one

another, commissioned Balian to build their multi-storied emporiums in one of Cairo‟s

main thoroughfares.186 Added to these, Moise Solomon Green entrusted the design of

three buildings to Balian.187 An article published about Balian in 1912 also informs us

that he designed a building for the renowned cigarette producing Matossians in Cairo,188

who, at a later stage, commissioned him to design a kiosk for them to be used for

displaying their various products in the Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition of Cairo

184
Garo Balian: An Ottoman Court Architect in Modern Egypt: An Exhibition of Photographs of the
Works of the Architect, 23 February-24 March 1994, the Sony Gallery, Adham Center, the American
University in Cairo (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1994): p. 4.
185
Ibid.
186
Arnold Wright and H.A. Cartwright, eds. Twentieth Century Impressions of Egypt: Its History, People,
Commerce, Industries and Resources (London, 1909): 362. Samir Raafat, “The House of Cicurel,” al-
Ahram Weekly, December 15, 1994, (accessed February 12, 2019), http://www.egy.com/judaica/94-12-
15.php
187
Samir Raafat, “Souk el Tewfikia,”Cairo Times, 29 October 1998, (accessed April 18, 2019),
http://www.egy.com/landmarks/98-10-29.php
188
Suren Bartevian, “Garo Balian,” (Armenian) Hosank, 22 May 1912, p. 250, (accessed April 22, 2019),
http://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20AMSAGIR/Hosanq/1912/1912(16).pdf

47
in 1926.189 Out of his curiosity in and passion for Islamic art, at some point in 1915,

Balian even composed a 253-page book (in Armenian) carrying the title Egypt and Arab

Architecture published in the Egyptian capital.190 This important book is not yet

digitized and hence is currently not easily accessible.191

189
“The Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition, Cairo,” Architecture, September 1926, p. 143.
190
The book was printed by Cairo‟s Zareh Beberian publishing house, (accessed April 5, 2019),
http://haygirk.nla.am/cgi-bin/koha/opac-
detail.pl?biblionumber=53646&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20%D5%A5%D5%A3%D5%AB%D5%
BA%D5%BF%D5%B8%D5%BD
191
At a later stage, Balian also designed the Saint Theresa Armenian Catholic Church, „Amr Ibrāhīm
Villa in Zamalek (in 1922), the Egyptian Museum of Ceramics (in 1925) as well as the Armenian
Orthodox Church in Zagazig. Thus, as Nairy Hampikian states, “Balian left an undeniable mark on the
building heritage of Cairo.” See “One Constructor, One Conservationist,” al-Ahram Weekly, April 30 -
May 6, 2009, (accessed April 12, 2019), http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2009/945/fe3.htm. See also
“Photo Essay: Egypt‟s Armenians,” (accessed April 12, 2019),
https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/61405. Balian should also be remembered for designing the
Ya„qubian building, one of the prestigious and opulent buildings in downtown Cairo built in the 1930s,
and around which „Ala‟ al-Aswany wrote a best-selling novel called ‘Imārat Ya‘qubian in Arabic in
2002. In addition, he also served his people in the Ottoman provinces by designing the AGBU‟s
Teachers‟ College in Van and its Kelegian Orphanage in Dörtyol (Alexandretta).

48
 CHAPTER IV

A LITTLE ARMENIAN KINGDOM

OF CIGARETTES AND CAMERAS: EGYPT
DURING THE FIN DE SIÈCLE

In 2007, writing nostalgically about Egypt‟s long-dead cosmopolitan past, Bruce

Fleming noted that many of the cigarette manufacturers in the country used to be of

Armenian, Greek, and Jewish origins.192 This also holds true for Bulgaria, where an

Armenian of Ottoman extraction named Megerditch Tomassian was the “founding

father” of the country‟s tobacco industry.193 Apart from cigarette production,

photography was also another occupation in which Armenians excelled for many

decades, not only in Egypt but also in the entirity of what became the Middle East.

Beginning with the last two decades of the nineteenth century, with the voluntary or

involuntary migration of Ottoman Armenians from their ancestral towns and cities in

Anatolia, a large number of cigarette producers and photographers also made their way

to Egypt. What is significant is that their large number was disproportionate to their

small demographic configuration, thereby, constituting, as it were, what can be

described as a “little kingdom” within the actual Egyptian kingdom (i.e., the

Khedivate).

This chapter does not aim to provide a comprehensive history of tobacco or

photography in Egypt. It is rather an attempt to elaborate the less-studied role of

Armenians in, and their contribution to, these two sectors of the Egyptian economy, in

192
Bruce Fleming, “In the Brief Egyptian Spring,” The Antioch Review 65/4 (2007): p. 643.
193
See Relli Shechter, “Selling Luxury: The Rise of the Egyptian Cigarette and the Transformation of the
Egyptian Tobacco Market, 1850-1914,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 35 (2003): p. 60,
and Mary C. Neuburger, Balkan Smoke: Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 2016): p. 51.

49
light of newly identified and still untapped primary sources. In addition, this chapter

also seeks to give voice to the often-neglected, but essential, subalterns employed by

Armenian-owned cigarette factories.

A. Cigarettes

1. From Small Tobacco Merchants to Entrepreneurs: The Birth of Armenian

Cigarette Workshops and Factories in Egypt

The manufacture of cigarettes by Armenians in Egypt preceded the massive

migration of Ottoman Armenians by more than a decade. What were the actual cause(s)

that led to the relocation of several Armenian cigarette producers from Anatolia to

Egypt? First, in 1872, the Ottoman state established the Tobacco Monopoly

Administration to manage the proceeds generated by the lucrative tobacco trade, a

position it maintained until 1877. Then, following the Empire‟s bankruptcy in 1875 and

its devastating defeat in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the tobacco monopoly

was ceded to the European-controlled Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA,

founded in 1881), created exclusively to administer the state‟s revenues in order to

regularize repayment of the debts previously incurred by the Ottoman government.

Finally, in 1883, the OPDA bequeathed its tobacco monopoly rights to the Ottoman

Régie Company formed by a consortium of European financial institutions (the

Ottoman Bank, the Crédit Ansalt, and the Bleichröder banks).194

As Donald Quataert has noted, the Régie proved to be both beneficial and

deleterious to different segments of Ottoman society at the same time. Apart from

creating a wide range of employment opportunities for thousands of Ottoman subjects

194
Can Nacar, “The Régie Monopoly and Tobacco Workers in Late Ottoman Istanbul,” Comparative
Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 34/1 (2014): p. 207-208.

50
(approximately 4000-4500 people), the inauguration of the Régie also delivered a

significant blow to the already-operating tobacco cultivators, cigarette manufacturers,

money lenders, and cigarette retailers of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.195 It

came to control every single step of the tobacco production cycle from growing the crop

to the point of determining the prices of manufactured cigarettes in the market.196 This

brought about a wave of hostility and aversion against the said company‟s self-interest,

both in terms of prices and the obligation of collecting debts formerly incurred by the

Ottoman government, compelling local tobacco cultivators to sell their harvests at cheap

prices and closing down more than 300 cigarette factories in Anatolia in favor of its

own.197 These developments no doubt explain why at this particular moment in time

several Armenian tobacconists chose to settle on Egyptian soil, encouraged to do so by

the country‟s more liberal political and economic environment, the availability of

abundant and inexpensive labor force, as well as its suitable climate for the processing

of a variety of cigarette types.198

Apart from the other Armenian cigarette producers, the Matossians and

Melkonians came to Egypt immediately after the formation of the Régie, in 1882.

Hovhaness Matossian was among the first Ottoman Armenians to settle in Egypt and

get involved in the tobacco industry there. Drawing on his experience as a young

tobacco merchant and a cigarette producer in Bafra, Samsun, and Tokat in Northern

Anatolia, he founded the Matossian Tobacco Commercial House in Alexandria.

195
Donald Quataert, Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire, 1881-1908:
Reactions to European Economic Penetration (New York, London: New York University Press, 1983): p.
15-18. In 1899, the Régie employed around 8814 people.
196
Joan Chaker, “Eastern Tobacco and the Ottoman Régie: A History of Financiers in the Age of
Empire,” (MA diss., American University of Beirut, 2012): p. 64.
197
Quataert, p. 20 and Nacar, p. 208.
198
Shechter, “Selling Luxury,” p. 54. By 1911, only 12 cigarette producing factories functioned in
Anatolia dispersed between Istanbul, Samsun, Smyrna and Salonica. See Quataert, p. 17-18. Georges
Lecarpentier, L’Égypte Moderne (Paris: P. Roger, 1925): p. 81.

51
Observing his brother‟s economic successes, Garabed, Matossian‟s younger brother, left

his ancestral homeland in 1886 and took up residence in Egypt. He established a

separate business in Cairo known as the Garabed Matossian Tobacco Company. Almost

a decade later, in 1896, most probably, to guard against financial risks in a highly

competitive market, both businesses were amalgamated giving birth to the O. and G.

Matossian Co. headquartered in Cairo with an initial capital of £E 100,000 divisible into

10,000 shares, which were distributed solely among the members of the Matossian

family. The company in time turned into one of the most famous Armenian cigarette

factories inside or outside Egypt. Its capital rocketed to £E 150,000 and its branches

spread well beyond Cairo, in places like Tanṭa and Aṣyuṭ.199

In 1882, like the Matossians, the two affluent brothers Krikor and Garabed

Melkonian of Kayseri also moved to Egypt. Strikingly, in a period not longer than six

years since their arrival, the Melkonians succeeded in establishing a cigarette factory in

Cairo as well as tobacco shops in various parts of the country creating, in the process,

many job opportunities for the locals and their own nationals. This, of course, was also

true for the other Armenian factories as well. Other than the Matossians and the

Melkonians, and due to political push factors, the Gamsaragans also chose to transfer

their tobacco trade to Egypt from Istanbul, where they had run a tobacco business since

1856. Their decision to depart was mostly influenced by the rising intolerance of

Armenians in Ottoman domains but also due to Egypt‟s expanding economy. In 1894,

immediately after their arrival in Egypt, the two sons of Khatchadur Gamsaragan,

namely Armenag and Dikran, established a cigarette factory in Zagazig in Lower Egypt

199
“Hovhaness Bey Matossian,” (Armenian) Arev, February 23, 1927. The Egyptian government
decorated Matossian with the Nile order and conferred upon him the first and second levels of beyship.
According to Rif„at, 15 years before Matossian‟s arrival in Egypt, the Sarkissian factory was the first
Armenian cigarette producer, established in 1867. See Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 326. Arev was published in
Alexandria starting in 1915.

52
replacing, as it were, their former factory in Smyrna which had functioned until the

formation of the Ottoman Régie in 1883.200

Together with the Armenian émigrés from the Ottoman territories, Neshan and

Hapet Hadjetian brothers of Arapgir (in the Malatya province) also ended up on the

banks of the Nile at a young age.201 Their cigarette factory came into being in 1896

through the efforts of Neshan. Soon, they also opened a shop in the prestigious district

of Azbakiyya nearby the Shepheard‟s Hotel. In addition to selling their cigarettes, the

Hadjetians also imported a variety of European cigars and Persian tembek to be sold in

their store.202 Beside these firms, there were many smaller Armenian factories such as

the Sanossians in Cairo, the Megerian-Manugian-Arabdjian again situated in the

Egyptian capital203 as well as Kevork Ipekian‟s factory in Alexandria.204 Most of the

Armenian-owned firms were in family related hands throughout their years of operation.

In certain instances, some cigarette factories came into being when former

employees of some renowned Armenian companies, decided to go at it on their own,

but failed in the end, leaving hardly any traces. Two exceptions, however, merit

attention. G. Dudian began his career as the chief tobacco blender in the Matossian firm,

but joined forces with a certain Aslan and together they set up a new factory that

produced different types of cigarettes. A measure of their success is indicated by the

fact that they maintained major premises in Cairo which served as an outlet for their

200
“Egyptian Armenian Excellence in the Tobacco Industry,” (Armenian) Yekibdahay Daretsuytse 1914,
p. 181, 183-184.
201
Neshan Hadjetian came to Egypt in 1896 (at age 30), while his brother Hapet followed in 1898 (at age
25). They were both married and worked as tobacco merchants. The latter also had the privilege of
carrying British citizenship. Mrs. Armin Kredian generously provided these data based on the census
conducted by the Armenian Prelacy of Cairo in 1906.
202
“N. and A. Hadjetian Brothers,” (Armenian) Azad Pem, December 5, 1906.
203
Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 327.
204
“Egyptian Armenian Excellence,” p. 184-185.

53
hand-made and machine-made products.205 The second was Harutyun Tchaylakian. In

1882, he too landed on Egyptian soil with his maternal uncles Krikor and Garabed

Melkonian. After many years of work in their factory, he established his separate firm,

which did not survive beyond one year owing to stiff competition, and the devastating

consequences of the great economic depression of 1907. In the end, Tchaylakian had no

other choice but to end his venture and to rejoin the Melkonian factory. Its owners

Garabed and Krikor apparently appreciated his valuable expertise, and hence appointed

their prodigal nephew as their factory‟s managing director.206

Towards the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries,

around half a dozen Armenian cigarette factories were to emerge in Egypt seeking to

meet the growing local and international market demands. Unfortunately, Relli

Schechter has failed to provide us with a comprehensive list of Egyptian cigarette

factories and on that account the names of most Armenian cigarette factories in Egypt,

except for a few, still remain unknown.

Apart from running cigarette factories, Armenians also established smaller-scale

tobacco and cigarette distribution shops in Egypt. Hovhannes Pembedjian is a good

example in this respect. In addition to producing cigarettes in his small workshop,

Pembedjian also traded various brands of Egyptian and British-American cigarettes in

his shop in Cairo.207 Owing to a deficiency in cigar production in Egypt, and eager to

meet the growing upper class demand for them, the V. and S. Prudian, brothers in

205
“Dudian Aslan and Co.,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, March 22- April 4, 1900.
206
“Harutyun Tchaylakian,” (Armenian) Yekibdahay Daretsuytse 1919, p. 81-82.
207
“A Big Workshop of Eastern and Egyptian Cigarettes,” (Armenian) Bardez, November 1, 1903.

54
Alexandria, imported the commodity, known as the Sultaniyye cigars, produced by the

Adjemian-Gunchegulian company in Istanbul.208

2. The Egyptian Armenian Cigarette in the Local and the Global Market

As cigarettes gradually evolved into a universal icon of modernity the rate of

their consumption increased considerably in the nineteenth century both in Egypt and

worldwide.209 During the same period, the Egyptian cigarette, in particular, also gained

popularity and fame both locally and globally. The British, for example, in their home

country and colonies, preferred it over the American blends to the point of “deifying it

into a God itself.”210 In the face of the ever-increasing demands, the numerous factories

in Egypt had to work day and night to supply the needs of the local and the global

markets. Most of the Egyptian cigarettes were initially made from locally cultivated or

imported tobacco from the Ottoman Empire; however, the signing of the Greco-

Egyptian Treaty in March 1884 signified a major breakthrough as larger quantities of

Greek tobacco leaves became readily available. Imports further escalated after June 25,

1890 with the banning of tobacco cultivation in Egypt. Shechter claims that this

happened in anticipation of greater and more immediate financial returns.211 At the turn

of the century, the sale of tobacco and cigarettes, all in all, contributed to around 10 %

of total Egyptian treasury receipts, the export of cigarettes exceeding the export of all

208
“Maintaining Your Health Despite Smoking the Sultaniyye Cigar,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, June 1-14,
1910.
209
Shechter, “Selling Luxury,” p. 53. Actually, there were around 37 cigarette factories only in Cairo in
1914 most of them concentrated in the hands of Greeks and Armenians. See Achille Sékaly, “La
Commerce Du Tabac Au Point de Vue de L‟économie Égyptienne,” L’Égypte Contemporaine:
Cinquième Année (January 1914): p. 351.
210
Matthew Hilton, Smoking in British Popular Culture, 1800-2000: Perfect Pleasures (Manchester and
New York: Manchester University Press, 2000): p. 27-28, 32.
211
Shechter, “Selling Luxury,” p. 56.

55
other manufactured commodities including textiles.212 It is remarkable that for the first

time in modern Egyptian history the periphery started supplying the global center (i.e.

the West) with locally manufactured finished products.

Quite to the contrary to what Shechter, Beinin, and Lockman have suggested the

Egyptian Armenian cigarette was not only meant for local consumption. Available

sources show that Armenian cigarette manufacturers not only met local Egyptian

demand, but also catered to overseas markets.213 It is not a mere coincidence that,

according to British Consular Reports, the amount of Egyptian cigarette exports

dramatically increased from 230,800 kg in 1895 to 702,800 kg in 1905, which is by

about 150%.214 We can safely assume that the Armenian cigarette manufactories must

have contributed to this rapid rise in cigarette export. In fact, some Egyptian Armenian

cigarette brands easily penetrated British and French markets, in particular those

produced by the Matossians, who besides being “one of the chief cigarette and tobacco

manufacturers in Egypt” were a major competitor of the Greek-owned Melachrino and

Gianaclis brands.215 The Matossians proudly announced that they acted as “purveyors of

[cigarette] to the [British] Army of Occupation”216 and also distributed their Sun “gold-

tipped” brand in Paris and other European capitals.217 With the intention to further

212
Relli Schechter, Smoking, Culture and Economy in the Middle East: The Egyptian Tobacco Market
1850-2000 (London: IB Tauris, 2006): p. 79 and Schechter, “Selling Luxury,” p. 55. About the necessity
for reintroducing tobacco plantation in Egypt, see A. Sékaly, p. 358.
213
Shechter, Smoking, Culture and Economy, p. 79. See Beinin and Lockman, Workers on the Nile, p. 50.
214
Report on the Finances, Administration, and Condition of Egypt and the Progress of Reforms
(London: 1895): p. 8 and Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finances,
Administration, and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1905 (London: 1906): p. 30.
215
“Egyptian Cigarettes and Tobacco,” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 59/3034 (January, 1911): p.
201.
216
The Lands of Sunshine: A Practical Guide to Egypt and Sudan (Cairo: Whitehead Morris and Co.,
1908): p. 109.
217
The evidence for this statement is confirmed by an announcement appearing in 1908 in the Paris-based
New York Herald advertising that the “gold-tipped” Sun brand of the „Egyptian‟ Matossian cigarette is
available in “all the Paris tobacco shops.”

56
promote the same cigarette brand and to increase its consumption by people of both

genders, an advertisement in a widely distributed paper published the following:

… when a stylish Parisian woman asks you for cigarettes, give her, if you would like
her to smile sweetly at you, a box of the exquisite Matossian Egyptian Cigarettes, with
gold tips, “Sun” brand.218

Another evidence for the circulation of the luxurious Matossian cigarettes

abroad was apparent from the fact that the Matossians had a special box made from tin

specially used for export purposes. Until the First World War and after, the Matossians

remained one of the most important Armenian firms in Egypt and in fact when asked to

join the American Tobacco Trust Company, Hovhanness Matossian refused the offer.219

Like the Matossians, perhaps, envious of and eager to emulate their rival‟s

economic accomplishments, the Hadjetians, too, aspired to spread their cigarette beyond

the narrow borders of Egypt into the far-flung British Empire. In 1910, Hapet Effendi

Hadjetian, a naturalized British citizen, travelled from Egypt to Great Britain in order to

establish a representative office for the Hadjetian Tobacco and Cigarettes Company in

the British capital. In doing so, they aimed to sell their brand of Egyptian cigarettes to

“English and Colonial consumers” and “open out to the World market,” under the

directorship of the Englishman Walter G. Crombie, as stated in the firm‟s English-

language announcement in the Armenian periodical Arshaluys.220 On January 11, 1911,

the nominal capital of the company in London, located in Conduit Street, amounted to

£500. Existing records suggest that the company did not reap considerable returns. In

fact, using the terms of the original documents, the British branch located in London

218
“New Cigarettes,” The New York Herald, October 14, 1908, and “Egyptian Cigarettes,” The New York
Herald, November 4, 1908. See the advertisement in Appendix I.
219
“Egyptian Cigarettes and Tobacco,” p. 202. About the negotiations of the American Tobacco
Millionaire Mr. Schinasi with Matossian, see “Gamsaragan Freres, Ltd.” The Near East, March 20, 1914,
p. 653.
220
“The Hadjetian Freres of Cairo,” (English) Arshaluys, December 22 – January 4, 1911. See the
advertisement in Appendix I.

57
was wound up by the „British Supreme Court‟ for its failure to pay its debt amounting to

£148.5 to a certain Mr. Tillotson, apparently a partner of the Hadjetians.221

Apart from competing for securing a place in the global market, Armenian and

other Egyptian tobacco firms did their utmost, whether legally or illegally, to boost their

trade in the local market as well. As Shechter has noted, the Gamsaragans, for instance,

were the third largest manufacturers and suppliers of cigarettes in Lower and Upper

Egypt. They were mostly known for their widely consumed “Abu Nigme” cigarette.

However, in 1896, as it appears from Arabic and Armenian periodical advertisements,

some competitors tried to produce and sell an imitated version of the same cigarette

brand. To avoid further counterfeits, as a last resort, the Gamsaragan brothers reported

the issue to the Egyptian courts.222 A few years later, a similar incident happened with

the Matossians. Driven by the desire to take advantage of the reputation of the

Matossian firm and hence amplify their profits, the Sanossians, another small Armenian

cigarette factory, utilized a trademark very similar to that of the Matossians. This

generated great confusion among the loyal customers of the Matossian firm, who

unconsciously bought the Sanossian cigarettes causing a sudden drop in the sales of the

latter company.223 In any event, as it turns out, there were also other attempts to

undercut the sales of the Matossians. In 1896, some natives, perhaps eager to damage

foreign economic interest in Egypt, circulated rumors to the effect that the Matossian

221
See the File of Proceedings in the Matter of Hadjetian Ltd. in the United Kingdom National Archives,
reference: J13/5899.
222
Shechter, Smoking, Culture and Economy, p. 51, 86. See also al-Ahrām December 26, 1896 and
“Announcement of the Gamsaragan Brothers,” (Armenian) Lusaper-Arev, June 14, 1910.
223
Jurisprudence des Tribunaux de la Réforme en Égypte Recueil Officiel Arréts de la cour d’Appel
d’Alexandrie, Année Judiciare 1899-1900 (Alexandria, 1901): p. 413.

58
cigarettes were detrimental to health for carrying plague germs. Al-Muqaṭṭam, however,

citing the opinions of Egyptian doctors, contested these claims.224

Facing all challenges, the Matossians continued to produce around 11 different

brands of cigarettes such as “Mulūkī,” “Abū Rīha,” among others, with prices ranging

between 35 to 120 piasters per uqa.225 The Melkonians, on the other hand, came next to

the Matossians in the Egyptian market and sold the famous “Ma„dan” cigarette in both

retail and wholesale.226 As part of their advertising campaigns, the Gamsaragans

regularly advertised their prices in local Egyptian newspapers, while others like the

Matossians and the Hadjetians attempting to reach a larger number of foreign customers

as well as members of the Egyptian elite, preferred to advertise in foreign-language

media like the Indicateur Égyptien, and the Paris-based New York Herald among

others.227 By contrast, the Melkonians do not appear to have resorted to advertising

their products until the end of World War I.

3. Labor Strikes in Armenian Cigarette Factories in Egypt

Starting in the 1980s, there grew a body of literature dealing with labor history

in the Middle East. Speaking about Egypt, most historians tend to identify the year 1899

as the „real‟ starting point for labor activism in the country on account of the long-

lasting and fairly well-organized strikes taking place in multiple cigarette factories

mostly located in Cairo. The causes behind the eruption of labor unrest in Egypt and the

formation of labor unions is due to a mixture of internal and external factors. Both

Anthony Gorman and Ilham Khuri-Makdisi attribute these developments to the

224
“Dukhān Mātossian,” al-Muqaṭṭam, July 6, 1896.
225
“I„lān O. wa J. Mātossian wa sharikāh,” al-Muqaṭṭam, April 10, 1897.
226
Shechter, Smoking, Culture and Economy, p. 81, 83.
227
Shechter, “Selling Luxury,” p. 66.

59
presence of foreign, migrant workers in Egypt, mostly Italians and Greeks, affiliated to

radical global networks. These individuals, inspired by famous Russian anarchist

philosopher Mikhail Bakunin‟s line of thinking, defied capitalism and institutional

hierarchies regarding them as mere tools for “repression” and “authoritarian rule.”

Relying on modern media, they disseminated Bakunin‟s revolutionary ideas among

Egypt‟s multinational workers via publishing some newspapers like La Tribuna Libera

and L’Operaio, as well as circulating manifestos conveying similar political messages.

Galvanized by this militant literature, and alienated by growing competition, tobacco

workers opted to go on strikes in defense of their collective rights.228 According to

Beinin and Lockman, first, workers were not guaranteed long-term employment.

Second, they had very long working hours (around 10 to 15 hours per day), and no

vacations even on Sundays. In other words, the laborers were deprived of basic

necessities, let alone life‟s pleasures. As might be expected, all these elements played a

role in the labor upsurge in Egypt spearheaded by the cigarette workers.229

These cigarette workers‟ strikes have attracted the attention of current historians

as they signaled the first major proletarian/capitalist confrontation, in which workers,

irrespective of their national differences, were united.230 My aim here is not to write a

full account of labor activism in Egypt, but only bring to the fore the occasions in which

Armenian workers were involved. As strikes erupted in the various Egyptian cigarette

factories in Cairo in December 1899, the multi-national pool of workers of Armenian-

owned manufactories also became involved in them. Around 900 cigarette workers

228
Anthony Gorman, “Foreign Workers in Egypt, 1882-1914: Subaltern or Labour Elite?” in Subalterns
and Social Protest: History from Below in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. Stephanie Cronin (New
York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2008): p. 237, 242-243. Makdisi, The Eastern Mediterranean, p. 149.
229
Lockman and Beinin, Workers on the Nile, p. 32, 33, 37, 40, 55.
230
Zachary Lockman, “Worker” and “Working Class” in Pre-1914 Egypt: A Rereading,” in Workers and
Working Class in the Middle East, ed. Zachary Lockman (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1994): p. 88-89.

60
throughout Cairo, among them Armenians, partook in the ongoing strikes with the

ultimate hope of pressuring the factory owners to raise their wages and prohibit the

arbitrary dismissal of manual laborers.231 Among the numerous Armenian cigarette

factories, only some of the events occurring at the Matossian firm during 1899 and early

1900s are recorded for it was the largest Armenian company employing around 1,200 to

1,500 workers232 or because no significant events cropped up at the other Armenian

firms. It is to be noted, however, that the first labor union, the precursor of later formed

internationalist associations in Egypt, championing the rights of cigarette rollers

actually emerged at the Matossian plant.233

Keeping pace with the technological advancements taking place in the British

Empire, the Matossians also shifted from small to large-scale production.234 Just like

their Greek competitors, they, too, made use of around 15 tobacco-cutting machines, all

manufactured in England.235 Beginning towards the late 1890s, they tended to hire less

expensive Egyptian workers as substitutes for Armenians because the latter, in the eyes

of the Matossians, seemed to be hard-to-please.236 But, still, some of their nationals

continued to be employed in the factory along with Syrians, Greeks, and Egyptians, all

in all, constituting around 200 people. The Matossian brothers, like any other group of

231
Ra„uf „Abbās Ḥamīd Muhammad, al-Ḥaraka al-‘ummāliyya fī miṣr, 1899-1952 (Cairo: 1967): p. 51.
Rif„at al-Sa„īd, Tārīkh al-ḥaraka al-ishtirākiyya fī miṣr, 1900-1925, fifth edition (Cairo, 1981): p. 177.
232
“Egyptian Cigarettes and Tobacco,” p. 202.
233
Lockman, “Worker” and “Working Class,” p. 88-89.
234
Shechter, “Selling Luxury,” p. 55-58. As in Egypt, in Britain, large groups of girls and women used to
roll the cigarettes; however, starting from 1883, the British relied on modern machinery to boost their
cigarette production. In fact, James T. Bonsack is claimed to have been the first to purchase a cigarette
rolling machine in Britain and thus contribute to what is described as the „Second Industrial Revolution.‟
See Hilton, p. 84, 86.
235
“Egyptian Cigarettes and Tobacco,” p. 202.
236
“The Issue of Strike,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, December 25, 1899 – January 6, 1900.

61
capitalists, desired a return to normalcy. As a result, through police intervention, they

got rid of all the troublesome and riotous workers.237

A few years later, in December 1903, the second wave of strikes broke out again

in the cigarette factories in Cairo. But, this time, the situation was much tenser. The

factory owners refused to raise wages, and, moreover, announced a general cut in

monthly payments. As a result, severe violence exploded in some firms. It was in such

circumstances that a labor union, although a weak one, materialized at the Matossian

factory. This set the precedent for the emergence of the International Union of Cigarette

Workers and Rollers in the Egyptian capital in 1908.238

What is significant is that the process of establishing labor unions and

organizing strikes broke rigid interethnic boundaries, paving the way for closer

cooperation and collaboration between workers of diverse ethnic origins. Thus

Armenian, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian laborers were united. Emulating the workers‟

union at the Matossian factory, people of other professions also formed associations to

protect their collective rights in the face of mounting capitalist exploitation. Before

long, workers‟ unions of many sorts came into being: among them were the carpenters‟,

blacksmiths‟, mechanics‟, cooks‟, engravers‟, shoemakers‟, tailors‟, and railway

workers‟. Such were the developments that eventually forged a working class

consciousness in Egypt.239 In fact, as Makdisi has pointed out, strikes were “contagious”

and regarded as a legitimate means to resist continual capitalist exploitation.240

237
See Gorman, p. 252, 258.
238
Ibid, p. 244.
239
Muhammad, p. 62. Makdisi, The Eastern Mediterranean, p. 141.
240
Yavuz Selim Karakışla, “The Emergence of the Ottoman Industrial Working Class, 1839-1923,” in
Workers and the Working Class in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic 1839-1950, ed. Donald
Quataert and Erik J. Zücher (London, New York: Tauris Academic Studies, 1995): p. 22, 27, 30. Makdisi,
The Eastern Mediterranean, p. 147.

62
B. Cameras

1. Armenian Photographers in Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt

Apart from cigarette production, Armenians also pioneered in the field of

photography. As Stephen Sheehi has put it, the history of Armenian photography in the

Middle East is a topic that merits an investigation on its own. A disproportionately large

number of Armenians were involved in this domain starting from its formative years in

the mid-nineteenth century, when, after the termination of the Crimean War in 1856, it

was first introduced by veteran Europeans.241

Within a short period of time and driven by various, yet to be explored

considerations, Armenians scattered across different Ottoman cities and towns came to

establish extensive photography networks, and in some instances even ethnically

monopolize the business for long decades to come. Thus, they contributed to the

European-initiated “Westernization/Modernization” project. As Sarah Graham-Brown

has argued, among the obvious motives that propelled nineteenth-century Armenians to

become photographers was their intimate connections with Europeans and European

culture as well as their earlier mastery of various crafts such as metalworking, engraving

and miniature painting.242 As a result, 163 photographers of Ottoman Armenian descent

241
Stephen Sheehi, The Arab Imago: A Social History of Portrait Photography, 1860-1910 (Princeton
and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2016): p. xxxvi. Currently, a group of art historians in
collaboration with the Armenian Ministry of Culture are in the process of establishing an online database
containing entries on Armenian photographers in different parts of the world, including the Middle East.
The website allows researchers to find brief biographical information, photographic albums, and
bibliographies pertaining to Armenian photography. See http://www.lusarvest.org/en/ (accessed February
27, 2019). See also Badr El-Hage, “The Armenian Pioneers of Middle Eastern Photography,” Jerusalem
Quarterly 31 (2007): 25.
242
Sarah Graham-Brown, Images of Women: The Portrayal of Women in Photography of the Middle
East, 1860-1950 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988): p. 38, 54-56.

63
were found in Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean including Egypt by the outbreak

of WWI.243

Learning the basics of their profession from Europeans practicing it in Istanbul,

the Abdullah[ian] Freres (Viken, Hovsep and Kevork) of Istanbul ranked among the

first and oldest Armenian photographers in the Middle East. What is remarkable is that

within a relatively short period of time, the Abdullah brothers, owing to their growing

reputation, became the royal photographers of the Ottoman court, a prestigious position

accorded by Sultan Abdül Aziz and continuing to be maintained under Sultan Abdül

Hamid II. In fact, in 1874, the Abdullah Freres were granted “…the exclusive copyright

on all photographic portraits of the imperial Ottoman family.”244 They were even

commissioned by the Sultan to compile around 58 photographic albums summarizing

the Empire‟s latest achievements to be forwarded to the heads of Western states

including France, Great Britain, the USA, and Germany. Obviously, in one way or

another, the famous Abdullah brothers decisively influenced the later body of emerging

Armenian photographers in the Near East. This particularly holds true for Yessayi

Garabedian, the later Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, who before joining the

Armenian ecclesiastical order, apprenticed photography in their studio. At a later stage

in his life, despite his high church ranking, Garabedian established a training workshop

within the premises of the St. James Armenian Monastery in Jerusalem, which

eventually played a crucial role in the spread of photography in the Eastern

Mediterranean. It is claimed that ultimately around five generations of Armenian

photographers matriculated from this academy including Garabed Krikorian of

243
Engin Özendes, Photography in the Ottoman Empire, 1839-1923 (Istanbul: Yem Yayn, 2013): p. 58-
85. Armenian photographers were to be found in the Ottoman capital, in large provincial capitals as well
as in the main cities of Anatolia.
244
Brown, p. 55, 56.

64
Jerusalem, in his turn the mentor of Khalil Ra„ad, more commonly known as the first

Arab photographer in Palestine.245 Another famous family of photographers in the

Levant was that of the Sarrafian brothers: Abraham, Boghos, and Samuel, natives of

Diyarbakir, but later, in 1897, relocating to late Ottoman Beirut, as a consequence of the

turbulent political conditions in Anatolia.246

Like cigarette manufacturers, some Armenian photographers came to Egypt in

the late 1880s. The majority, however, moved to the country as a result of the Empire‟s

deteriorating political atmosphere. They mostly resided and worked in Cairo, while,

only one or two Armenian photographers operated in Alexandria. In the Egyptian

capital one finds the studios and workshops of M. Adjemian, Arakel Artinian, Carlo

Bukmedjian, Sedefgian, Utudjian, A. Salkimian, Gober Benlian, the Abdullah brothers,

and, of course, last but not least, Gabriel Lekegian.247 As in the case of the cigarette

manufacturing industry, so too in photography, following some years of apprenticeship,

in prestigious Armenian studios like that the of the Abdullah Brothers or Lekegian‟s,

people opted to establish their own studios. Gober Benlian, originally from Istanbul,

mastered the secrets of photography by working with the Abdullah brothers in his

original hometown, and later on with Lekegian in Cairo for over 12 years. Then,

245
Dickinson Jenkins Miller, “The Craftsman‟s Art: Armenians and the Growth of Photography in the
Near East (1856-1981),” (MA diss., American University of Beirut, 1981): p. 21-22 and Brown, p. 55-56.
For more information on Khalil Ra„ad and his activities during WWI, see Salim Tamari, “The War
Photography of Khalil Raad: Ottoman Modernity and the Biblical Gaze,” Jerusalem Quarterly 52 (2013).
It should also be noted that in addition to establishing a workshop, Garabedian also published around four
technical manuals on photography in particular how to “treat, expose, develop and print negative plates.”
A certain Mitry, who later on moved to Cairo, also learned photography in Jerusalem under the
apprenticeship of Krikorian.
246
Sheehi, p. xxxvi and Miller, p. 83. The Sarrafian brothers‟ studio remained in operation in Beirut until
Samuel‟s (1884-1941), the youngest brother‟s, death in 1941.
247
For a more general treatment see Özendes, p. 80, 82, Stefano G. Poffandi, Indicateur Égyptien
Administratiff et Commercial 1897 (Alexandria, 1896): p. 148 and Poffandi, Indicateur Égyptien 1904, p.
333. Lekegian remained in business until his retirement in 1918, when he sold his shop along with its
equipment, furniture, and clichés to the later established Kodak company in Egypt. See the file belonging
to Kodak Company (Egypt) in the British Library, reference: Kodak A1682.

65
suddenly, in about 1900, he decided to open his studio in a location not too far from the

Lekegian studio in the vicinity of Shepheard‟s Hotel.248

Much the same as their counterparts in the Ottoman center, most of these

photographers also established their workshops in locations close to luxurious European

hotels. It seems that there was much demand for photographers in Cairo.249 That is why,

incidentally Lekegian, Utudjian, and Salkimian, for example, established themselves in

the vicinity of the fashionable Shepheard‟s Hotel, in the process, creating some

conceivable competition between each other. Aside from foreign tourists, the cream of

Middle Eastern society (among them Armenians), as well as foreign and local notables,

also revealed a strong desire to be frequently photographed.250 In fact, this seems to be

the reason why two of the Abdullah brothers, namely, Kevork and Hovsep, established

a branch of their main Istanbul-based studio in Cairo in 1886 complying with the

invitation of Khedive Tawfīq, who wanted, as far as one can tell, and similar to his

suzerain Sultan Abdül Hamid, to benefit from these court photographers‟ accomplished

photographic skills. As a matter of fact, in 1891, these two Armenian photographers

traveled with the Khedive and his wife Emine Hanim to Luxor in Upper Egypt, where

they took photos of them in front of the ancient Egyptian Karnak temple complex dating

back to the fourteenth century BC. However, due to Egypt‟s dry and hot climate as well

as his worsening health conditions, Kevork was forced to return to his hometown

Istanbul, while his nephew Abraham came to replace him.251 Not long after this event,

248
“Gober Benlian,” (Armenian) Arshaluys, February 5-17, 1900.
249
Miller, p. 26. See “Copy of Letter from Mr. H.M. Smith to Mr. Gifford,” December 29, 1910, p. 8,
reference: Kodak A1682.
250
Brown, p. 57-58. When the prices of photo portraits became cheaper in the twentieth century, the more
“popular” segments of the Near Eastern society also started buying photos or had themselves
photographed in studios. Michele Hannoosh, “Practices of Photography: Circulation and Mobility in the
Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean,” History of Photography 40/1 (2016): p. 10.
251
Özendes, p. 162, 164, 167. Apart from photographing local notables, the Abdullah brothers, when in
Istanbul, also took photos of prominent foreign figures like Prince Albert Edward of Wales, Emperor

66
in 1895, the Abdullah brothers sold their shop to other famous photographers, namely,

Sebah and Joaillier, subsequently, returning to Istanbul in 1900. Unfortunately, nothing

is known about their later photographic activities.252

Neither Lekegian‟s origins, his earlier career nor the causes that drove him to

move to Egypt are known. However, what we are sure of is his widespread fame and

thriving career in Egypt. Shortly after his arrival in Cairo in 1887, Lekegian, who

claimed to have mastered photography in Europe253 eventually became “Cairo‟s leading

photographer,”254 and took pictures of Armenian, Egyptian and British notables and

dignitaries in his Cairo studio including Boghos Nubar Pasha,255 Lord Edward Cecil256

and Egyptian Princess Nazli Hanim, a descendent of Muhammad „Ali‟s dynasty.257

Among the other services provided by Armenian photographers in Egypt were

photo development, producing miniatures, resizing existing pictures, coloring photos,

and retouching.258 Most of them claimed to follow what they described as American

photographic techniques and methods.259 But, interestingly, being one of the oldest

Napoleon III of France and his wife Eugenie and Emperor Franz of Austria, among others, when these
were visiting the Ottoman capital. See Sheehi, p. 9.
252
Özendes, p. 164-165, 169, 176. The Abdullah brothers also took pictures of natural and archeological
sites in Egypt. Kevork spent around 39 days in Upper Egypt for this purpose. It is said that after leaving
Egypt, the Abdullah photographers converted to Islam. Miller, p. 18. See more about the Abdullah
brothers in Sheehi, The Arab Imago.
253
It is said that Lekegian learned modern photographic techniques during his stay in Europe. Lekegian
also expressed his willingness to giving private lessons to all those interested in photography during his
free time. See “I„lān khuṣuṣī li haḍarāt ḍubbāṭ al-jaysh al-miṣrī,” al-Muqaṭṭam, July 28, 1892.
254
“Cairo‟s Leading Photographer,” Supplement of the Near East, January 24, 1913, p. 18.
255
The son of former Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Pasha.
256
The Leisure of an Egyptian Official written by Sir Edward Cecil was posthumously published in
London in 1921. On the first page there was the portrait of him taken by Lekegian.
257
These photos appeared in A.B. de Guerville‟s book La Nouvelle Égypte (Paris, 1905). Around 10 other
photos taken by Lekegian are available online on the Jafet Library website, (accessed February 27, 2019),
http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/jafet/blatchford/html/index.html. Other pictures are available online: see
https://www.willemwitteveen.com/pdf/, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/collection-of-views-
of-egypt-including-cairo-and-the-pyramids#/?tab=about,
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1299582/funerary-complex-of-mamluk-sultan-photograph-lekegian-
gabriel/, http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/mirage/cl11-223.htm, (accessed April 15, 2019).
258
“Gober Benlian,” and “H. Utudjian and Co. American Photography Studio,” (Armenian) Lusaper,
December 13, 1904.
259
“H. Utudjian,” and “American Studio,” Azad Khosk, August 17, 1907.

67
photographers in Egypt, Lekegian, apart from his work in the studio, also seemed to be

involved in important projects owing to his close ties with British colonial and Egyptian

government circles. Like the Matossians, Lekegian also advertised himself as the

„photographer of the British Army of Occupation.‟ The Cairene al-Muqaṭṭam

newspaper announced that he had produced photo albums of the Anglo-Egyptian army

available for sale.260 Added to this, Lekegian accompanied the army at times of peace

and war, sometimes to the point of endangering his own life. In 1889, Lekegian

accompanied that army to the Sudan, where he was commissioned to capture photos of

the Battle of Toski, which ultimately ended with Anglo-Egyptian victory over the

Mahdist rebels. A few years later, these shoots made their appearance in multiple

publications. In 1891, it was announced that around 95 of these photographs, relating to

natives, Egyptian and Sudanese scenery and the battle itself, had been transmitted by Sir

Francis Reginald Wingate, a leading British general during the battle, to the London-

based Royal Geographical Society. Much the same as the later-established American

National Geographic Society, the organization meant to expand the geographical

sciences and to represent the wilds of Africa.261 In the final analysis, these photographs

mostly served Wingate himself, since they enabled him to decorate his books Mahdiism

and the Egyptian Sudan (published in 1891) and Ten Years’ Captivity in the Mahdi’s

Camp (published in 1892) including many of Lekegian‟s pictures, “… remarkable for

their clearness, and the amount of detail they show.”262 Aside from these publications,

some other pictures also appeared in other books like A.B. de Guerville‟s Le Nouvelle

Égypte (published in 1905) and S.H. Leeder‟s Veiled Mysteries in Egypt and the

260
Miller, p. 23. See “I„lān khuṣuṣī.”
261
“Photographs,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography
13/11 (1891), p. 700 and Michelle L. Woodward, “Between Orientalist Clichés and Images of
Modernization,” History of Photography 27/4 (2003): p. 364.
262
“Photographs,” p. 700.

68
Religion of Islam (published in 1912). They represented scenes from the exotic but

backward East. Most of the pictures dealt with mosques, palaces, streets in Cairo, veiled

women, children, peasants, craftsmen, traditional technologies in irrigation and

plowing, scenes from village life, Egyptian historic sites and so on. Thanks to his

photographic expertise Lekegian even received a gold medal during the International

Photography Exhibition held in Paris in 1892.263

2. The Economic Ventures of Onnig Diradour and the Birth of the Kodak Company
in Egypt

Besides practicing photography, some members of the Armenian minority in

Egypt also acted as importers of various photographic films, equipment and cameras

from abroad. Onnig Diradour, whose commercial activities will be discussed in some

detail in the coming paragraphs, was one of the dominant figures, who actually grabbed

the attention of the Kodak company to the market potential of the Middle East.

In her MA thesis “The Craftsman‟s Art: Armenians and the Growth of

Photography in the Near East (1856-1981),” Dickinson Jenkins Miller sheds light on the

prosperous economic ventures of Onnig Diradour in his hometown Istanbul, while

paying less attention to his later, more crucial business successes in Egypt. By relying

on documents I have uncovered in the British Library, this section of the thesis will

explore the story behind the birth of the Kodak Company in Egypt. Combining balance

sheets and ledgers, bills of exchange as well as memoranda of sale, these sources will

illuminate our understanding of early Armenian involvement in photography, the rise of

Diradour as principal salesman and dealer of photographic equipment in Istanbul and

263
See Lekegian‟s carte de visite in Appendix II.

69
Cairo, and the negotiations which ultimately led to the takeover of his company by the

giant Kodak conglomerate.

In his early days in Istanbul, it appears that Onnig Diradour devoted more time

developing his trade in photographic equipment then in taking pictures, acting, we are

told by the Annuaire Oriental, as the representative of ten multinational photographic

companies in the Ottoman domains.264 Judging by the wide variety of camera-related

products available at the Diradour store, located in Istanbul‟s Samatya quarter, a

photographer planning to furnish his studio had almost no other option but to pay a visit

to the man‟s shop, where he could find all the necessities of his profession.

Despite his success in the Ottoman capital, at some point after the first outbreak

of violence against Armenians in the capital, Diradour relocated to Cairo. There, he

pursued the same profession in his newly rented shop which became known as the Cairo

Photographic Store situated in Opera Square in the neighborhood of many foreign

consulates and luxurious hotels – Shepheard‟s, Continental Savoy, and Metropole.265

Not long after his arrival, he gained the upper hand in what can be described as

the trade in Kodak products, a fact quickly recognized by Hedley M. Smith, Kodak‟s

Paris manager touring Egypt at the time. According to his report to his home office,

Diradour controlled nearly 60% of the Kodak trade in Egypt distributing Kodak

merchandise in the deep south of the country.266 As the report of the Diradour store for

the year 1911 indicates, it did not only sell photographic equipment retail and

wholesale, but also catered to the needs of the higher echelons of Egyptian society (both

native and foreign). We do know that Lekegian and a number of Greek and Austrian

264
Özendes, p. 44-45 and Dickinson, p. 50-51.
265
In 1910-1911, Diradour paid £E 9000 for rent. See “The Balance Sheet of 1910-1911: 1 June 1910-31
May 1911.” Reference: Kodak A1682.
266
See “Copy of Letter from Mr. Smith to Mr. Gifford,” 6 January 1911, p. 1. See Poffandi, Indicateur
Égyptien 1904, p. 84. See “Balance Sheet 31 Mai 1911.” Reference: Kodak A1682.

70
photographers, namely, Piromali and Fiorillo as well as Paul Dittrich were among

Diradour‟s loyal customers. In addition, members of the Khedivial family like Sa„id

Ḥalīm Pasha,267 Prince Ibrāhīm Ḥalīm, several high British officials like Lord Edward

Cecil, and a number of foreigners including Germans and Frenchmen also appeared on

his long list of clients. In 1911, he had around 145 customers from all nationalities

including Egyptian nationals.268

Struck by Diradour‟s marked success and, more important, Kodak‟s market

potential, Smith toyed with the idea of appointing him as Kodak‟s exclusive agent in

Egypt and possibly in nearby Syria and Palestine.269 But the company, more interested

in multiplying its profits rather than magnifying Diradour‟s role and wealth, opted for

outright ownership. Following several encounters with Kodak representatives in Paris

and London, Diradour, somewhat reluctantly, sold his business to the newly established

Company in return for part ownership of the founding shares and the position of

Egyptian director for a period of five years. Diradour, and three other Armenian

relatives Arshag and Yervant Ferman[ian] and Hrant Nassibian, had 40% of the shares,

while 60% were held by the new Company represented by Kodak Limited, Williams

Jones Williams, and Armand Notté.270 Thus Diradour and his Cairo Photographic Store,

passed into oblivion, Kodak, now the virtual owner of the new Kodak Company (Egypt)

went on to become a world conglomerate firm worth, in 1996, 31 billion dollars.

267
Sa„īd Ḥalīm Pasha (1865-1921) the grandson of Muhammad „Ali Pasha served as the Grand-Vizier of
the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1917.
268
See “Copy of Letter from Mr. Smith to Mr. Gifford,” 6 January 1911 and “Copy of Letter from Mr.
H.M. Smith to Gifford,” 12 January 1911. Fiorillo served as the photographer of the engineers working in
Aswan. He bought the bulk of his goods from Diradour, who gave him an 11% discount. See “Kodak
(Egypt) Société Anonyme Balances Taken Over from O. Diradour 1 Nov. 1911.” Reference: Kodak
A1682.
269
See “Correspondence from H.M. Smith to O. Diradour,” 22 May 1911, p. 1. Reference: Kodak A1682.
270
“Kodak (Egypt) Preliminary Act of the Company,” p. 1, 6, 10. “Kodak (Egypt) (Société Anonyme)”
Supplement Au Journal Officiel, 2 September 1912, p. 1-2-3. Except for Diradour, all the directors of the
firm in Egypt were foreigners. The starting capital of the company was 12000 E.P., it took over the assets
belonging to Diradour‟s Cairo Photographic Store. Reference: Kodak A1682.

71
 CHAPTER V

BETWEEN THREE NATIONALISMS:

OTTOMAN, ARMENIAN, EGYPTIAN

Due to the ambivalent policies of Sultan Abdül Hamid II and the equally

unstable strategies adopted by the Committee of Union and Progress regarding the

minority question, roving Ottoman Armenian revolutionaries and intellectuals

facilitated the process of circulating and disseminating political ideas among their

nationals in Egypt. This steady activity, of course, prepared the ground for the eventual

establishment of Armenian political parties in Egypt and other foreign countries.

While it, as a rule, was concerned about the predicaments of Ottoman

Armenians, and keenly followed the evolution of Ottoman imperial politics, the

Armenian minority in Egypt tended to evince little interest in what can be described as

local Egyptian politics. In reality, at a time of mounting Armenian nationalism, all that

mattered for Armenians whether in Egypt or other countries of refuge was the vexed

issue of administrative reforms in the six Armenian vilayets of Eastern Anatolia.271

In an attempt to push for such an end, a group of Armenians in Cairo

established, in 1886, what they called the Progressive Movement, one of the first

Armenian proto-political organizations in the country. In sum, around 250-300

Armenians joined its ranks from both Cairo and Alexandria. Like other Armenian

political parties established later, the Progressives pinned high hopes on European

powers, who they hoped, would exert diplomatic pressure in favor of Armenians in the

271
For more information, see Lousie Nalbandian, The Armenian Revolutionary Movement (Berkeley,
1963) and Anahide Terminassian, Nationalism and Socialism in the Armenian Revolutionary Movement
(Cambridge, Mass., 1984).

72
Ottoman homeland. In late 1888, when some diplomats from Tsarist Russia visited the

country, they asked for Russian interference to find a final resolution for the Armenian

Question. At a later date, a letter was handed to Prince, later Tsar, Nicholas II,

incidentally touring Egypt, to request his father Tsar Alexander III, to pursue more

energetically the, yet unaccomplished, Armenian reforms. Predictably, the Progressive

Movement‟s militant inclinations alienated the Egyptian Armenian notables who were

unremittingly criticized for their rather accommodating attitude to existing Ottoman

authorities. In the long run, however, the entrenched class of Armenian notables proved

more durable and the progressive movement, as it were, effectively came to an end.272

From 1890 onwards, Armenian political parties, began setting up branches in

Egypt. The Hnchak Party273 was, perhaps, the first to have taken this step. In 1896,

following its First General Congress in London, where a controversy had arisen over its

socialist program, a group of Hnchak intellectuals, opposed to and disapproving of the

recently adopted socialist doctrine, split from the Party and formed a new political

movement known as the Reformed Hnchaks (Veragazmyal Hnchakianner). They

selected Cairo as their new headquarters. From that point on, a struggle broke out

between the dissident and the loyal members of the Hnchak Party in Egypt, ultimately,

leading to mutual political assassinations. Arpyar Arpyarian, one of the principal figures

of the Reformed Hnchak Party, was murdered by his political foes on February 12,

272
Hovhannes Topuzian, The History of the Armenian Colony in Egypt (1805-1952) (Armenian)
(Yerevan, 1978): p. 148-150.
273
The Social Democratic Hnchak Party was formed in Geneva, Switzerland in 1887 by a group of young
Russian Armenian university students. The Party‟s aim was to overthrow the „absolute monarchial order
in the Ottoman Empire‟ and replace it with a „constitutional democratic regime‟ as well as liberate what it
described as Ottoman Armenia. The SDHP advocated Marxism and believed in revolution as a means to
protect the rights of the Armenian proletariats. See Hratch Bedoyan, “Armenian Political Parties in
Lebanon,” (MA diss., American University of Beirut, 1973): p. 5-22.

73
1908, in the Egyptian capital on his way home.274 In retaliation, the proponents of

Arpyarian killed three Hnchaks, namely, a certain Sakuni, Krikorian, and Smigian,275

but failed in their attempts on the lives of Sabah Kulian and Avedis Nazarpegian, two

Hnchak leaders. In sum, around five people were killed from both camps.276 The rival

Dashnaks277 continued to have a meager presence in Egypt until 1908 lacking both large

number of adherents and adequate leadership in the country, as suggested by Hovhannes

Topuzian.278

Challenging the already-established power of the Armenian notables in Egypt,

Armenian political parties recruited largely from new immigrants attracted to their more

radical form of politics. In May 1899, at a time when a series of international peace

treaties were being signed at The Hague Convention, Armenian political parties in

Egypt attempted in vain to raise the Armenian Question in the gathering at The Hague.

However, much to their dismay, they were prevented to do so on account of Maghakia

Ormanian, the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul, who almost always stood as an obstacle

in the face of party activity, fearing the wrath of the Ottoman Sultan Abdül Hamid II

and possibly losing his exalted position. This resulted in a wave of protests among the

Armenian public. By intimidation, the pro-Dashnak faction banned the Armenian

priests in Cairo and Alexandria from mentioning his name during Sunday masses.
274
Agop J. Hacikyan et al. eds. The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to
Modern Times (Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2005): p. 453. In the months following
his assassination, a monument was erected on his grave in Cairo by his political partisans, from the
revenues generated by the sale of his small and large photos produced by photographer Utudjian in Cairo.
See “Arpiar‟s Photo,” (Armenian) Lusaper, April 4, 1908.
275
See Eugene Papazian, Autobiography and Memoirs (Relating to National Matters) (Armenian) (Cairo,
1960): p. 15. Papazian was born in Smyrna in 1887. His parents moved to Alexandria in 1895 escaping
Hamidian rule. He just mentions the surnames of the killed Hnchak leaders without giving their first
names.
276
Topuzian, p. 151-153.
277
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) or the Dashnaktsutyun was founded in 1890 in Tbilisi,
Russian Empire. In its Manifesto of 1890, the ARF aimed to secure „economic and political freedom of
Turkish Armenia.‟ The party used violent revolutionary activity as a means to reach its goals. See
Bedoyan, p. 8-9, 25, 27.
278
Topuzian, p. 159.

74
Actually, they succeeded in doing so in Alexandria, the hub of not only Armenian, but

also Greek and Italian revolutionaries and radical thinkers. Cairo, however, remained

the stronghold of the Armenian notables, who kept on supporting the Patriarch. When a

rowdy group belonging to the poorer segment of the Armenian population interrupted a

church service by calling for a repudiation of the Patriarch, the Armenian notables had

no choice but to request Egyptian police protection. This turbulent state of affairs

generated tensions between the notables and the revolutionaries that lasted from June to

October 1899. Eventually, after the arrest of approximately 20 people by the Egyptian

authorities, the protestors submitted to the will of the Armenian aristocracy, and put an

end to their campaigns.279

Before the large-scale influx of Armenian revolutionaries, political activists, and

intellectuals into Egypt during the late 1890s, the various institutions of the Egyptian

Armenian Apostolic Church in both Cairo and Alexandria were dominated by a few

Armenian notables hardly anyone questioning their authority.280 Immediately after their

arrival, the politically active newcomers, who formed a majority in Alexandria, wanted

to take over, much to the dismay of the old Armenian aristocracy, who always tried to

marginalize them. This, in reality, was an extension of earlier class struggles taking

place in mid-nineteenth century Istanbul between the amirahs, a wealthy class of

Armenians in government service on one hand, and the esnafs (Armenian craftsmen) as

well as the Western-educated Armenian intellectuals on the other, who always

demanded further inclusion in the community‟s decision making processes.281 As in

279
Krikor Basmadjian, Patriarch Ormanian and the Egyptian Armenian Colony (Armenian) (Cairo:
1973): p. 28-29, 33, 44, 46, 49.
280
“From the Egyptian Armenian Life,” (Armenian) Puzantyon, April 17-29, 1899. Puzantyon was
published in Istanbul starting in 1896,
281
Rober Koptaş, “Armenian Political Thinking Before and After the Young Turk Revolution,”
Haigazian Armenological Review 35 (2015): p. 52-53.

75
Istanbul, after many years of ongoing conflict, eventually in 1908, the internal affairs of

Armenians in Egypt started to be governed by the regulations set by the Armenian

National Constitution of 1863 (Nizâmnâme-i Millet-i Ermeniyân), thereby putting an

end to what two prominent Reformed Hnchak intellectuals Vahan Tekeyan and Yervant

Odian referred to as the old “amirah claims.”282

Around the same time, in 1908, this time influenced by the developments in the

Ottoman capital, specifically, following the Young Turk Revolution and the restoration

of the Constitution, a conglomerate of former Hnchak, Dashnak and Armenagan

breakaway individuals283 laid the foundations for the Constitutional Ramgavar Party in

Alexandria. This new party stood in opposition to the more radical revolutionary

activities of its Hnchak and Dashnak counterparts. By then, however, regardless of their

ideological differences, all of the Armenian political factions thought along the same

lines, at least with regards to national issues; namely seeking internal autonomy rather

than absolute independence in the Armenian-inhabited Ottoman provinces comprised of

Erzurum, Sivas, Van, Bitlis, Harput, Diyarbakir, and Trebizond.284

What is more important is that all of these parties were disinclined to become

involved in Egyptian national politics. Nevertheless, some Egyptian Armenian

individuals reacted fiercely against the activities of more radical Egyptian nationalists,

siding instead with the British occupiers of the country. There is no source on which to

base the claim that the Armenians of Egypt actively resisted the British occupation. In

282
Topuzian, p. 140.
283
The Armenagan Party was founded in Van in 1885. It aimed to secure the autonomy of the Armenian-
inhabited provinces in the Ottoman Empire. However, it was soon dissolved, and some of its members
had relocated to Egypt.
284
Topuzian, p. 157-159. The Ramgavars had two clubs in Egypt; one in Cairo and the other in
Alexandria established in 1912. See Suren Bayramian, Armenian Communal Structures in Egypt
(Armenian) (Cairo, 2017): p. 93, 150. In 1921, the Armenagan, Constitutional Ramgavar, and the
Reformed Hnchak parties united giving birth to the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (known as the
Ramgavar Party) in Allies-occupied Istanbul. See Bedoyan, p. 10.

76
fact, the record suggests that they rather tended to “collaborate” or, at worst,

“negotiated” with the British about their shared interests. In fact there is evidence to

show that Armenians were eager to economically and politically associate themselves

with the colonizers. This explains why the Matossians and Lekegian did not hesitate to

advertise themselves as being in the service of what they described as “the British army

of occupation.” In the early 1900s, during the rise of Egyptian nationalist, anti-

imperialist movements under the guidance of Musṭafa Kāmel, some Armenian

intellectuals, perhaps, concerned about their people‟s privileged economic status,

considered nationalist agitation as menacing the country‟s prosperity and peace.

Yervant Odian, for instance, viewed Kāmel‟s al-Ḥizb al-Waṭanī as a “radical anti-

Christian movement” and a threat to his community‟s, and Egypt‟s, economic well-

being. Similarly, in 1910, while commenting on the general political life in Egypt and

discussing the murder of Egyptian Prime Minister Buṭrūs Ghālī Pasha, Levon

Megerditchian,285 at the time, one of the leaders of the Constitutional Ramgavar Party,

launched vituperative attacks against the Egyptian nationalists. He disgruntledly wrote

in the Istanbul-based Puzantyon that “unfortunately, the microbe of politics aims to

disrupt our peaceful life” and condemned the nationalists‟ attempt to canonize Naṣīf al-

Wardānī, the assassin of Buṭrūs Ghālī. In Megerditchian‟s opinion, Egypt stood at the

peak of its affluence under the British rule. Kāmel‟s nationalist rhetoric merely served

to impair the existing order of peace and prosperity.286

285
Despite his family‟s financial difficulties, Megerditchian studied at the Robert‟s College in his
birthplace, Istanbul. As one of the leading Hnchak personalities, he left the Ottoman capital in 1896 and
stayed for a while in Athens, eventually, moving to Egypt upon the encouragement of his comrade Andon
Reshdouni. In Egypt, Megerditchian worked as a French and English-language teacher. In 1908, he left
the Hnchak Party and became one of the founders of the Constitutional Ramgavar Party and a leading
member of the AGBU. See “Levon Megerditchian (Biographical Notes),” (Armenian) Arev, May 7, 1932.
286
Topuzian, p. 179, 181-182. Butrus Ghālī Pasha acted as the minister for foreign affairs and was the
first Coptic prime minister in modern Egyptian history. He was killed in 1910 because of his pro-British
attitude for presiding over the Dinshaway trial, reactivating the Press Law of 1881, confirming the Anglo-

77
 His speech in fact coincides with typical colonial justifications. Paradoxically,

Armenians in Egypt while opposed to Egyptian nationalism still grabbed every

opportunity to put forward their national demands in Ottoman domains to the point, at

times, of collaborating with dissident Arabs seeking autonomy from Ottoman rule. In

1913, a number of Egyptian Armenian political leaders and dignitaries met in the

Egyptian capital to form a United Front. Their primary intention was to eliminate all

Armenian political enmities and foster unity for the purpose of pressuring the European

Powers for the implementation of radical reforms in the Armenian provinces of the

beleaguered Ottoman Empire.287 On June 8 of the same year, an interparty meeting took

place in Cairo‟s celebrated Printania Theater under the presidency of Dikran

Gamsaragan288 in the presence of Armenian and Arab thinkers including Edgar

Agnuni289 and the renowned Muslim reformer Sheikh Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍa, the

latter as the representative of the “Syrian” community. The speeches delivered during

the gathering accentuated the importance of Arab-Armenian cooperation in defense of

both peoples‟ political rights and called for the immediate realization of the “long-

promised” reforms.290 Here, it should also be noted that there was a split in the

community‟s political stance vis-à-vis the Ottoman Empire. While the Armenian

Egyptian Condominium Agreement, and reviving the Suez Canal Concession. To read more about the
underlying causes for his assassination, see Samir Seikaly, “Prime Minister and Assassin: Butrus Ghali
and Wardani,” Middle Eastern Studies 13/1 (1977). Unlike some Armenians, in 1896, Count Zizinia of
Greek origins collaborated with Muṣṭafa Kāmel and even offered him his theater in Alexandria to deliver
a speech about Egyptian independence. See Alexander Kazamias, “Cromer‟s Assault on
„Internationalism‟: British Colonialism and the Greeks of Egypt, 1882-1907,” in The Long 1890s in
Egypt: Colonial Quiescence, Subterranean Resistance, ed. Marilyn Booth and Anthony Gorman
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014): p. 272.
287
Topuzian, p.164.
288
Dikran Gamsaragan was born in Istanbul in 1866 moving to Egypt in 1894. He and his brother
Armenag owned and ran the Gamsaragan cigarette factory. Gamsaragan died in France in 1941.
289
Agnuni was one of the prominent figures of the Dashnak party. In 1904, on behalf of his party, he
participated in a meeting with the Young Turks in Paris. In 1907, Agnuni was appointed as a delegate to
the Armenian-Turkish federative council. In 1913, Agnuni paid a short visit to Egypt to attend the
assembly held in Cairo on behalf of the Dashnak Party.
290
Topuzian, p. 165-166 and “The Armenian Question,” The Near East, June 20, 1913, p. 182.

78
political parties sought foreign intervention to solve the Armenian Question, other

Armenians in Egypt worked side by side with different Ottoman subjects (Turks or

Arabs) agitating for reform without endangering the Ottoman fatherland. In fact, Cairo‟s

Ottoman Club (founded in 1910) was brought to life for the purpose of championing

Ottomansim. Its trilingual bylaws (Arabic, Armenian, and Ottoman Turkish) is a proof

of its members‟ desire to bury religious and ideological differences for the sake of the

Vatan. However, existing literature does not identify the Club‟s other activities nor are

we informed about its membership.291

Besides political organizations, migrating Armenians also created patriotic,

educational, philanthropic, religious, sports, women‟s, and youth societies and unions in

both Cairo and Alexandria. Throughout the years 1882-1914, around 64 such, some of

them short-lived, nonpolitical associations operated in Egypt, all, in one way or another,

dedicated to the preservation of Armenian identity, in what was an expanding Armenian

world diaspora. Added to these, an Armenian also had the opportunity to join church

societies, in Cairo as elsewhere, functioning under the auspices of the Armenian

Catholic and Evangelical churches. For charitable purposes, former natives of some

Ottoman provinces recently taking refuge in Egypt even established regionally-

organized orphan care societies to assist the orphaned children in their respective places

of origin in Anatolia such as Van, Ağın, Arapgir and Sivas. Eventually, in 1905, all of

these groups amalgamated, giving birth to the United Orphan Relief Society in Cairo

that expanded its operational scope and provided assistance to a larger number of

Armenian orphans located in a number of Ottoman cities.292

291
The Bylaws of the Ottoman Club in Cairo (in Arabic, Armenian, and Ottoman Turkish) (Cairo, 1910):
p.2.
292
Bayramian, Armenian Communal Structures, p. 58-183. See Rif„at, al-Arman, p. 551-552.

79
 Among the various nonpolitical institutions, the Armenian General Benevolent

Union, founded in Cairo on April 15, 1906, merits special attention. It is the only Union

that is still functional today and, since the onset of World War II, is headquartered in

New York. Its visionary leaders originated mainly from different cities and towns in

Anatolia, with the exception of its founding father Boghos Nubar who was born in

Egypt.293 On account of continuing close ties and in recognition of the fact that

Armenians were facing what appeared to be an existential threat, prominent Egyptian

Armenians like Ya„qub Artin, Yervant Aghaton, Megerditch Margosoff294, Krikor

Yeghiayan295, Hovhannes Hagopian296, established the Armenian General Benevolent

Union, and for many years served on its first Board of Directors.297

Examination of Yervant Aghaton‟s book written in 1931 narrating the

foundation of the AGBU indicates that, initially, the main purpose behind establishing

the Union was to revive the long-dead Armenian Benevolent Society (ABS) of Istanbul

founded in 1861 by his father Krikor Aghaton.298 Although having a humanitarian

outlook similar to the ABS, the AGBU, however, grew into a more transnational

organization. Soon, its sphere of influence expanded beyond the borders of Egypt all the

way to Europe and the USA, in addition to the Ottoman provinces. As a matter of fact,

on the eve of WWI, it possessed around 142 chapters spread in various world capitals.

Thus, paradoxically, the smallest immigrant Armenian community, namely the

293
Kévorkian and Tachjian, The Armenian General Benevolent Union, Vol. I, p. 17. Among the famous
Armenians who headed the AGBU was Calouste Gulbenkian, better known as Mr. Five Percent, from
1930-1932.
294
A physician.
295
An attorney.
296
A high-ranking bureaucrat in the Egyptian Ministry of Interior.
297
Kévorkian and Tachjian, p. 20.
298
The Armenian Benevolent Society, according to Aghaton, served only for two years. See The Origins
and History of the Benevolent Societies in Istanbul in 1860 and in Cairo in 1906 (Armenian) (Geneva:
1931).

80
Egyptian one, began the process of upholding what was to become world Armenian

diaspora.

From its inception, the AGBU was loyal to the principle of “promoting the

moral and intellectual development of the Armenian population of the Ottoman

provinces” as well as improving the poor living conditions of the Armenian peasants in

Anatolia by providing them with the necessary agricultural guidance and equipment

whenever possible, thereby perpetuating their attachment to their ancestral homes.299 In

Miyutyun, the mouthpiece of the AGBU, the essentiality of the “soil” in preserving a

group‟s national identity was repeatedly stressed. Despite its somewhat condescending

view of the Armenian peasants, the AGBU‟s elite idealized the role of the peasant in the

Ottoman homeland.300 The AGBU also strained to instill European ideas and raise

Armenian national consciousness in the minds of the “backward” peasants believing

that their provincial compatriots had to follow in the footsteps of the “Anglo-Saxons” to

book their admission to the ranks of “civilized nations.”301 Megerditch Antranikian of

the AGBU‟s Central Board considered reason to be of paramount importance as

opposed to reliance on providence and prayer, which the Ottoman Armenian peasants,

he said, commonly resorted to.302

With a view to spread nationalist ideas, Mikael Natanian, who was well-

travelled throughout Cilician Armenian villages, forcefully pressed the AGBU the duty

of establishing more Armenian schools in the provinces to enhance the young Armenian

299
Kévorkian and Tachjian, p. 19-26. See Bartevian, The Golden Book, p. 118-119.
300
Mikael Natanian, “From the Worries of the Provinces,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, November 1912, p.
172. Natanian (1867-1954) was AGBU‟s educational inspector in Cilicia.
301
Yervant Aghaton, “Two Words to Our Other Brothers,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, May 1912, p. 66 and
Michael Gurdjian, “The Anglo Saxon Character,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, January 1912, p. 9-10.
302
Megerditch Antranikian, “Agricultural Union” (Hoghakordzagan Miyutyun), Miyutyun, October 1912,
p. 151. Antranikian (1851-1938) was AGBU‟s first treasurer and one of its founders.

81
generations‟ sense of belonging and raising their educational level.303 That is why, by

1914, the Union ran about 38 Armenian primary and secondary-level schools in the

provinces including Karaduran (Kessab), Kebusiye (in Antioch), İzmit, Maraş, and

Diyarbakir.304 From 1911 up to the First World War, the AGBU also operated a

secondary Teachers‟ College in Van. This institution aimed to prepare well-educated

prospective teachers for the various Armenian provincial schools to foster the children‟s

education.305

In times of catastrophes, the AGBU also conducted humanitarian relief work by

distributing food and clothing as well as establishing orphanages to shelter the orphaned

children. Following the Adana massacres of 1909, for instance, it earmarked up to 5000

E.P. for the victims as a compensation for their losses. At the same time, it looked after

approximately 310 Cilician Armenian refugees temporarily stationed in Egypt.306

Besides, the AGBU, at least in its birth place, succeeded in fostering social, religious,

and political harmony between its various members. Downgrading socio-economic,

denominational, and cultural differences, it embraced both the affluent and the less-

affluent, the employer and the employee, the Armenian Catholics and their Apostolic

counterparts, and so on. To give an example, Hovhaness Matossian (an Armenian

Catholic), the owner of the famous Matossian cigarette factory in Egypt, was a member

of the AGBU along with his competitors Armenag and Dikran Gamsaragan, both of

them Armenian Orthodox.307 Actually, in 1912, in one of his articles appearing in

AGBU‟s Miyutyun, Yervant Aghaton exhorted his provincial peers to follow in the

footsteps of the Egyptian Armenians by putting denominational differences aside. The

303
Natanian, “From the Worries of the Provinces,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, August 1912, p. 125.
304
Kévorkian and Tachjian, p. 33.
305
“AGBU‟s Normal School in Van,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, October 1912, p. 161.
306
Kévorkian and Tachjian, p. 19-26.
307
Bartevian, The Golden Book, p. 68, 90.

82
Armenian Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants formed a single Armenian entity and

had to act as a single body and soul, if they were to overcome the perils that threatened

their existence.308

308
Yervant Aghaton, “Two Words to Our Other Brothers,” (Armenian) Miyutyun, May 1912, p. 66.

83
 CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

By positioning Armenians in their local Egyptian context, this thesis has

reconstructed the multi-layered economic ventures of Ottoman Armenian migrants in

British-occupied Egypt and, in the process, disproving all the claims made regarding

their minimal role in Egypt‟s economy. Armenians voluntarily or involuntarily, moved

to Egypt, carrying with them a whole bundle of skills, customs, and political grievances

from their ancestral hometowns. By stark contrast to the early nineteenth century, when

they figured principally as high government employees, the new immigrants,

comparatively larger in number, but still constituting a small proportion of the total

Egyptian population, eventually featured prominently in the many segments of the

Egyptian economy not, to be sure, massively in agriculture, but certainly evident in the

services sectors, as restaurateurs, medics, lawyers, architects, photographers, journalists,

jewelers and, more modestly, craftsmen, mechanics, tailors, and shoemakers. In many

cases these activities did not represent a rupture but a form of continuity of earlier skills

and competence carried over with them. They also ventured into an economic realm

which, at the time was regarded as a European/Western preserve, namely industry,

represented by their great successes in cigarette production for local and international

consumption. This thesis, therefore, rehabilitates the economic role of the Armenian

minority, which although not as large as that of the Greeks or Jews, nevertheless played

an important role in the survival of the community itself and for the evolving Egyptian

economy as a whole.

84
 By focusing on the fact of their striking economic role and collective

achievement, this thesis has not adequately treated the cultural reality of an expatriate

community which, regardless of its diasporic state of being, nevertheless, insisted on its

distinctive “Armenianness.” But this thesis, however, indirectly alluded to this fact. In

Egypt, the diminutive Armenian community developed a lively cultural life centering

on church and school, on the book and the newspaper, on music and song, on literary,

sports and patriotic societies and, not least, on food. In time, this tiny Egyptian

community was to have a considerable impact on the cultural and national life of

Armenians living well beyond Egyptian borders, thanks partly to the tireless activities

of the AGBU which was spawned in Egypt.309 Though not at its center, this thesis has

demonstrated that the study of Armenian culture, in its formative exilic stage in Egypt is

possible because the sources, dispersed though they may be, are available.

Although essentially dealing with the actual socio-economic achievements of a

numerically vulnerable Armenian community, this thesis, without saying so explicitly,

is fundamentally political, surveying the socio-economic fate of a community in exile,

that came into being because of the inability of two political entities, Turkish and

Armenian, to co-exist in the same political space. Even so, this study has not dwelt on

the political setting that necessitated migration or the political consequences that

derived from Armenians finding refuge in a de jure Ottoman entity but under informal

British Occupation. But what the thesis has done is to indicate that such a study is

indeed necessary and feasible, both for the overall political framework as well as the

„interior‟ Armenian politics that obtained. There is ample scope, for instance, to

examine the „political‟ struggle between Armenian clergy and Armenian laity, the class

309
After WWI, the AGBU played a major role in Armenian relief work and education.

85
conflict within the immigrant community as well as the internecine, frequently bloody,

struggle between rising immigrant Armenian political parties, over strategies leading to

the reclamation of a recently lost homeland and, finally, the difficult task of reconciling

conflicting political ideologies. Once, and if, that is done, then, in all probability, a more

complete, and historically grounded account of the opening pages of the world

Armenian diaspora in Egypt will become available.

86
APPENDICES

87
 APPENDIX I

ILLUSTRATIONS

Lord Edward Cecil and Captain Owen. Source: La Nouvelle Égypte, p. 67.

88
Princess Nazli Hanim. Source: La Nouvelle Égypte, p. 177.

89
Boghos Nubar Pasha. Source: La Nouvelle Égypte, p. 211.

90
 Boats on the Nile.
Source:
http://lusadaran.org/collection/image/?image=179&artist=Lekegian%2C%20Gabriel,
(accessed April 29, 2019).

91
The Nubari Plowing Machine. Source: “An Egyptian Steam Cultivator,” Scientific
American, February 13, 1909.

92
Saint Theresa Armenian Catholic Church in Heliopolis designed by architect Garo
Balian in 1925.
Source: https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/61405, (accessed April 30, 2019).

93
The Matossian Kiosk. Source: “The Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition, Cairo,”
Architecture, September 1926, p. 143.

94
 APPENDIX II

ADVERTISEMENTS

Source: Al-Muqaṭṭam, April 3, 1896.

95
Source: The Lands of Sunshine: A Practical Guide to Egypt and the Sudan. Cairo:
Whitehead and Morris Co., 1908.

96
Source: The New York Herald, November 4, 1908.

97
Source: Arshaluys, December 22-January 4, 1911.

98
 Source: Arev, July 5, 1915.

Source: L’Annuaire Égyptien 1908, p. 1433.

99
Source: The Egyptian Directory 1913, p. XXI.

100
Source: The Egyptian Directory 1913, p. XXIII.

101
Source: The Egyptian Directory 1913, p. XVII.

102
Source: http://www.lusarvest.org/practitioners/lekegian-gabriel/, (accessed April 15,
2019).

103
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au Caire.” PhD diss.: Université de Grenoble, Valence, 1911.

111