Beys and Pashas

"Peasants, get to work!"... This famous phrase was uttered by the Pasha, the owner of the estate, as he held a whip in his hand and brought it down on the backs of the peasants, hunched over from oppression! This is an image solidified in our minds by politicized drama, creating in our consciousness that flawed conditional association between Beys and Pashas on the one hand, and feudalism, economic, and political exploitation on the other. It is true that the titles of Beys and Pashas were like a commodity, bought and sold, but there were men who earned them with merit, without seeking or requesting them. Men who gave to this country what remained like a tree with abundant shade, its roots firm and its branches in the sky.

This book delves into what history has overlooked: the biographies of men whose achievements surpassed their titles, and within their stories lies a rich meal of Egyptian history—geographically, politically, economically, and socially—a concentrated dose of the history of stones and people, time and place, and a correction of misconceptions solidified by the July 23rd Movement, which was marred by political, human, economic, and legal flaws. The greatest flaw—in my estimation—was its attempt to falsify collective consciousness through those I like to call "history tailors."