From orientalism to Khomeinism: a century of Persian Studies in Egypt.

Hammad, Hanan

This article examines the evolution of Persian and Iranian studies as a modern academic discipline in Egypt since the early twentieth century. It employs Persian studies as a case study of Eastern Orientalism, while shedding light on the long-overlooked Iranian contribution to modern Egyptian thought. The author argues that the politically motivated demand for Iranian studies in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran has expanded the field of Persian scholarship from medieval literature to focus more on modern and contemporary Iran. Meanwhile, Iranian studies in Egypt, like most academic disciplines, have increasingly become vulnerable to the bureaucratization and politicization associated with the state's control over higher education institutes and most of publication industry.

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This article contributes to the growing scholarship on the formation of modern disciplines of knowledge which is at the intersection of nationalism and state-building in Egypt by tracing the evolution of Persian Studies as a modern academic field of inquiry since the early twentieth century (see El Shakry; Di-Capua; Elshakry). The aim is twofold: first, to employ Persian Studies in Egypt as a case study of Eastern orientalism; second, to shed fight on the long-overlooked Iranian contribution to modern Egyptian thought while examining how the state--as a main agent in structuring a scholarly discipline--has politicized the growing scholarship on Iran in Egypt. Persian Studies in Egypt witnessed a dramatic shift: from focusing on medieval Persian literature as a central terrain of Persian Studies until the mid-1970s to a wide array of inquiries with a particular focus on contemporary Iranian politics after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. While the revolution increased public interest in Iranian politics among Egyptians, it exposed the knowledge vacuum on modern Iranian history and society, which led to unprecedented growth in Persian academic programs and publications during the last three decades. I argue that the politically motivated demand for Persian Studies has expanded the field of Persian scholarship to focus on modern and contemporary Iran. In both cases of studying the legacy of traditional study of classical Persian literature and of contemporary Iranian politics, Egyptian scholars utilized the Iranian experience to answer questions concerning Egyptian realities, and the Iranian trajectory inspired Egyptian scholars in their search for authentic modernity. Meanwhile, Persian Studies in Egypt, like most academic disciplines, have increasingly become vulnerable to the bureaucratization and politicization associated with the state's control over higher education institutes and most of the publication industry.

Seek the Persian Knowledge Even in Europe

With the establishment of the Egyptian Ahliyya (Civil) University--Cairo University now--in 1908, the university faced a lack of Egyptians with doctoral degrees and familiarity with Western literature in their fields to teach in Arabic (Reid, Cairo University 24). The university employed European orientalists who could lecture in classical Arabic on a wide range of topics, such as Arabic literature, Islamic history, and the history of philosophy. The university sent its promising students to Europe on educational missions to obtain the necessary training and doctorate degrees. The goal was to foster Egyptian scholars capable of teaching modern subjects in Arabic, a goal that took years to attain. European orientalists played a vital role until the early 1930s, and a dwindling one thereafter, until they virtually disappeared in the 1950s (Reid, "Cairo University" 53). They introduced a generation of Egyptian intellectuals to Western methods of historical and sociological analysis that became integral to the study of the humanities and social sciences (38). At the newly established Ahliyya University, European teachers exposed Egyptian students to aspects of Persian civilization and introduced them to Western approaches of analyzing medieval Persian literature. Some of those students experimented with secondhand translations of Omar Khayyam's poetry via European translation into Arabic in 1917 (A. Hassan 67).

It follows, then, that to provide Egyptian scholars with systematic language training, the university preferred to send its students to Europe, rather than to Iran, to master Persian language and literature. One of those early scholars was the renowned poet Ahmad Rami (1892-1981) who learned Persian while studying library science and oriental languages at the Ecole des Langues Orientales in Paris. Rami achieved the first translation of Khayyam directly from the Persian original in 1924 (Goldschmidt 165). Pioneer Persianist 'Abd al-Wahhab 'Azzam repeatedly traveled to Europe between 1924 and 1927, then went to Brussels in summer 1938 to attend the International Congress of Orientalists ('Azzam 350).

Seeking knowledge about the Orient from European sources and reproducing this knowledge for Egyptians' consumption predated the establishment of the university. The last decade of the nineteenth century witnessed the publication of five accounts of trips to an orientalist congress or world exhibitions in Europe. (1) With the tradition of dispatching scholars and officials to the International Congress of Orientalists in European cities, sending students to Europe to study Persian did not come as a surprise. Yet, having European orientalists teaching topics related to Islamic history and philosophy in the modern Egyptian higher education institute raised some controversy in which many students, who later became renowned scholars, preferred their European teachers. Scholars like 'Abd al-Rahman 'Azzam, who studied in England and taught at the Egyptian University, admired his European colleagues for their readiness to admit they did not know the answer to a question and their solicitation of criticism of their lectures (Reid, "Cairo University" 60), but the biggest support for European orientalists teaching at the university came from the president of the university, Prince Ahmad Fu'ad, who later became King Fu'ad. European-educated and familiar with European high society, Fu'ad disregarded objections to orientalist teachers, whether on religious or nationalist grounds (59). While on the throne, King Fu'ad insisted on appointing orientalists to his Arabic Language Academy--established in 1932--and to the university (59).

The Egyptian Ahliyya University went through a restructuring process to form the College of Liberal Arts, and came under government control in 1925. The focus of language programs was mostly on European languages, forming separate departments for English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. However, the university grouped Persian, Hebrew, and Turkish in one department: the Department of Oriental Languages. Meanwhile, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese languages each enjoyed a separate department. Egyptian professors started to dominate the discipline of Arabic language and literature, but the administration of the university felt less urgency to Egyptianize the faculty in other oriental languages as Hebrew and Syriac (Reid, Cairo University 154). By 1929, Egyptian Arabists, such as Taha Husayn, 'Abd al-Rahman 'Azzam, and Ahmad Amin, replaced their orientalist masters (Reid, "Cairo University" 61). Yet even these Egyptian scholars adopted a great deal of the European research methods and techniques of their predecessors. For example, Taha Husayn self-consciously borrowed the Cartesian technique of systematic doubt in his own pursuit of knowledge. He advocated building a modern education system based on European models and argued that the Egyptian cultural identity was closer to that of Europeans than to that of the East (see Husayn, Mustaqbal).

Egyptians enthusiastically attempted to contribute to Persian Studies in the orientalist framework, and Egypt was the second country, after Iran, to agree to participate in the Second International Exhibition and Congress of Persian Art in London in 1931 (Rizvi 4565). The Egyptian delegate took pride in the Exhibition's catalogue hailing the Egyptians' quick response to the invitation and in the British press coverage of Egyptian participation. (2) The major step that allowed pioneer Persianists in Egypt to promote their scholarship was the establishment of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Cairo in 1939. The program focused exclusively on medieval Persian literature and the most celebrated classical poets and philosophers. 'Abd al-Wahhab 'Azzam, founder of the program, achieved the first complete Arabic translation of Ferdawsi's Shahnameh in his doctoral dissertation and then published it as a book in 1932. In 1945, he published his book on Farid alDin al-'Attar. In the same year, his student Yahya al-Khashshab published an Arabic translation of Naser Khosrow's Safarnameh. Around the same time, Ibrahim al-Shawarbi translated Hafiz's Divan. Recognizing the deep interest in medieval Persian culture, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the time, Taha Husayn, managed to convince the government to publish Hafiz's Divan in 1944 under the title Ghazaliyyat, in spite of a scarcity of print paper due to World War II. Thanks to Husayn's effort, al-Shawarbi was among the first Egyptian scholars to go on a university scholarship to study in Iran after finishing his studies in Egypt and England (Husayn, "Muqaddima" 11).

In 1943, al-Shawarbi published what Egyptian Persianists have deemed the first Egyptian textbook to teach Persian based on modern systematic pedagogical methods (al-Qawa'id). Although al-Shawarbi's textbook benefited from European textbooks, it reflected al-Shawarbi's firsthand experience in teaching Persian to Arabic-speakers in Egypt. The author continually modified the book in light of the practical experiences and feedback of other scholars (see A 'lam). A short time later, al-Shawarbi would lead Persian Studies at Ibrahim Pasha University (now 'Ayn Shams University), but students of Cairo University would continue to use his book with the encouragement of other important scholars such as Yahya al-Khashshab. Interestingly, a few years before the publication of al-Shawarbi's textbook, Arabist scholar Zaydan Badran al-Misri had published a textbook that was ignored by pioneer Egyptian scholars. Published in 1938 simultaneous to the Royal wedding of crown prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Princess Fawziyya, the book was conveniently entitled al-Tuhfa al-Fawziyya fi ta'alim al-Farisiyya, or The Fawziyya Masterpiece in Teaching Persian. (3)

Pioneer Egyptian Persianists focused on medieval Persian literature and philosophy, particularly Persian epics and Sufism, and celebrated the heyday of Islamic Iran as part of the glorious history of the Muslim societies and Islamic achievement in arts, literature, and philosophy (Hammad "Relocating" 282). Those early Egyptian scholars tended to overlook contemporary Iran and to focus nostalgically on the medieval period as a time of flourishing Islamic civilization. The notable exception in the first half of the twentieth century came from outside of the standard academic scholarship, when a bibliographer in Dar al-Kutub (the Egyptian archive) published a book in 1939 titled Rida Shah Bahlawi: Nahdat Iran al-Haditha, or Reza Shah Pahlavi: The Renaissance of the Modern Iran. Published just after the royal marriage between Princess Fawziyya and Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the book served more as a propaganda piece promoting the union of the young royals than an example of sound historical inquiry. 'Abd al-Wahhab 'Azzam, now head of the pan-East society al-Rabita al-Sharqiyya (Eastern Association), wrote the introduction to the book. That introduction revealed the motives behind the publication, which included reducing public anxiety over the marriage of a Sunni Egyptian princess to the Shi'i Iranian crown prince by supporting calls for unity between the major Islamic sects. Interestingly, Cairo-based Syrian author Shahin Makaryus, who co-founded al-Lata'if and al-Muqtataf periodicals in late nineteenth century, authored a book covering the history of Iran until the reign of the Qajar Monarch Muzaffar al-Din Shah in 1898 on the eve of the Constitutional Revolution. Yet, the section on the Qajar Dynasty, which purveys overt propaganda, and the cover of the book both speak to the author's purpose of seeking financial support from the Iranian government (Makaryus 227-63).

By mid twentieth century, programs in Persian language and culture operated in Fu'ad, Faruq, and Ibrahim Universities (now Cairo, Alexandria, and 'Ayn Shams Universities, respectively). Al-Azhar University established its own program, followed by Tanta University and other provincial universities. During this time, the dominant logic of the Persian programs in Egypt was that students must excel in medieval Persian texts, prose, and/or poetry to become a scholar. Courses on the history of Iran covered the trajectory of the Iranian state and society until the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911). The curricula of Persian Studies programs in the Egyptian universities throughout the 1980s did not include any courses on Persian vernacular, Iranian history, or literature after the Safavid period. In Egyptian textbooks, the periodization of Persian literary history mimics the major work of the British orientalist Edward Granville Browne (1862-1926) who labeled literature of the Safavid "modern," and completely overlooked both the several hundred years that followed it as well as the gap between Browne's own publication and the publication of these textbooks.

Overall, Persian Studies programs, as parts of Oriental Studies departments, relied on the intellectual production of European orientalists, and Egyptian Persianists translated major European works on Persian history and literature into Arabic. (4) One cannot exaggerate the influence of European orientalism on the Egyptian Persianists. Trained by European orientalists in Egypt and Europe, and having studied the production of European orientalists in European languages and Arabic translations, Egyptian scholars focused on classical Persian prose and poetry and analyzed the intellectual production of classical Persian authors without examining the socio-historical contexts in which those authors produced their texts. (5) Their adoption of orientalist analysis by Egyptian scholars does not undermine their importance, especially considering that they introduced Arab readers in Egypt and beyond to otherwise rarely comprehended and discussed Persian thoughts. (6) If orientalist views have influenced, as several scholars have rightly argued, the way modern Iranians have studied their pre-modern intellectual production, then the influence of orientalists on Egyptian Persianists should not come as a surprise (see Najmabadi; Rizvi; Desouza; Matin-Asgari). From the beginning, pioneer Egyptian scholars ventured into Persian Studies as part of their interest in studying Islamic history and Arabic literature. Recovering Islam's glorious past had become increasingly important in Egypt and the Mashriq (Levant) since the inception of the Arab Nahda (Renaissance) in the late nineteenth century. Scholarship on Islamic Persia as part of shared Islamic history also served the calls for Islamic unity and pan-Islamism, important political and cultural trends among pioneer Persianists such as 'Abd al-Wahhab 'Azzam who formed Jctma'at al-'ukhuwwa al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Brotherhood Society (see Corny). 'Azzam and his students prided themselves on attending state-sponsored activities in Iran, where they submitted research in Persian and conversed with Iranians and European orientalists about classical Persian literature. Courses in Persian language started in what is now Cairo University in the Department of Arabic, while Persian courses started in what is now 'Ayn Shams University in the Department of Oriental Studies. In both cases, Persian Studies focused on epics and Sufi literature and paid little attention to contemporary Iranian society and culture.

Iran Scholars between "the Pahlavis," Nasser, and Sadat

The dramatic political developments in Iran after World War II, the rise of Mosaddeq, and the oil crisis attracted public attention and sympathy in Egypt in the early 1950s. That time witnessed an increase in press coverage and books authored and translated by Egyptians on modern Iranian history and contemporary politics. Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, the famous journalist and author, visited Iran upon the assassination of Iranian Prime Minister Razmara in March 1951 and depicted the political situation there as volcanic (see Haykal). While the influence of the European teacher decreased after their replacement with Egyptian scholars in the 1930s, the 1950s mark the final disappearance of European orientalists from the Egyptian universities (Reid, "Cairo University" 53). Meanwhile, young Egyptian scholars found their way to Iran to enhance their language training and gain firsthand experience of Iranian society and culture. The younger generation of scholars grew confident enough to challenge their medievalist teachers and explore modern and contemporary Iran. In that context, Amin 'Abd al-Majid Badawi, who studied in Iran in the 1950s (A. Badawi 12), translated contemporary Iranian literature and published a few short stories in al-Adab magazine during the 1960s. Under President Nasser (ruled 1954-1970), both the academic system and publication industry came under state control. This was a mixed blessing for Persian and Oriental Studies, since more programs were created with the establishment of several new higher education institutes under Nasser, while the state became the major agent in the expansion of higher education.

Political disagreements between the Egyptian and Iranian regimes throughout the 1960s aborted academic efforts to develop the study of contemporary Iranian state and society, and newly-established university programs in Persian Studies continued to be exclusively medievalist at both the graduate and undergraduate levels (see al-Sabbagh, al-'Alaqa). During this episode of mutual hostility between Cairo and Tehran, the Egyptian government launched anti-Pahlavi regime radio broadcasting and recruited Egyptian scholars of Persian to work in radio stations under the control of the Intelligence and the National Security agencies (al-Khuli 135-36). In the realm of popular publications, the state-owned publisher Dar al-Ma'arif published a book on Iran in its series entitled "People of the World." Written by non-specialist authors, the short and shallow book provides a bird's-eye view of Iran's modern history and ethnic composition (see Jawhar and Abu al-Layl). Through another state publisher, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture published the controversial book of Abu al-Nasr Mubashir al-Tirazi al-Husayni, which argues that Khayyam never wrote the RubaVyyat (Quatrains). Al-Husayni concludes that the verses of RubaVyyat are merely a "conspiracy against Islam ... to encourage the Muslim youth to drink and self-indulge in immoral pleasures" (Kashf 4). Al-Husayni was a professor of Persian and Turkish literature and a bibliographer of Oriental collections at Dar al-Kutub whose most important contribution was al-Fihrist al-wasfi (The Descriptive Index). The state publisher reprinted that book in 1985, in the long wake of the Iranian Revolution. Despite the endorsement the book received from important figures, it did not influence subsequent scholarship on Khayyam in Egypt (see A. Hassan).

The political situation between Egypt and Iran dramatically improved when Anwar Sadat, who admired Mohammad Reza Shah and his Westernization drive, succeeded Nasser (see al-Sabbagh, Al-'Alaqat al-Misriyya). Sadat resumed relations with Iran and actively sought the Shah's support for the Egyptian position concerning international issues such as approaching the USA and Israel. During the 1970s, Egyptian journalists visited Iran and published extremely positive accounts of the Iranian society and the royal family in state-controlled periodicals. (7) This coverage corresponded to Sadat's views of the Pahlavi regime. On the other hand, those who observed the shortcomings of the Shah's policies while visiting Iran had to keep these observations to themselves or share them only in private. (8) With the encouragement of the Egyptian state and with generous funding from the Pahlavi regime and family, Persian Studies in Egypt started to take a different turn. Academic exchange programs introduced Egyptian students not only to modern Iranian literature, but also to the Iranian colloquial and spoken Persian. The scope of Persian Studies broadened relatively beyond the classical Islamic texts. Scholars at last achieved the overdue Arabic translation of important Persian literary works of the interwar period such as Sadeq Hedayat's fiction. Iran frequently funded publications of Egyptian scholars, particularly those which contributed to teaching the Persian language to Egyptian college students (see al-Sayyad; al-'Ali). The Pahlavi regime granted honorary medals to Egyptian scholars. Egyptian academicians became regular participants in the annual conference on Persian language and literature in Iran and abroad.

Thanks to the Iranian fund, Egyptian professors developed courses and authored books designed to teach Persian to Arabic speakers and to replace old textbooks that were mere translations of old-fashioned European textbooks. Due to the growing number of students and professors, the publication of Persian textbooks flourished, both in quantity and quality (see al-Sayyad; Hassanayn; al-Siba'i; Zaydan et al.; and Shita, al-Lugha al-Farisiyya wa-l-msus). Major universities offered Persian programs in more than one school at the same time. For example, Cairo University offered Persian in both Dar al-'Ulum and the Faculty of Arts, while 'Ayn Shams University offered Persian in the Faculty of Arts and the Women College (Hassanayn 1). In addition to teaching the language, the four programs trained specialists on Iranian history and Persian. The increase in student numbers enlarged the market for Persian language and literature textbooks. Economic conditions played a crucial role in the increasing publication of textbooks for college students in Persian and all other academic disciplines. The integration of Egypt into the global market, known as Infitah or open market policies, unleashed new consumption patterns and caused high inflation and skyrocketing prices. Along with all salaried employees, faculty suffered a decline in the value of their income and living standard. Authoring textbooks and imposing them on students in each faculty member's class became a way for faculty to earn some cash. Thus, the production of a college textbook does not necessarily respond to the need for such a book in the academic market or bring a substantial addition to the scholarship. Some textbooks duplicate available textbooks rather than contributing to the field. Others are poorly produced by non-professional local stationery shops, do not go through the legal deposit process at Dar al-Kutub, and do not carry an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) (see Shita, al-Lugha Al-Farisiyya lilmubtadi'irv, Mustafa; and Muhammad). These low-production textbooks did not substantially improve the overall quality of scholarship on Iran, and should be seen as part of the effort to help underpaid professors and instructors earn a living wage, rather than in terms of an efflorescence of Iran scholarship at the time.

The Iranian Revolution and its Aftermath in Egypt

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 surprised the regime and intellectuals in Egypt as much as it surprised the rest of the world. The shock experienced by Egyptians in grasping the developments in Iran revealed the fact that although textbooks on Persian language and literature had flourished in the 1970s, there was an almost complete dearth of scholarship on modern Iranian history, society, and politics. This vacuum of knowledge became evident in the highly polarized political atmosphere wherein mutual hostility between Sadat's regime and the revolutionary regime of Iran accelerated. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini strongly condemned the recent Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and Sadat's decision to offer asylum and burial to the terminally ill Mohammad Reza Shah in 1980 meant that diplomatic relations between the two countries would be completely severed. Soon after, the Iran-Iraq war broke out and continued for eight years.

Throughout the 1980s, Egypt witnessed a wave of publications by scholars, activists, and journalists providing biased interpretations of the Iranian Revolution and Khomeini's policies. Strong polarization between those pro and anti-Khomeini and his Islamic Republic was reflected in relatively massive publications characterized by either unjustifiable fear or celebration of Khomeinism. Scholars and journalists who were sympathetic to political Islamism interpreted the Iranian Revolution as the natural development of the role of the Iranian 'ulama since the Tobacco Revolt in 1890 (Shita, al-Thawra al-Iraniyya: Al-Sira' and al-Thawra al-Iraniyya: Al-Judhur, Huwaidi, Iran and al-'Arab). Fahmi Huwaidi, the first Egyptian journalist to visit Iran after the revolution in February 1979, is perhaps the best example of this. Huwaidi made several additional visits to Iran between then and 1986 (Huwaidi, Iran 9) and published two books in Arabic and one article in English, all accusing Arab media of being biased against the Iranian regime and favoring Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran (see "Media"). The anti-Khomeini (but, unlike in the US, also anti-Western) camp, on the other hand, portrayed the revolution as initially a Western conspiracy to overthrow the Shah that went out of the conspirators' control (see al-Subky). The latter camp interpreted the hostility of Khomeini's regime towards its Egyptian counterpart as evidence of Iran's ambition to dominate the Arab East and/or Shi'is vicious attempt to impose their hegemony over Sunni Muslims (J. Badawi; Rash wan). However, a few works escaped the heavy bias and tried with various levels of success to provide objective narratives of the historical, socio-economic, and political developments that led to the revolution (Mahaba; 'Abd al-Nasser, Iran and Dirasa). Some works also concerned themselves with explaining the revolution and the foreign policies of the Iranian regime in the light of regional and international dynamics, distancing themselves from the ideological polemics and pro/anti-Khomeinism binary ('Abd al-Nasser, Thalath and Dirasa).

As years passed, and in spite--or perhaps because--of suspicions related to the revolution, different regional and domestic developments interplayed to give a huge push to Persian Studies in Egypt on its own merit. Academics rallied to use their knowledge to help interested readers understand regional issues. Persian scholarship in Egypt witnessed an unprecedented broadening and deepening as could be traced in the titles of published books and MA and PhD theses during the last two decades. One could also attribute the increase in Iran scholarship and publications to the internal academic evolution due to the establishment of several new departments to teach Persian language and literature in higher education institutes. These programs not only attracted more undergraduate students, but also provided academic employment for those who held or sought post-graduate degrees in the field of Iranian studies. The Persian Gulf region has grown in importance in the period following the Iran-Iraq War, as it has risen silmultanously as a global economic power and a site to which many Egyptians emigrated to find work. Iran's role in Gulf politics meant that the Egyptian state's political interests could coincide with those of the academic discipline of Iranian studies, and culminated in the establishment of new Western-like think tanks.

Among these is the Center of Oriental Studies (COS) at Cairo University, founded in 1991 with the goal of informing policymakers on important regional issues. This institute was a revival of an aborted project at 'Ayn Shams University under Nasser. While the IOS does not hide its main politicized mission, which is to conduct research and studies requested by relevant authorities such as the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Mass Communication, Culture, Education, and Endowments (Markaz n. pag.), Iranian studies have nonetheless flourished there, thanks in large part to the first Chairman of the Center, Cairo University Professor al-Siba'i Muhammad al-Siba'i, a Persianist by academic training and profession. Among other support, the COS has provided language training and scholarly resources to Iran scholars and graduate students who could not travel to Iran due to lack of funding and of diplomatic connections between both countries. Furthermore, the COS has published different book series and irregular periodicals. Studies on Iran enjoyed the biggest share of publications, including a series entitled Qadaya Iraniyya (Iranian Issues) which has published five important studies on Iranian society and foreign affairs. The editors have devoted this series to contemporary Iranian politics and social issues, as well as to studies published in the Center's academic journal Risalat al-sharq (The Mission of the Orient). Articles on Shi'ism are published in the Center's Historical and Religious book series, while research on Persian language and literature is assigned to the Linguistics and Literature Studies series. Thus, in spite of its connection to the Egyptian state, the COS is able to offer scholars and the public resources that might otherwise be hard to come by.

Another center that provides information on Iran is Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. Established by Nasser's government in the wake of the 1967 defeat, the Center began operating in 1968 to produce systematic research on development inside Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Beginning in 1972, the Center expanded its scope to cover regional and international issues. The interest in Iranian affairs expanded in the Center with the founding of a program on Persian Gulf Studies, and culminated in the creation of a monthly periodical entitled Mukhtarat Iraniyya (Iranian Digest) under the editorship of Muhammad Sa'id Idris beginning in August 2000. Since its inception, Mukhtarat Iraniyya has focused on contemporary domestic sociopolitics in Iran and Iranian engagements with regional and international politics. The periodical devotes a section to Iranian views by publishing articles by important Iranian commentators in Arabic translation in order to "bridge Arab and Iranian views through knowing each other's" (Idris 3). Idris himself is not an Iran expert: He has a PhD in political science from Cairo University and his doctoral research on the politics of the Egyptian labor movement in the interwar period was published as a monograph. While choosing Idris to edit a publication on Iran reflects the bureaucratic promotion process in the government-controlled al-Ahram and its Center rather than concerns about academic specialization, the Center is nonetheless able to employ researchers with academic training in Iranian studies. Yet few of them are fluent in Persian or capable of providing competent Arabic translations directly from Persian. Despite the lack of diplomatic relations between both countries, Egyptian academic institutes and think tanks have hosted many Iranian participants in their fora and conferences.

Iranian Studies in Contemporary Egypt

The enduring perception of post-revolutionary Iran as a threat to stability in the region has strongly influenced the state of academic research on Iran in Egypt up to the present day. To curb the influence of radical Islamism, the Egyptian regime under Mubarak sponsored large cultural projects, including two important enterprises for translations, Afaq al-Tarjama (Horizons of Translation) and al-Mashru' al-Qawmi lil-Tarjama (National Translation Project). Both programs, affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, produced translated books with high quality production, affordable distribution prices, and generous compensation for translators. Both translation enterprises attracted scholars/translators from all disciplines and areas of study. This initiative led to translations from Persian being made available for the first time to a wide audience in Egypt, with the National Project for Translation having published about one hundred translated books from Persian. As a consequence to this effort, Egypt began to receive the most updated Iranian intellectual writings from all disciplines. The wide variety of titles indicates that the translation program worked with relative freedom, but the government preserved its right to withdraw the state-sponsored initiatives, a right which was exercised often in the last few years of Mubarak's regime.

As a long-term consequence of the National Translation Project, and with the increasing public and official interest in the political developments in Iran, Egyptian Persianists, whose training was primarily in language, literature, and history, began to branch into other disciplines to write about contemporary politics and society. They researched and published on Rafsanjani's and Khatami's politics, Iranian regional influence and interests, and Iranian foreign policies among other topics (see Nur al-Din). Academics took advantage of potential improvements in the Egyptian-Iranian relationships during Rafsanjani's and Khatami's presidencies (1989-1997 and 1997-2005, respectively) to resume their scientific endeavors in Iran. Egyptian scholars participated in international academic conferences in Tehran on Ferdawsi (1992) and Farid al-Din al-'Attar (1995). Junior scholars also received Iranian invitations to attend biannual programs for language pedagogy training. Those who failed to get financial support from the Egyptian government to attend these programs paid for their own travel and the Iranian government covered their accommodation (Jum'a 212-13).

Another factor that contributed to the recent growth in Persian Studies programs is the scientific and bureaucratic growth of Egyptian academia. In the last two decades, several Egyptian universities opened new campuses, and some university branches developed into independent universities. Among many examples, the Asyut University campus in Qina became the South Valley University with a Department of Eastern Languages in 1995, and the Tanta University campus in Kafr al-Shaykh followed suit and became the University of Kafr al-Shaykh with a Department of Eastern Languages and Literature in 2006. These newly established higher education institutes launched new departments, including Oriental and Persian Studies. Many of these programs offer post-graduate degrees in Persian, and make translating a Persian text a substantial part of the MA thesis (Jum'a 211). This requirement enhanced the translation of otherwise ignored or forgotten Persian texts and opened doors to translate texts from Persianate contexts beyond Iran, such as Tajikistan, Central Asia, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Official statements of these programs reveal the tension between the academic need to study Iranian history and culture on its own scholarly merit, on the one hand, and turning academia into another agent to serve the political and security needs of the regime, on the other. For example, the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Asyut was founded in 2008 and focuses on studying Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew languages and literature. The department overtly highlights its political and ideological commitment as a platform to counter "the Zionist and Shi'i thoughts" ("al-Aqsam" n. pag.). Contradicting Asyut's hostile agenda toward Shi'ism, the Department of Oriental Languages and Literature at the University of Alexandria defines its mission as "forging closer scientific, literary, and cultural ties, as well as consolidating political relations, which leads to opening up new job opportunities to graduates of this department" ("Bamamaj" n. pag.). Meanwhile, the Oriental Studies Department at al-Mansura University, established in 1997, confines its mission to scholarly rather than political pursuits to "promote students' knowledge of all Semitic and Islamic peoples through critical and scientific examination of their languages, literature, and civilization" ("Qism" n. pag.). Graduates of Persian programs have taken advantage of the demand for Persian speakers to work as translators for the press, think tanks, and publishing houses, including Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. Several periodicals have devoted sections to Iranian affairs and large media outlets launched publications devoted to Iran such as Sharqnameh and Mukhtarat Iraniyya. The influence of Egyptian scholars has also extended to Arab universities outside of Egypt, where they were influential in establishing programs, designing curricula, and teaching Persian language and literature. Among many examples, Professor al-Siba'i Muhammad al-Siba'i of Cairo University drafted the bylaws of the Oriental Studies Department at Kuwait University and taught at Riyadh University in Saudi Arabia between 1979 and 1981.

Over the course of a century, the field of Persian Studies has grown and developed in Egypt beyond simple orientalism and Khomeinism. Scholarship on Persian Studies has evolved mostly as a linguistic and literary discipline. The study of Iran and Persianate societies in Egypt has not been characterized by a clear disciplinary focus; instead, limited in number and often faced with politicization by the state, the field as a whole has tended to react to the state's and the public's demands to understand developments in Iran. In effect, Egyptian Iran scholars have become knowledge brokers par excellence between their Egyptian society and the history and culture of Iran. Even so, Egyptian scholars have managed to produce a growing body of literature, either written in or translated into Arabic, that reflects both the sophistication and complexity of Iranian politics, culture, and society, as well as the history of the university in Egypt.

Hanan Hammad *

Notes

* This article is dedicated to Professor M. R. Ghanoonparvar in recognition of the academic support and inspiration he has offered me throughout my academic career. I would also like to thank Professor al-Siba'i Muhammad al-Siba'i for graciously sharing his illuminating thought about the fields of Persian and Iranian studies in Egypt.

(1) Dimitri ibn Ni'mat Allah Khallat's account of the Paris world exhibition of 1889; Mahmud 'Umar al-Bajuri's account of a journey to the Exposition Universelle in Paris and the Eighth International Congress of Orientalist, Stockholm, 1889; Muhammad Amin Fikri's account of the same journey; Ahmad Zaki's account of a journey to the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, London, 1892; and al-Dunya fi Baris [Life in Paris], an account of the Paris world exhibition (Mitchell 180, n. 14).

(2) The Egyptian participants submitted to the government an unpublished report entitled "Mudhakira 'an al-mu'tamar al-dawli al-thani wa ma'rad al-fann al-Farisi alladhi 'uqida bi-madinat London fi shahr yanayir sanal 1931 [Memorandum on the Second International Congress and the Exhibition of Persian Art Held in London in January 1931]]" The report is at the Egyptian archive Dar al-Kutub under number 1164 taqarir (report), 3406/1931.

(3) The book might be a re-publication of a book entitled al-Tuhfa al 'Abbassiy ya fi ta'alim al-Farisiyya(The Abbasid Masterpiece in Teaching Persian), originally published 1887.

(4) Among many examples, see Ibrahim Amin al-Shawarbi's translation of Browne's A History of Persian Literature in Modern Times into Arabic entitled Tarikh al-adab fi Iran and his partial translation of Will and Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization into Arabic entitled Qissat al-hadaru al-Farisiyya. See also Husayn Mujib al-Masri's translation of Paul Horn's Geschichte Persischen litteratur into Arabic entitled al-Adab al-Farisi al-qadim.

(5) The most comprehensive list of Egyptian publications in the field of Persian Studies is an unpublished index in the Dar al-Kutub archive. For a brief list that covers the publications until 1975, see Abu Farha.

(6) The intensive scholarship of Husayn Mujib al-Masri is a good example to cite, particularly his Ramadan and al-Mar'a.

(7) Among many examples, Zaynab Hassan's "al-Shahbanu." For detailed dis cussion of the coverage of Iran in the Egyptian press under Sadat, see Hanan Hammad, "The Iranian Revolution in the Egyptian Press."

(8) Ahmad Baha al-Din reported that when he was the editor of the Ruz al-Yusuf magazine, he privately communicated to President Sadat the level of poverty he witnessed in Tehran (68-69). Former editor of the women's section of al-Musawwar magazine, Zaynab Hassan, on the other hand, explains her low-ranking position in the state-owned periodical prevented her from reporting the negative observations she had during her visit to Tehran in January 1978 (Telephone interview).

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