NOMADS AND FARMERS IN THE PROCESS OF THE MODERNIZATION OF EGYPT

The history of farmers (fallahin) was in sharp contrast with that of nomads ('urban or 'arab) in modern Egypt. While farmers were exalted as the symbol of national identity during the nationalist movement, especially after the 'Orabi Revolution (1881-82), nomads were substantially excluded from "Egyptians" and regarded as a sort of vagabonds without the national consciousness in regards to laws and regulations at the end of the 19th century. This shows what kind of people the Egyptian Government identified as "Egyptians" in those days. In other words, this fact expresses the nature of the process of the formation and the modernization of the Egyptian state and society. The aim of this small essay is to summarize some characteristics of the modernization process of Egyptian society, by interpreting the above mentioned sharp contrast between the vicissitudes of farmers and nomads in modern Egypt, being the special stress on their participation in the Egyptian National Army. Here, we mean by the Egyptian National Army, the army formed by Muhammad 'Ali, especially by his measure of the draft for military service from farmers in 1822, after having wiped out the former aristocratic military class of Mamluks and developed afterwards into the National Army after many turns and twists.(1) The reason why we refer to the national army is the well established fact in history that it was one of the key institutions on which the modern state was built, and also which made up the national consciousness among people, besides the modern educational system. We could discuss the national army from various points of view, but on this occasion, we focus our discussion on its personal components. From this point of view, the national army could be defined as an army composed