Πάπυροι - Επιστημονικό Περιοδικό
τόμος 3, 2014
Papyri - Scientific Journal
volume 3, 2014
FATHY M. ABOU-AYANA, Professor of Human Geography, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Egypt
Email: [email protected]
Θεσσαλονίκη 2014 – Thessaloniki 2014
ISSN:2241-5106
Πάπυροι - Επιστημονικό Περιοδικό
τόμος 3, 2014
Papyri - Scientific Journal
volume 3, 2014
www.academy.edu.gr
[email protected]
Italians in Modern Alexandria
FATHY M. ABOU-AYANA
I. Introduction
Since its foundation in 331 BC, Alexandria has been associated with foreign relations
with the Mediterranean peoples. The relationship between Alexandria and Rome is a historical fact that dates back to the beginning of the first millennium. Evidence from the Roman era
is still visible today, at sites such as Pompey's Pillar and Kom el Dikka. The power of Alexandria declined throughout the Roman period and eventually the classical city was partly destroyed by an earthquake. Centuries later, the city shrank during the Islamic era, and when
Napoleon invaded Egypt (1798 – 1801), Alexandria was a very modest Turkish town, with
about 8000 inhabitants.
Alexandria sank into poverty and disease, and did not revive until the early 19th century.
When Mohamed Ali became Wali (or Viceroy) of Egypt in 1805, he realized the strategic importance of Alexandria, as well as the need to expand the arsenal and strengthen the fleet. He
proposed a canal to transport grain and other Egyptian products to Alexandria through the
western branch of the Nile delta (Rosetta branch). The work was finished in 1820 under the
name of:
Mahmudyah Canal (after the name of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II)
It became the main route of transportation between Alexandria and the rest of Egypt.
This canal was the starting point for the real cultural and social development of the city.
After building a railway between Alexandria and Suez during the reign of Mohamed Ali's
successors, Alexandria's importance increased and the city continued to rapidly grow and develop. Ismail Pasha (1863 – 1879) wanted to modernize Egypt and Europeanize it. During his
reign, Alexandria experienced greater leaps in its development. He granted many plots of land
in the new Raml suburb to Europeans who built scores of beautiful palaces. Most of the architectures were from Italy. Foreigners were encouraged to settle in Alexandria bringing with
them their cultural baggage and wealth that it had not seen for centuries. Suddenly Alexandria
became Babel of tongues, races and creeds, all enjoying the security it offered and the promise
of gold it held out. All availed themselves of its immense opportunities, and in no time Alexandria had become a cosmopolitan city rivaled in the Mediterranean by only Istanbul itself. It
was the cultural and the financial capital of a wealthy Egypt, and the main port of a county
that was fast acquiring power in the Mediterranean (1). The status of Europeans living in Egypt
was made favourable by capitulations, a system of special privileges granted to foreigners in
the Ottoman Provinces.
As a result of these achievements, the city's population rapidly grew to 60,000 between
1821 and 1840, and to 143000 by 1848. By 1874, the population of Alexandria has reached
270000. Accordingly, the number of foreigners settling in Alexandria was on the rise all
through the 19th century and up to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1907, the total figure
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τόμος 3, 2014
Papyri - Scientific Journal
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[email protected]
Italians in Modern Alexandria
was 86394 foreigners compared with 267413 Egyptian makes the foreign population of Alexandria as high as 24.4%. (Table I)
Europeans were an essential element that helped create the social cosmopolitan fabric
of Alexandria, and their numbers are correlated to the urban growth of the city up to the fifties of the twentieth century
Years
1897
1907
1917
1927
1937
1947
1960
2006
Table (I)
Number and percentage of foreigners in Alexandria
(1897 – 2006)
Population of
Alexandria
315 844
353 807
444 617
573 063
685 736
919 024
1510 000
4100 000
Number of
foreigners
46 118
86 394
84 705
99 605
88 351
63 535
44 223
6 691
Source: Population censuses in the mentioned years.
%
14.5
24.4
19.0
17.4
12.9
7.0
2.9
0.2
Number and percentage of foreigners in Alexandria
(1897-2006)
4500000
4000000
3500000
3000000
2500000
2000000
1500000
1000000
500000
0
1897
1907
1917
1927
1937
1947
1960
Number of foreigners
population of Alexandria
2006
Fig (1)
2. Foreign Communities in Alexandria
Integrated well with each other and with the local population, though, owing to the
community system, each foreign community still held on to its language, religions, traditions,
beliefs and even eating habits. Exchange and diversity produced a colorful cultural mosaic.
They had immense impact on Alexandrians economic and culture. Greeks formed the biggest
community in Alexandria, followed by Italians, British and French. (Table 2) and (Fig. 2)
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Italians in Modern Alexandria
Table (2) Foreigners in Alexandria according to Nationality
(1897 – 1947)
Nationality
1897
1947
Number
%
Number
%
Greeks
15 182
32.9
30753
48.4
Italians
11 743
25.5
12370
19.5
British
8 301
18.0
9659
15.2
French
5 221
11.3
3259
5.1
Others
5 671
12.3
7484
11.8
Total
46 118
100.0
63535
100.0
Source: Abdel Hakim, M.S. "Madinet aleskandaria""Alexandria city"Cairo, 1958, pp. 191-275
Foreigners in Alexandria according to
Nationality
35000
30000
25000
1897
20000
1947
15000
10000
5000
0
Greeks
Italians
British
Fig (2)
French
Others
There was a big drop in the number of the foreigners in the last fifty years, (Fig 3). In
1952, with the rise of the Egyptian revolution and the establishment of the new sovereign regime of Nasser, the subsequent nationalization of many foreign industries from 1956 to 1961
including the Suez Canal Company, as well as other major and minor foreign corporations, the
exodus of most of the foreign population in Alexandria was in great numbers, many establishments have closed down, and with them a lot of the European features have disappeared.
But the legacy of a shared cultural heritage, handed down by our fathers and grandfathers,
survives in our life, and in the collective memory of the city (2).
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Italians in Modern Alexandria
Today, there are some foreigners who still live in Alexandria, they are the few that refused to leave in 1952, they live peacefully within the city managing small businesses, and
they still consider Alexandria their home.
Foreigners in Alexandria
(1897-2006)
100000
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
Number of foreigners
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
1897 1907 1917 1927 1937 1947 1960 2006
Fig (3)
3. Italian Community:
As mentioned before, Italians made up the second largest community in Alexandria
during the city's golden age of Europeans. The migration movement of Italians to Egypt during
the early 19th century was largely associated with the unstable political conditions in the
homeland. Many political exiled refugees offered their services to Mohamed Ali, mostly as officers and technicians engaged in modernizing the Egyptian military and public services. The
Italian community included artists, architects and craftsmen. Their population was estimated
at 11743 in 1897 and increased gradually to 24280 in 1927 then decreased abruptly to 3374
in the last census of 2006, (Table 3) and (Fig 4).
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Italians in Modern Alexandria
Table (3) Rise and Decline of Italian community
in Alexandria (1882 – 2006)
Year
Number
1897
11743
1907
16669
1917
17860
1927
24280
1937
22881
1947
12370
1960
7263
2006
3374
Source: Population censuses since 1897
% of foreigners
25.5
19.3
21.1
24.4
25.9
19.5
16.4
50.0
Italian Community in Alexandria
(1897 -2006)
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
1897
1907
1917
1927
1937
1947
1960
2006
Fig (4)
4. Impacts of Italians on Alexandria:
The Italian community in Alexandria was roughly divided into two distinguished clas-
ses:
1. Merchants and bankers: (white collars) they lived in Alexandria since a long time, and
spoke Arabic language. They were well to do and used to live in high standards in and
around Menshia square in the downtown.
2. Craftsmen (blue collars): and they work in making statutes and in printing houses. Some
of them were working in governmental offices and in banks. Italians founded well-known
financial institutions. The first was the Italian-Egyptian Bank (Banco Italo- Egiziano) in
1922 and the Commercial Bank. Some Egyptians shared Italians in the council of administration of these banks.
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Italians in Modern Alexandria
Moreover, Italians established industrial companies mainly spinning cotton, tobacco
and processed food stuffs. Engineering, and electricity works were mainly Italian in Alexandria (3).
4.1 Architecture:
In early nineteenth century Italian architects were commissioned to build residences
for the Pashas. They began at the time to develop a municipal district which resulted in a new
European district, which turned out to be the most beautiful spot called "Place des Consuls".
Following the 1882 British invasion and bombardment, Alexandria was rebuilt in a different
style with an Italian architect, Antonio Lasciacs, who was responsible for many properties in
the former "Place des Consuls", later renamed Mohamed Ali Square. By the mid 1920's there
was a revival of Islamic styles which played a key role in developing the city. Mario Rossi
(1897 – 1961), in particular, designed important churches and mosques including Morsi Abou
El Abbas Mosque, along the Corniche. But perhaps the most important legacy in the Alexandria style: a generic name commonly used to describe a baroque style of architecture that was
to have a wide influence on many other cities (4).
Another example of Italian influence on the Alexandria Architecture is that of Guiseppo
Alessandro Loria (1880 – 1937). Alexandria has many prominent and ancient sites, yet Midan
Saad Zaghloul is the true heart of the city, its charm is due in no small measure to the architecture of G. Loria. Loria's architecture exemplified cosmopolitan Alexandria, combining the Art
Deco style, then in vogue, with Venetian Gothic elements from his ancestral home, and Arab
elements adapted from Alexandria mosques and Cairo bazaars. The Italian community, more
than any other foreign community, provided the engineers and architects who built Alexandria.
4.2 Culture:
One of the main impacts of the Italian community in Alexadnria is education. Italians
founded a number of schools in the city, including what have become the Ras el Tin School,
and the Faculty of Agriculture in the University of Alexandria. One of the best contributions of
Italians was Don Bosco School for Arts and Industry, which was built in 1912 and exists till
today. This school was the leading technical institute in modern Alexandria and still up till
now has a good reputation in this field of education in the city. Many of the Italian schools had
general libraries for the public.
Press was the other aspect of Italian cultural influences in the city. The famous newspapers were Messaggero, L'Eco di Egitto, L'Economista (1882), Rivista a Alessandria (1883),
Courriere d'Oriente (1885), Courriere d'Italia in the beginning of the twentieth century. These
newspapers closed later when Italy was involved in the Second World War (5).
The Italians built Italian Hospital in 1905 that was originally named for Benito Mussolini in the Hadarah district. Also, they established orphanages and charitable societies and
they also encouraged arts and music.
4.3 Italian Linguistic Reflections in the Alexandrian Arabic:
The intermingling of Italians with the native people in Alexandria, had affected the Arabic language of the Alexandrians. The Alexandrian dialect exhibits a large number of such
words borrowed from Italian language. The language of the Italian community has interacted
in Alexandria over the last two centuries. As is clear to those of us who have been brought up
in Alexandria of the forties and fifties, and those who came before us, and as is also seen and
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Italians in Modern Alexandria
heard in the artistic productions of the last century, in popular songs and films, a number of
borrowed or " loanwords" of Italian origin have come to form an integral part of the texture of
the spoken Egyptian variety referred to as the Ammeya or the "Masri" dialect in general,
and/or the Alexandrian variety of the "Masri" in particular . We find such words as battista
(kind of cotton textile or fabric) bicicletta (bescletta) bomba (bomb), chiao (farewell greeting), medaglia (medal) posta (both post office and mail), and punto/bont (point) (6).
These words have contributed to the making of the linguistic repertoire of the Alexandrian community and are still used by a large sector of the Alexandrian community today,
though admittedly, to a decreasing degree. A social factor that can also explain these interesting phenomena, would be that Italian community communicated with large sectors of the
population either as "co-workers" or as "masters", with large numbers of appretencies, assistants and disciples or as simply next-door neighbors(7).
5. Conclusion
Italian community was the second European community in Alexandria after the Greek
during the nineteenth century and till the Second World War.
The Italians played a remarkable part in developing Alexandria and in its urban
growth and morphology. They integrated well with the natives, and contributed much to Alexandria urban functions, mainly in architecture, economic activity, education, sanitary and
social services. Their number had dropped after the Second World War because of the political and social change that Egypt has witnessed, especially after 23rd July revolution in 1952.
But the legacy of Italian heritage in Alexandria still survives in this Mediterranean City. Alexandria has always been the inspiration of European poets and writers as Cavafy, whose house
is still an open museum for tourists, and Lawrence Darrell with his Alexandria Quartet.

This paper was read on the occasion of the first visit of the Italian Geographical Society
to the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, 25 November
2012.
Footnotes:
1. Awad, M. and Hammouda, S.: A Taste of Alexandria, A Cosmopolitan Flavour, Bibliotheca
Alexandrina, 2009, p.xii
2. Ibid, p. xiii
3. Abou-Ayana, F.: Population of Alexandria: A Geographic and Demographic Study, Published Ph.D. Dissertation, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, 1981, pp. 27-28 (in Arabic).
4. Awad, M.F.: "Le modele europeen: L'evolution urbaine de 1807 – 1958", Alexandrie entre
deux mondes, Edisud, 1987, pp. 93 – 109.
5. Al-Shal, M.: The Role of Foreigners in the City of Alexandria in the First Half of the 20th
Century, Ph.D. Dissertation, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, 1994, p.206 (in Arabic).
6. El-Soussi, S.: "Sociolinguistic Reflections: Borrowed words from Italian in Alexandrian Arabic", Alex-Med Newsletter, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, May-July 2007, p.8.
7. Many examples are provided here like :
 alla una, alla duo, alla tres (auction expressions), avllocato (lawyer), cabine (cabin),
contratto, (contract).
 Concerto (concert), locanda (hotel), maestro (conductor), primo (first) secondo
(second) terzo (third class) teatro (theatre).
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Italians in Modern Alexandria


Words related to domestic domain: balcona (balcony), bagno (tub) commodino
(bed side table), gambari (shrimps), lampa (lamp), macarona fionka, isbagetti, (different kinds of pasta). Mobilia (furniture), basta (cakes), salsa (sauce), sapone
(soap), torta (cake), vasa (vase), bitello (veal), veranda (balcony).
In commerce: Bolisa (insurance policy), kimbiale, (cambial), manifesto, fattura
(bill) etc.
Bibliography:
1. Abdel Hakim, M.S. (1958): The City of Alexandria, Cairo: Misr Library (in Arabic).
2. Abou-Ayana, F.M. (1981): Population of Alexandria: A Geographic and Demographic Study,
Ph.D. Published Dissertation, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University (in Arabic).
3. Al-Shal, M. (1994): The Role of Foreigners in the City of Alexandria in the First Half of the
20th Century, Ph.D. Unpublished Dissertation, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University.
4. Awad, M.F. (2008): Italy in Alexandria: Influences on the Built Environment, Alexandria:
Alexandria Preservation Trust.
5. Awad, M.F., and Hammouda, S. (2009): A Taste of Alexandria, A Cosmopolitan Flavour,
Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
6. Awad, M.F. (1987): "Le modele europeen: L'evolution urbane de 1807 – 1958", Alexandrie
entre deux mondes, Edisud.
7. El-Soussi, S. (2007): "Sociolinguistic Reflections: Borrowed Words from Italian in Alexandrian Arabic", Alex-Med Newsletter, Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
8. Tammam, M. R. (2008): The Western Cultural Influences in the Egyptian Society (1882 –
1952), M.A. Unpublished Dissertation, Faculty of Art, Alexandria University (in Arabic).
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