Report on Fieldwork in Egypt
15.02. - 14.04.2009
My main purpose at the beginning of the fieldwork was the in-depth examination of available material rather than the search of new sources. This second fieldtrip to Egypt in fact has been necessary to complete the reference framework before starting the definitive dissertation draft.
The sources examined can be classified as written and oral. Oral sources were the major novelty, though deeply connected with the written ones and retraced on the basis of these latter. For the first time anyway I had the opportunity to interview witnesses related to Mixed Courts world.
Main written sources I have consulted were:
- Parliamentary sessions minutes (Dar el wathai’q el qawmiyyah, Qa’a el madbuat -National Egyptian Archives, Official publications hall- ) on the following topics: Anglo-Egyptian treaty, Montreux Agreement ratification, Mortgage and impoundment legislation, new Civil Code draft, Judiciary reform.
- Alexandria Municipality Administrative Commission sessions minutes on the following topics: beach huts regulation and anti-raid measures. (Dar el wathai’q el qawmiyyah, Qa’a el madbuat -National Egyptian Archives, Official publications hall and CEAlex Centre d’Etudes Alexandrines)
- Cairo Mortgage registers (Cairo Land Register office –Maslaha shar el ‘aqary)
- Coeval Press in Arabic and European languages: al Ahram, al Balagh, la Bourse Egyptienne, le Journal d’Egypte, la Reforme, Le Phare d’Orient, Il Giornale d’Oriente, Journal des Tribunaux Mixtes (National Library –Dar al Kutub-, Court of Appeal –Dar el qada’ el ‘aly-, CEDEJ -Centre d’études et documentation Economique et Juridique- in Cairo. Zananiri private library and CEAlex in Alexandria)
As I already mentioned I had the opportunity to interview relatives of judges and attorneys employed at the Mixed Courts and to consult, when available, their personal documents. An interviewees list follows:
- Aly Zulficar (grandson of Youssef Zulficar Pasha: Mixed Appeal Court president and father in law of the former king of Egypt Faruq)
- Fuad M. Younes ( Mohammad Younes son, attorney at Cairo Mixed Court and grand chamberlain at Faruq court)
- Abderrafea Moussa (attorney at Cairo Mixed Court, specialized in international private law)
- Francesco Greco (president of ANPI: Associazione Nazionale Pro Italiani d’Egitto, on the impoundment issue that I will deal with in chapter IV and V of the dissertation)
- Zeinab Said Wassef (Princess Asma Halim’s grandnephew. Princess Halim was involved in a succession lawsuit examined in chapter III)
- Nevine Halim (Princess Asma Halim’s grandnephew)
- M.S. Abulezz (Egyptian Geography Society president. The Society is alleged to be the beneficiary of a controversial waqf analyzed in chapter III.)
- Ibrahim Saad (private law professor at Tanta University, Saad Said’s son, judge at Mansurah and then Alexandria Mixed Courts).
- Mounir Fakhri abd el Nour (New Wafd leader, son of Fakhry abd el Nour attorney at Mixed Courts).
- Karim Wissa (grandchild of Ahmed Kamel bey el Dine, Judge at Alexandria Mixed Courts)
The combination of written (published and unpublished) sources with oral ones gave me the opportunity to contextualize some of the most controversial juridical cases treated in the dissertation. In the field in fact I tried to answer specific questions arisen during the classification of the material gathered throughout my previous fieldwork (October - April 2007/08). I decided to focus on both Mixed Courts staff (judges, attorneys, experts) and Mixed Courts plaintiffs in lawsuits of particular relevance.
My previous experience has been indispensable to reduce time and energy losses. I already held the permission to get access in the National Archives and I was more or less able to find the documents I needed, though working in Dar al Wathai’q always requires much of an effort. I found by chance, in a state of complete carelessness, the minutes of Alexandria Municipality Administrative Commission sessions after weeks of ineffective researches. At the Ministry of Waqf (religious endowments) I was not as lucky as in the Dar al Wathai’q, the documents I required in fact were not available. More productive was my visit to Cairo Land Register office where I was able to consult mortgage registers I had no access during the previous fieldwork. Cadastre ‘staff had time to examine the request I left in April 2008 before leaving Egypt and finally allowed me to see the documents. Furthermore a team of employees is digitalizing and translating all the documents belonging to Mixed Courts period. Thus I can affirm that working at the Land Register Office is much less complicated than before.
Even more stimulating was the interviews collection. I was certainly more prepared to carry out interviews after attending in Halle anthropological methodology seminars. On the field I could directly experience the benefits of an interdisciplinary education. My social network anyway was essential to get in contact with Mixed Courts employees descendants. Unfortunately time constraint didn’t allow me to interview more witnesses though people I had the opportunity to get in touch with were always eager to help me. It was surprising, almost sixty years after the abolition of Mixed Courts, to see how people are still connected among them. Ibrahim Saad, one of the interviewee, spoke about an esprit de corps within Mixed Jurisdiction and I couldn’t find better words to describe the nature of human relations within persons related to Mixed Courts microcosm.
The material collected was essential to define with precision dissertation’ structure and chapters’ content. After the classification of such material I was able to start the definitive draft. In particular the second fieldwork helped me to have a clearer idea of three topics that are the pillars of my project: the interrelations between civil law and shari’a, the juridical praxis when foreigners were involved in adjudications against Egyptian Administration and the reconstruction of Mixed Courts employees’ struggles after Montreux agreements (1937). In Montreux Egypt and Capitulary powers negotiated Mixed Courts abolition and transitional period before the establishment of a unified legal system. The hopeless battle of Mixed Courts’ staff is a mirror of foreigners’ struggle to keep alive their privileges, while Egypt was rapidly moving towards the full independence.