Egypt

Vintage: Everyday Life of Egypt (late 19th Century)

Vintage: Everyday Life of Egypt (late 19th Century)

Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate in 1867, a status which was to remain in place until 1914. The Suez Canal, built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. Its construction led to enormous debt to European banks, and caused popular…
Vintage: Everyday Life of Cairo in the 19th Century (1860s-1880s)

Vintage: Everyday Life of Cairo in the 19th Century (1860s-1880s)

Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind only Constantinople, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo’s growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean. Still, when…