In Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany's bestselling 2002 novel The Yacoubian Building, an aging aristocrat declares: "It was a different age. Cairo was like Europe. It was clean and smart and the people were well mannered and respectable and everyone knew his place exactly…"
Fewer and fewer people remember Egypt as it once was, a glittering romantic metropolis and a genuine regional hub for culture and the arts - it is an Egypt that now only lives in the collective memory of some exiles, the result of dictatorships both republican and Islamic.
Prince Osman Rifaat Ibrahim was barely two years old when his family was forced to leave his native Egypt, after the 1952 Free Officers' revolution. As members of the dynasty of Mohamed Ali, founder of modern Egypt, they had become persona non grata. His father, Prince Amr Ibrahim, was blacklisted as a potential threat to the new order. He had been a high commander of the Special Police during World War II, and enjoyed a great deal of support among certain circles. As a grandson of Mohamed Ali's eldest son, he was viewed as a contender for the throne.
Overnight, their family lost everything, as the state confiscated extensive properties and all of their personal belongings, including priceless antiques and artworks, by order of the Revolutionary Command Council. There were three palatial homes in Cairo, three buildings in coastal Alexandria, and vast swaths of agricultural land on which they grew cotton, then a highly profitable crop. With nothing left in Egypt, they went into exile, first to Italy and later to Switzerland, where Prince Osman grew up among other Egyptian aristocrats.
Today, like the rest of the world, the 63-year-old prince watches from afar as chaos unfolds in Egypt, wondering whether there will ever be a happy ending to the story that began six decades ago.
"When this latest revolution started a little over two years ago, I was hopeful that it might be the end of nearly 60 years of military dictatorship," he told Al Jazeera. "Unfortunately it was not, and where we are headed is gloomy." » | Tanya Goudsouzian | Source: Al Jazeera | Monday, July 08, 2013
