Figure 1.--This postcard-back image shows three Fellahin children about 1930. This is the date estimated by the source and roughly conforned by the postcard back. The children are wearing basic galabieh. |
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No discussion of the Egyptian economy is complete without a discussion of the Fellahin (peasantry).
The Fellah (فلاح ) / Fellahin (فلاحين ) is the Middle Eastern/ North Africa farmer or agricultural laborer. The term is based on the Arabic word for ploughman or tiller. The Fellahin have existed since the dawn of civilzation. The term is much more recent. It began to be used during the Ottoman period and later to refer to villagers and farmers. [Mahdi, Würth, and Lackner, p. 209.] Fellahin were different from the effendi or large landowners. [Tyler, p. 13.] The Fellahin have been variously describe. The primary sence is tenant farmers [Gilsenan, p. 13.] Some authors expand the term to encompases smallholders or low-income people living in rural village. This often meant villages that owned the land communally. [Sufian, p. 57.] The term Fellahin is most commonly used in connection with Egypt because the country for most of its history was bread basket of the Mediterranean world. The Egyptian agricultural bounty harvests provided the wealth that built the Pyramids and wonders of ancint Europe. The harvsts is what has attravted invaders like the Assyrians, Persians, and Romans over time. That bounty of course was based on the Nile and its annual floods. And it was work of the Fellahin since time immemorial that produced it. There is a misconception which Hollywood has helped perpetuate that the ancient Egyptian econmy and archiecural marvels was based on slavery. It was not. It was based on the Fellahin. Thy were not slaves but like medieval serfs a near slave condition. The Fellahin had very limited rights and were able retain only a fraction of the value of the grain and other agricultural products they harvested. It was a system that emerged throughout the Middle East that enabled rulers to extract the maximum value of the harvest without the costs and potential civil disorders associated with slavery. Due to a continuity in beliefs and lifestyle largely based on the continued use of ancient agricultural methods. The fellahin have been described by many Egyptian authors as the 'true' Egyptians. [Pateman, p. 54.] The standard dress for the Fellah was a simple cotton robe called galabieh (jellabiya). The word Galabieh appeared (18th century), derived from the Egyptian Arabic word gallabīyah (جلابية). While the term was relatively new, the garment dates back centuries.
No discussion of the Egyptian economy is complete without a discussion of the Fellahin (peasantry).
The Fellah (فلاح ) / Fellahin (فلاحين ) is the Middle Eastern/ North Africa farmer or agricultural laborer. The term is based on the Arabic word for ploughman or tiller. The Fellahin have existed since the dawn of civilzation. The term is much more recent. It began to be used during the Ottoman period and later to refer to villagers and farmers. [Mahdi, Würth, and Lackner, p. 209.] Fellahin were different from the effendi or large landowners. [Tyler, p. 13.] The Fellahin have been variously describe. The primary sence is tenant farmers [Gilsenan, p. 13.] Some authors expand the term to encompases smallholders or low-income people living in rural village. This often meant villages that owned the land communally. [Sufian, p. 57.]
The term Fellahin is most commonly used in connection with Egypt because the country for most of its history was bread basket of the Mediterranean world. The Egyptian agricultural bounty harvests provided the wealth that built the Pyramids and wonders of ancint Europe. The harvsts is what has attravted invaders like the Assyrians, Persians, and Romans over time. That bounty of course was based on the Nile and its annual floods. And it was work of the Fellahin since time immemorial that produced it. The fellahin have been described by many Egyptian authors as the 'true' Egyptians. [Pateman, p. 54.] Due to a continuity in beliefs and lifestyle largely based on the continued use of ancient agricultural methods. One author pursued ethnographic research on the life of Upper Egyptian farmers. Her conclusion was that there were 'observable continuities' between the cultural and religious beliefs and practices of the Fellahin she worked and those of ancient Egyptians. [Blackman] What is not all together clear to us the impact of Islam.
There is a misconception which Hollywood has helped perpetuate that the ancient Egyptian econmy and archiecural marvels was based on slavery. It was not. It was based on the Fellahin. Thy were not slaves but like medieval serfs a near slave condition. The Fellahin had very limited rights and were able retain only a fraction of the value of the grain and other agricultural products they harvested. It was, however, a system that emerged throughout the Middle East that enabled rulers to extract the maximum value of the harvest without the costs and potential civil disorders associated with slavery.
Egyptian agriculture is distinctive because of its high productivity. It is why Egypt was seen as the breadbasket of the ancient world. But the country had only a very small area of arable land. While Egypt is a very large country. The arable land o=is about the same as the tiny Netherlands. And there is a complete reliance on irrigation. Egypt is a very arid country with negligible rainfall. Egyptian agriculture has been decribed as "... expensive, highly profitable and overcrowded, and because [the land] is irrigated rather than rain-fed, the rights of individual ownership have always been limited by the powers of the pharaoh, khedive, government or whoever [controls] the source of irrigation." This means of course the eternal Nile River. [Mansfield, p. 168.] The high population growth rate of the Fellahin have made improvements in agriculture impossible. Modern medicine have reslted in the popultion griwth. This growth combined with the fixed amount of arable land have resulted in the ever-decreasing sizes of individual plots which today often means a single acre. Modern higher productive methods of agriculture can not be employed. The same implements and methods used in Pharonic times are still being used today.
The Fellahin have for ages been derided in Egypt. They have been described as a passive, infinitely patient mass. While living in poverty they have accepts any regime imposed as the will of Gods in ancient times and since the Islamic conquest (8th century), the wiil of Allah. This has changd in modern times. The Revolution broughtvabout by the Young Officers' Movement (1953) has had an impact on the Fellahin. The Revolution brought imprivements and amenities, especially electricity to the villages. And the educational system has been expanded to most villages. The Aswan High Dam created more arable land, but this is not rptable given the limits place by the Nile water capcity. The result is a much more politicized Fellahin an entirely new development. The Arab Socialist Union (ASU) opned a cimmittee in every villge. The Fellahin appear stringly supportive of the Revolution, including the wars with Israel, despite the men lost and wounded. [SEMP] The Fellahin also seem supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic parties.
Important figures in the Young Officers movement which seized power after World War II had Fella origins. Gamal Nasser’s grandfather was a Fellah. The young Gamel was born in the mud-hut town of Beni Mor south of Cairo.
Historically the Fellahin constituted the vast majority of the Egyptian population into the 20th century. Egyptian sources report a major change during the 20th century. The Fellahin have declined to about 60 percent of the modern Egyptian population (2005). The Fellahin continue to lead humble lives and to live in mud-brick houses like their ancient ancestors. [Pateman, p. 54.] Their percentage of the Egyptian population has declined a since World War II there has been a steady flow into Cairo and other urban towns and cities.
The future of the Fellahin and Egypt in genral is uncertain. A huge number have migrated to the cities. And while the Government has improved lives for the Fellahin, it is incapable of creating more arable land and producing more food for the growing population. The small existing plots are not suitable for modern methods. And the Fellahin do not want to give up their plots no mtter how small. Increased production requires more water. Mot only is this no possible, but countries upstream (Sudan and Ethiopia) are beginning to siphon increasing volumes of water from the Nile. THe Fellahin have moved into the cities, but this means an urban population requiring more food, addition food that the Fellahin still involvd in agriculture can not supply. And the population continues to grow. Not only can the Governmnt not create mor land, it has proven unable to create jobs for the Fellahin flowing into the cities or for the young people coming out of the schools. Th country has not crated a cspitalist economy like the Asian Tigers or China that can crate jobs or generate the wealth needed to buy the needed food. At present Egypt must rely on charity, curently from Amrica and Arab allies. This means that the country is unable to generate the wealth meeded to import the rising food efecit btwen what is harvested and wht the growing population requires. As fr as we can see Egypt is not addressing these serious problems, but focused on a power struggle between secularists and Islamists. And the Islanits are most focused on relgious issues and destroying Israel.
The standard dress for the Fellah was a simple cotton robe called 'galabieh' (jellabiya). The word Galabieh appeared (18th century), derived from the Egyptian Arabic word gallabīyah (جلابية). While the term was relatively new, the garment dates back centuries.
Blackman, Winifred. the Fellahin of Upper Egypt (1927).
Gilsenan, Michael. Lords of the Lebanese Marches: Violence and Narrative in an Arab Society (I.B.Tauris, 2003.
Mahdi, Kamil A., Anna Würth, and Helen Lackner. Yemen Into the Twenty-First Century: Continuity and Change. (Garnet & Ithaca Press: 2007).
Mansfield, Peter. Nasser’s Egypt (Penguin African Library: 1965).
Pateman, Robert & Salwa El-Hamamsy. Egypt (New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2003).
Suburban Emergency Management Project (SEMP). "Who are the Fellahin?" Biot #312 (December 24, 2005)..
Suffuan, Sandra Marlene. Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920–1947 (University of Chicago Press, 2007).
Tyler, Earwick P.N. State Lands and Rural Development in Mandatory Palestine, 1920–1948 (Sussex Academic Press, 2001).
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