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IV Family as a Discourse
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247 11 Ambiguous Modernization: The Transition to Monogamy in the Khedival House of Egypt Kenneth M. Cuno Introduction On Thursday, 16 January, 1873, a contract of marriage was agreed to between Tawfiq, the crown prince of Egypt, and Amina Ilhami, granddaughter of the late viceroy Abbas Hilmi I (r. 1849–54). In celebration of the event the reigning khedive, Ismail (r. 1863–79), held a reception at al-Hilmiyya Palace attended by Tawfiq, several ministers of state, and the leading religious dignitaries. Cannons were fired, sweet drinks were had, and the khedive received the congratulations of his guests in order of their rank. Poetry was composed and recited for the occasion by al-Sayyid Ali Abu al-Nasr and Muhammad Qadri Bey. Thus began the celebration of the first of four consecutive weddings of the children of Ismail, each of which entailed a week of receptions, banquets and entertainment, illuminations, and a public procession in which the bride was delivered to her husband’s palace.1 Like their Ottoman suzerains, the Egyptian khedival (viceregal)2 family staged celebrations of births, circumcisions and weddings, funerals , and commemorations of religious and dynastic holidays and anniversaries as a way of building popular legitimacy. The month of celebrations accompanying the weddings of Tawfiq and his younger siblings was one such calculatedly lavish display. Yet these weddings 248 Kenneth M. Cuno were remarkable in another important respect, namely, as marking the beginning of a transition in the pattern of conjugality within the khedival family, from slave concubinage and polygyny to royal endogamy and monogamy. As members of the Ottoman ruling class, the first five viceroys of the khedival family, beginning with its founder Muhammad Ali Pasha (r. 1805–48), emulated the imperial family in Istanbul by maintaining large households and having multiple consorts of slave origin. From very early in its history the Ottoman line had been reproduced through women of slave origin, very few of whom were elevated from the status of concubine to legal wife between the late sixteenth century and the late nineteenth century. Concubinage and polygyny were features of the imperial household up to the abolition of the caliphate in 1924,3 some fifty years after their abandonment by the khedival family . Khedive Tawfiq (r. 1879–92) became the first monogamous ruler of Egypt. His wife, Amina, acquired special prominence, at least in part because she was his sole consort and not one of many. She was respectfully referred to in Arabic as “the wife of the khedive” (haram alkhidiwi ), and in French and English as the vice-reine, khédiveh, or khediva. Then and later, some Europeans detected a decline in the practice of polygyny in the Ottoman and Ottoman Egyptian upper classes. In both Istanbul and Cairo in the 1870s, “the now prevailing fashion among the upper class of having only one wife” was reported, and that impression persisted up to the First World War.4 The retired British consul-general in Egypt, Lord Cromer, opined that “[t]he practice of monogamy has of late years been gaining ground amongst the more enlightened Egyptians,” and mentioned as examples the late Khedive Tawfiq, his son Khedive Abbas II (r. 1892–1914), and the state ministers Riyad Pasha and Sharif Pasha.5 The concern of Cromer and other, mainly British observers with the evils of polygyny reflected changes in British family culture, one of the most important of which was the rise of the ideal of companionate marriage. This middle-class ideal placed greater emphasis on the affectionate relationship of the conjugal couple than on their economic relationship. According to it, a wife should be her husband’s companion and helpmate, managing their household and taking charge of the education of their children.6 Polygyny was incompatible with a couple-centered notion of family, and as Cromer’s remark indicates, the khedives’ monogamy was welcomed as both a sign of change and as a positive example for the rest of Egyptian society to follow. This chapter discusses the meaning of the khedival family’s transition to monogamy in the context of late nineteenth- and early-twentiethcentury Ottoman Egyptian politics and culture. It argues that the [3.144.187.103] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 21:47 GMT) Ambiguous Modernization 249 transition to monogamy was not the result of a newfound belief in its virtues, nor of the precocious spread of the ideal of companionate marriage. Rather, it was the consequence of a new marriage strategy...