Periodization

The Patriarchate of Alexandria constituted a Greek orthodox cultural centre in Egypt and connected Egypt with Constantinople, integrating it in the greater cultural frontiers of the "commonwealth" of the orthodox peoples of the ottoman Empire and Russia. However, in the time of the French incursion (1789) the local flock was limited to the Copts and the gatherings of a few persons of Greek descent in the region of the Nile delta. The French Maillet mentions in his Description de l' Egypte (1735) that during the last decade of the 17th century there were few Greeks in Cairo, Damietta, Rosetta and even fewer in Alexandria.

From the mid-18th century, some Greek fighters took action as seamen and artillerymen on the side of the Mamluks, the Caucasian and Georgian former slaves of the beys of Egypt which virtually had the power in their hands. Later, on the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon they took the side of the French (1798).

But the main wave of Greek merchants of Egypt migrated from the period of the French occupation and increased when Muhammad Ali came to power. That is when Greek merchants settle permanently in Egypt, mainly in Alexandria. After his expedition to the Peloponnese (1825-1827) and the end of the War of Greek Independence, Ibrahim transferred to Egypt a great number of Greek hostages-slaves.

The international condition

From the beginning of the 16th century, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire. In reality, it was under the power of the Mamluk pashas. In 1798, the army of Napoleon invaded Alexandria and after the "Battle of the Pyramids" the whole region came into his possession. After the naval battle of Aboukir and their defeat by the British fleet, the French were blocked in Egypt. In October 1799, Napoleon was forced to return to France leaving the administration to the general Kleber. Kleber was assassinated and the administration was passed on to the general Menou. Eventually, the French were forced to capitulate (1801) under the pression of the British army and to return to their country.

After these events and as the Ottoman administration had no real power in the region, Muhammad Ali, an Albanian mercenary, finally seized power (1811) via a series of procedures and a period of administrative anarchy, after exterminating the Mamluks. Muhammad Ali himself tried to modernize the state and his army, exploit by monopoly the resources of the region and give an impetus to export trade.

General conditions which determine migration

The religious tolerance that Muhammad Ali imposed as well as the commercial communication with ports of the Mediterranean, which had been organized since the period of French occupation and the Continental System (blockade) of Napoleon, were favourable factors for the permanent settlement of Greek merchants and seamen in the region. This new leader found men for his fleet, for the Egyptian factories and for his Court. The Greeks were already active as merchants when they settled in Egypt and came from regions of mercantile tradition (Epirus, the islands of the Aegean and the Ionian seas, Greek colonies of foreign countries).

The Community

Community organization - Privileges -Church foundation

The Greek community of Cairo was the one with the most members during the 17th and 18th centuries. From the 1920's more Greeks are concentrated in Alexandria. The official creation of the Greek Community of Alexandria and the beginning of its organized action begin from 1843 onward. Thus, its historic evolution is out of the time limits of this study.

Muhammad Ali had granted a series of privileges to the Christians which had settled in his state; these privileges were reinforced by institutional innovations. The Christians could now wear colourful and European clothes and ride horses. He allowed the ringing of the church bells and from 1825 he permitted public religious ceremonies performed by the leaders of the various religions. He also founded a commercial tribunal in Alexandria in which European judges participated. In 1826 he founded a commercial tribunal in Cairo also in which two Greek Catholic and two Greek Orthodox judges participated.

The existence of the Patriarchate and of a population of Copts contributed to the evolution of a network of temples in each city where there was a great concentration of orthodox people. The See of the Patriarchate was in Cairo, initially in the temple of Saint Marco in the Haret el Rum quarter. The church of Saint Nikolaos was also in Cairo. It was erected in 1839 on the expenses of wealthy merchants of Egypt and Russia. It was in Cairo that the See of the Patriarch was transferred, when he left the church of Saint Marco as well as the city of the Monastery of Saint Georgios which was founded by the Patriarch Ioannikios (1645 - 1657).

The monastery of Saint Sava was in Alexandria, while the church of Saint Nikolaos was in Damietta, the See of the bishop of Tamiathea which belonged to the Monastery of Sina.

It is worth mentioning that the Greeks were not organized in official instituted communities during the period of study. The only evidence on the conferment of special privileges to populations of Greek descent was the concession of a separate graveyard for the Cretans of Cairo in 1638.

Demographic trends

By the beginning of the 19th century the only significant colony was the one of Cairo. Cairo was the seat of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, from the days of the Patriarch Ilias I (963 -1000). There were a few Greek families that lived in Damietta and Rosetta and even fewer in Alexandria. According to information of ecclesiastic documents, in 1799, 20 marriages of orthodox persons took place (the eleven of them were marriages of arab speaking orthodox people). The Greeks who lived permanently in Egypt were craftsmen, small tradesmen and merchants surrounded by many pedlars and seamen. During the 17th century, the guild of the goldsmiths numbered 40 Greek members out of 60 while the Cretans had there own guild.

The Greeks become more interested in the port of Alexandria from 1811, when Muhammad Ali seized power.

Muhammad Ali used Greek craftsmen to construct 28 ships in Suez for his fleet. The great wave of merchants that intended to settle permanently in Egypt began after 1815. In 1816, 30 persons came from Russia. In 1819 Michalis Tositsas, a merchant from Metsovo who took action in Thessaloniki and Kavala, arrived in Alexandria. The administration of the Greek Communities then passed from the Patriarchate into the hands of the Greek merchants.

Education

Until the creation of a Greek community in Alexandria, the education and the charitable activities depended mainly on the church. According to the oldest evidence on the existence of a school, Meletios Pigas, Patriarch of Alexandria during the period 1590-1601, founded a monastery school in the Monastery of Saint Sava in which he and the archdeacon Maxim were professors. The monastery was burnt in 1625. In the days of patriarch Ioannikios (1645-1657), a school opened in the Monastery of Saint Georgios. Its operation lasted until the days of the patriarch Kyprianou (1766-1783). Damietta also had a school that was under the supervision of the Patriarchate.

During the period 1601 - 1604, Kyrillos Loukaris, a strong personality with broad theological and spiritual concerns, comes to the thrown of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. He maintained correspondence with many people of the West, agencies of Reformation ideas and continued the work of Meletios Pigas (his uncle) in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Finally, K. Loukaris came to the thrown of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1621, thus beginning a new chapter in the ecclesiastic orthodox life.

However, the first organized action for the operation of a Greek school was accomplished immediately on the organization of the Community of Alexandria. The school "of the Greeks" was founded with the support of the Tositsas brothers and N. Stournaris and constituted the most important educational institution of the Greek colony of Alexandria.

Charity

During the period we study, it was only the Patriarchate that had developed charitable action. It was financially supported mainly by the donations of the Russian princes but also by a series of other sources such as the Greek Brotherhood of Venice and the princes of Moldavia and Walachia, as well as totally strange ones like Maria Stewart of Britain, who offered an amount of money to the Metropolite Arsenios when the latter visited her in London (1772) as a representative of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.

The monasteries of Saint Georgios and Saint Sava in Alexandria offered hospitality to the visitors and the passing merchants in their hotel-hospital. There is information on a hospital in Damietta in the days of the Patriarch Paisios (1657-1678). Finally, in 1812 the Patriarch Theophilos III donated to the Greek colony of Alexandria a piece of land for the erection of a modern hospital which was built in the 1820's.

Trade

General conditions of trade

During the French occupation and the simultaneous blockade of the British, the French provided exemption from taxation and payed those who transferred to Egypt products that the French army needed. This was the first step of familiarization of the Greek merchants with the Egyptian ports.

By the time merchants became settling permanently in the region and until Muhammad Ali came to power, the new mercantile classes were brought in opposition while corporate organization, arbitrary taxation, monetary anarchy, and insecurity for individuals and property dominated the Ottoman system.

The producers in the artisan and agricultural centres of the countryside did not travel along with their products but contacted foreign merchants. The cooperation and the payments on credit of the Europeans allowed the Greeks too to pass on to a trade of a larger scale. At the same time, Egypt was a region of poor urban structures and without a permanent commercial exploitation system by the Europeans. The Greeks took advantage of their relations with the region and especially of the Napoleonic Wars to play a significant role in external trade and sea transportation in the Ottoman eastern Mediterranean.

The branches that were founded in the colonies formed a network of common commercial orientations which constituted at the same time a closed credit system. The merchants that came to Egypt were from the islands of the Aegean, where similar commercial activity had been developed (mainly Chios) and from the mountain regions where artisan activity had developed in the 18th century. They came to Alexandria with their own capital or just the credit cover of the commercial cycle they belonged to.

During the period 1815-1830, the newly formed merchant cycle was perturbed but later stability ruled since the Greeks competed vigorously the Europeans and other merchants, by taking advantage of the citizenship of the Greek state whereas other Greek merchants were protected by the western states.

Routes-Transportation

From the middle of the 18th century, the Greek seamen had started to get used to the sea route in the southeastern Aegean sea (the Dodecanese) - Cyprus - Alexandria. At the same time, the marine islands, such as Hydra, had become accustomed with the routes of the Black Sea (Odessa) and those that led to the ports of Italy and France.

In Egypt, centres like Damietta and Alexandria constituted places of reception of products that had travelled from India - Syria - Lebanon - Egypt while they also concentrated agricultural products of the Nile delta.

Products

The Greek merchants brought to Alexandria tobacco (from Thessaloniki and Kavala), soap and olive oil (from Crete), desiccated figs and resin (from Kos and Rhodes), silk (from Cyprus and Thessaloniki).

Egypt exported to the ports of the Mediterranean sea (Marseille, Trieste, Constantinople, Smyrna, Thessaloniki) ox hides, rough textiles like the ones the Bedouins used, linen, saffron flowers, henna, ammonia, gum, beeswax, rice, sugar and mostly processed cotton and wheat. Muhhamad Ali tried to control by monopoly all the mercantile activities. Taxation was submitted in kind and the foreign merchants could not buy straight from the producers. They had the possibility to buy only from him. In addition, he decided to export only manufactured products, and thus entered into conflict with the foreign mercantile powers which were interested in raw materials.

Merchants

The merchants which came to Egypt in the 1820's had already a great experience in trade and knowledge of the commercial situation in the region.

Konstantinos Tositsas knew Muhammad Ali from the time he traded tobacco in Kavala. He came to Alexandria in 1819 bankrupt. A year later his brother from Thessaloniki comes to Alexandria. Apart from a merchant he was also a counselor of the prince. He succeeded in becoming a director of the possessions and monopolies of Muhammad Ali, co-director of the first Egyptian state bank, director of his river navigation company and responsible for the commercial house "Tositsa Bros - N. Stournaris". Finally, he was a general consul of Greece in Egypt. The third brother, Konstantinos, had developed commercial activities in Livorno.

One of the friends of the Egyptian prince was I. D. Anastasis. He too came to Egypt bankrupt but managed to acquire possessions and became consul of Sweden in Alexandria.

The brothers Kassavetis from Zagora were merchants in Syros. Dimitrios Kassavetis took action in Alexandria as an employee in a Greek commercial house. In 1818 they opened their own business with 50000 pounds as initial capital.

Mentalities

The Greeks of Cairo were concentrated from the beginning in the regions of Juania (in the periphery of Gamalia), in Charet el Rum, a street near the government house in the neighboorhood of the church of Saint Marco and the See of the Patriarchate and also in Chamzaui, near the old city where the Patriarchate was later transferred.

From the 1830's, when the commercial cycle of the Greeks was stabilized in Alexandria, europeanization tendencies appeared. They build houses and mansions according to European models, they abandon the khans and open stores. They follow the western customs in dressing and behaviour.

Political activity

The Greeks of Egypt in the service of the antagonistic powers

During French occupation Napoleon followed the policy of the same attitude toward the national-religious groups. From the beginning the French exploited the existent system (e.g. Vartolomaios Seras took the leadership of a security body).

After the defeat in Aboukir and the strict blockade, the French intended to reinforce their army by using natives. On the order of 27/10/1798, Napoleon formed three Greek companies under the leadership of "seargent Nikolos" Papazoglou, a former higher officer (reis) of the Mamluk marine. The commanding officer strengthened the force of the Greek companies under the pressure of the immediate needs. The "Greek Legion" had filled with enthusiasm Korais in Paris. Korais extolled the "Greek Legion" in his writings. On the retreat, the French were followed by Nikolaos Papazoglou and the officers of the Legion.

The next prince of Egypt in the framework of the modernization of the Egyptian state, used the Greeks as doctors and officers. Apart from the above mentioned cases, he made Athanasios Kazoulis from Chios director of the mint and supervisor of the higher financial administration.

The Greek War of Independence

The messages of the Philiki Etaireia got to Alexandria one year before the outbreak of the war. Muhammad Ali was aware of the movement as Konstantinos Tositas provided him with information. However, Muhammad Ali was tolerant since whatever weakened the central Ottoman administration was in his own interests. Therefore, a committee composed of Greek merchants of Alexandria was formed; it undertook the shipping of provisions to the fighters of the Peloponnese.

But when the Sublime Porte promised to concede the administration of the Peloponnese to the son of Muhammad Ali, Ibrahim, Muhammad Ali sent troops to the Peloponnese in 1825. Ibrahim conquered and ransacked the whole region. After the battle of Navarino (October 20, 1827) and the destruction of the fleet of Ibrahim, the Egyptian forces left, taking with them a great number of Christian slaves - hostages from the Peloponnese. This matter troubled the Greek consul in Egypt for many years. Despite the fact that the convention of August 6th, 1828 provided for the liberation of the hostages, many of them were detained while others remained in Egypt on their own will, leaving their relatives in the Peloponnese ignoring what had happened to them.

Moreover, in the course of the whole struggle for Greek independence, the Greek merchants confronted difficulties in their relations with the Egyptian administration. However, no nationalistic ideology was developed in Egypt as it was in Odessa, Paris and Trieste.