Desert Borderland : The Making of Modern Egypt and Libya

Desert Borderland is an investigation of the historical processes that transformed the local experience of place and political identity in the easternmost reaches of the Sahara Desert over the half century before World War I. Lying at the intersection of social and political history, the book shifts perspectives between an array of state and non-state actors to chart the region’s gradual evolution as a contested borderland between two distinct territorial domains—what would ultimately become the modern nation-states of Egypt and Libya. Desert Borderland challenges powerful nationalist assumptions about Egypt’s historical fixity as a bounded political space—assumptions that have been perpetuated in the standard historiography of modern Egypt, due to its overwhelmingly Cairo-centric nature. The book seeks to subvert this prevailing wisdom of Egypt’s timeless geographical unity by adopting, instead, the view from the margins—taking the reader on a tour of key sites throughout the country’s Libyan borderland, such as the oasis of Siwa, where a range of state- and nation-making projects were unfolding throughout the period in question. It argues that national territoriality was not simply imposed on Egypt’s western (or Ottoman Libya’s eastern) domains by centralizing state powers, but rather emerged through a complex and multilayered process of negotiation with the region’s predominantly bedouin and oasis-dwelling inhabitants, who were animated by their own local conceptions of space, sovereignty, and political belonging. Desert Borderland investigates the historical processes that transformed political identity in the easternmost reaches of the Sahara Desert in the half century before World War I. Adopting a view from the margins--illuminating the little-known history of the Egyptian-Libyan borderland--the book challenges prevailing notions of how Egypt and Libya were constituted as modern territorial nation-states. Matthew H. Ellis draws on a wide array of archival sources to reconstruct the multiple layers and meanings of territoriality in this desert borderland. Throughout the decades, a heightened awareness of the existence of distinctive Egyptian and Ottoman Libyan territorial spheres began to develop despite any clear-cut boundary markers or cartographic evidence. National territoriality was not simply imposed on Egypt's western--or Ottoman Libya's eastern--domains by centralizing state power. Rather, it developed only through a complex and multilayered process of negotiation with local groups motivated by their own local conceptions of space, sovereignty, and political belonging. By the early twentieth century, distinctive "Egyptian" and "Libyan" territorial domains emerged--what would ultimately become the modern nation-states of Egypt and Libya 'Desert Borderland' investigates the historical processes that transformed political identity in the easternmost reaches of the Sahara Desert in the half century before World War I. Adopting a view from the margins - illuminating the little-known history of the Egyptian-Libyan borderland - the text challenges prevailing notions of how Egypt and Libya were constituted as modern territorial nation-states. Matthew H. Ellis draws on a wide array of archival sources to reconstruct the multiple layers and meanings of territoriality in this desert borderland Introduction : Rethinking Territorial Egypt -- Legal Exceptionalism In Egypt's Borderlands -- Accommodating Egyptian Sovereignty In Siwa -- Abbas Hilmi Ii And The Anatomy Of A Siwan Murder -- Cultivating Territorial Sovereignty In The Western Desert -- The Limits Of Ottoman Sovereignty In The Eastern Sahara -- The Emergence Of Egypt's Western Border Conflict -- Conclusion : Unsettling The Egyptian-libyan Border. Matthew H. Ellis. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.