Egyptian reformist fiction equated street order and quiet crowds with modern discipline

Evidence

In a work of fiction written during this period, intended for people’s instruction and improvement in unfilled moments of their day (such moments were now visible, and in need of being filled), Ali Mubarak illustrated the connection between spatial order and personal discipline through a comparison of the condition of life in Egypt and France. The protagonists in his story journeyed by steamer from Egypt to France. Arriving in Marseilles, the visitors remarked on the enormous quantity and variety of ships, merchandise, traffic, and production, and on how the people of Marseilles went about their business with ‘industry, initiative, and earnestness about making wealth’. The distinctive character of life in the French city lay in the order of its streets and the discipline of those who moved through them. What astounded the travellers most was ‘seeing an enormous crowd of humanity and not hearing them yell and shout as is the custom with Egyptians … Rather, each person was occupied with his own business, proceeding on his way, taking care not to harm or interfere with anyone else. Despite the great variety of activity and occupation and the enormous number of people involved, there was not a single fight or argument. It was as though they were gathering together for prayer, or to listen to some announcement from a ruler. Nothing was heard from them except the words necessary to do business.’ — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 211

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ideal of disciplined, quiet public space in the soundscape literature — the crowd’s silence as social achievement.
• FICTION: The self-observation of one’s own national crowd as loud/barbaric and the foreign crowd as prayerfully silent is a rich depiction of internalized colonial hierarchy.