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| Egypt Flights Home » History of Egypt » Italians in Egypt |
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Italians in Egypt |
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The connection of Italy with Egypt is not new. Italy’s connection with Egypt can be traced back to that ancient time when the Egyptian gods and goddesses were held in high esteem in Italy. In accordance with statistics, about fifty five thousand inhabited Egypt before the Second World War. The Italians in Egypt, in fact, constituted Egypt’s second largest expatriate community. However, like several other communities, many of the Italians in Egypt migrated back to their home country during the Second World War. Wartime internment is one of the reasons behind the returning of the Italians to their homeland from Egypt. Apart from this, the rising of Nasser is also held responsible for the return of the Italians to Italy from Egypt. However, the decline of the Italian community in Egypt in remarkably witnessed between 1950s and 1960s. Today, only few Italians inhabit Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt.
The pre-eminence of Italy's economic relationship with Egypt was mostly remarkably noticed in the expatriate community’s size. Egypt send certain great education missions to Europe under Mohamed Ali. These missions were headed to Italy for the purpose of learning printing. Several Italian experts served a noticeably in the works of constructing the modern state. The Italians in Egypt also assisted in exploring the antiquities. Added to tthis, the Italians in Egypt featured remarkably in the regal court under Ismail. Many of the palaces of Ismail were designed by the Italians. Apart from this, the credit of designing the royal opera house also goes to the Italians in Egypt. The great Italian composer, Verdi inaugurated the royal opera house with Aida. . The Egyptian monarchs’s preference of the Italians gets exhibited in their employment of the Italians in their royal courts.
Angelo San Marco, an Italian historian, in an article wrote that the Italians in Egypt carried on monopolies on the products which were extremely popular in the East. In accordance with the 1928 census, eighteen thousand five ninety five Italians lived in Cairo while twenty four thousand two hundred Italians inhabited Alexandria.
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The incorporation of the Italian words in the dialect of Egypt bears the testimony to the close connection of Italy to the society of Egypt. We also come to know of the existence of eight public Italian schools and six Italian parochial schools in Egypt.
Italians living in Egypt’s Alexandria also possessed twenty two philanthropic societies like the National Opera Society, the Society of Collectors of Military Insignia , the Italian Federation for Labour Cooperation, and the Mussolini Italian Hospital and the Dante Alighieri Italian Language Association.
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