Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
35. Deustcher Orientalistentag, Nuremberg, Almanya, 8 - 12 Eylül 2025, ss.5, (Özet Bildiri)
Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski described neo-pharaonicism as a wave that represents the revival of Egypt's pharaonic heritage and the pharaonicist discourse in the 1920s–1930s, which served the ideological and political agenda of Gamal Abdel Nasser. As a prominent figure in Egyptian cultural life during the Nasserist era, Salah Jahin left behind a significant cultural legacy, including poems, scenarios, cartoons, and more. At a time when modern Egyptian nationalism rose alongside cultural revivalism and socialism in Egypt, Jahin’s approach to folk culture, his dominant use of Egyptian colloquial dialect in his works, his dedication of some poems to ancient Egyptian heritage, and his enthusiastic praise of the ancient Egyptian civilization—along with his references to the continuity between Egypt’s past and future—openly aligned with the neo-pharaonicist discourse of his time. The famous song “Aḥna al-šʿab”, which celebrates the uninterrupted Egyptian identity of the Egyptian people, was sung by Abdel Halim Hafez and became an iconic masterpiece embedded in the collective memory of Egyptian society. Jahin also collaborated with Tharwat Okasha, the Minister of Culture at the time, on projects aimed at preserving Egypt’s ancient heritage and building a vision for the country's cultural politics, with a strong emphasis on the pharaonic past. Using content analysis and historical-contextual analysis methods this paper focuses on Jahin’s poems and cartoons, seeking to explore how he used Egyptian antiquity as a tool to foster Egyptian nationalism and create an authentic Egyptian identity.
Keywords: Salah Jahin, Pharaonicism, Identity, Egyptian, antiquity.