"Deeply rooted in Egyptian society... [and] in the history of the country", it has had an influence from the late 18th century to modern times.[4][5]
It is known for producing literary and cultural figures, nobles, officials, technocrats, governors, and politicians under the Muhammad Ali dynasty in the 19th and early 20th century and during the republican period in the 20th and 21st centuries.[6][7]
They are sometimes referred to as "the family of the pashas" for having produced Egypt's largest number of nobles.[6][8]
The family's impact on Egyptian and Arabic culture, literature, academia, journalism and cinema has been substantial.[9][10] Their contributions were through the works of authors, journalists, and activists Ismail Pasha Abaza and Fekry Pasha Abaza,[11] author Ibrahim Desouky Pasha Abaza,[12][13] poet Aziz Pasha Abaza,[14] novelist Tharwat Abaza, sociologist Mona Abaza,[15] actor Rushdy Abaza, multiple other actors and directors, among others in various fields.[16][7]
Sometimes the family has been criticized for "monopolizing" several parliamentary districts since the 19th century "reign of Muhammad Ali".[17][7]
They are thought to number in the many thousands, with sources varying in their estimates.[18][19] However, these numbers are thought to be highly unreliable as no local censuses of Circassian communities exist due to a general "lack in demographic data on minorities in Egypt".[20]
Sources indicate that the Abaza family was well established in the Nile Delta by the late 18th century especially in their stronghold, Sharqia.[3]
Historian al-Sayyid-Marsot states that the Abaza family were named after "a beloved grandmother ... or her place of birth". This maternal ancestor married the head of the powerful al-Ayed family (Arabic: العائد; Egyptian Arabic: العايدي, romanized: al-Ayedi) before the reign of Muhammad Ali of Egypt.[3] The "marriage was during the reign of the" Mamluks[21] and "under Ottoman rule".[22] Note that under Ottoman rule Mamluks continued to act as governors of the country until Muhammad Ali's rise to power meaning that the marriage could have taken place both under Ottoman rule and Mamluk governance.
David E. Millis writes of the Abaza family's marriage with the al-Ayed clan reporting that the latter's history in Egypt covers over 1400 years.[23]
He states al-Ayed trace "their origin back to the Yemenese contingents of the initial Islamic conquerors of Egypt [639-642 AD]... [and] the ancient tribal confederation of Judham".[24]Ibn Khaldun wrote that Banu Judham originate from Kahlan.[25] Historian al-Maqrizi agrees that al-Ayed descend from Banu Judham.[22]
The non-Abaza patriarch who married the Abazin matriarch was Sheikh Muhammed al-Ayedi (Egyptian Arabic: الشيخ محمد العايدي).[1]
Al-Sayyid-Marsot reports that the Abaza family had "long-established economic and political clout in Egypt".[26][27]
Pre-genocide distribution of Abazins in the North Caucasus, and modern Abaza district (crimson borders). Probable origin of the family's matriarch, who went to Egypt before the genocide.
Historians document that with time people started to "distinguish between Awlad al-Aydeh [Children of al-Aydeh] and Awlad al-Abazyya [Children of the Abaza Lady]" and her eldest son began to be called "Ibn al-Abazyya [Son of the Abaza Lady]". This was "the beginning of the split between the two groups" into two distinct families or clans.[28][25]
Thus, the initial matriarchal founder of the family is only known as 'Abaza' or 'the Abaza Lady' (Arabic: الأباظية, romanized: al-Abazyya), and her personal name is lost to history. It is rare but not unknown for a Muslim family to be named after a woman but the family's name fits with Muslim practices of naming people and families after places of origin or ethnicities.[29][30]
It is an example of a laqab,[1] a type of Arabic name, and of an ethnonym, the name of a people or ethnic group.
Some intermarriage with the ruling Turkish elite in Egypt is also reported. Of their AbazinCircassian roots one scholar remarks that "the Abazas remain notoriously blonde and pink-cheeked, a living proof of continued Circassian and Turkish intermarriage."[3] They are also noted for extensive intermarrying with fellow elite families: "The Abazinians in Egypt have managed to become part of Egypt's elite. For many generations they have inter-married with the movers and shakers of Egypt".[31]
Historian Robert Springborg documents that Abazas in Egypt are "virtually all descendants" of 19th century figures like Sheikh of the Arabs Hassan Abaza and his brother Sheikh Boghdady Abaza and "they maybe considered as constituting one family".[32][3]
Reuven Aharoni in his historical study of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty discusses the Abaza family's rise. [33] He states that despite the "centralized nature of Muhammed Ali's regime", the integration of local elites in the state's administration was part of his governing policy. The provincial elites were "given lands" integrating the new system with existing "local interests" and documents that "one instance of this" was the Abaza family.[33]
Hassan Abaza is widely considered to be the modern founding father of the family due to heading the family at the time of their modern ascendance. He was called "Sheikh of the Arabs".[22]
Relatively rare in this exalted long-form, it derives from the ancient honorific title 'Sheikh' given to a variety of people including the heads of sufficiently influential families or tribes regardless of ethnic origin.[34] Aharoni reports that Hassan Abaza was also the Shiekh el Balad [Sheikh of the Province or "chief of the city"] of the province of Sharqia.[35][36][37]
Hassan Abaza " served in higher positions than that of village shaikh, for he became nazir, then mamur, then bash [Pasha] muawin of the provinces of Sharqiyya and Daqahliyya", two of the multiple provinces Abazas governed again in the following centuries.[3]
Hassan and his brother, Sheikh Boghdady Abaza, "served in Ibrahim Pasha's Majlis making the Abazas the only family to hold two seats at the same time and starting their tradition as a parliamentary dynasty.[3]
Aharoni further documents that the monarchy allowed in certain instances elites "bequeath their posts to their sons". The Abaza family is recorded as a notable instance of this, for example, al-Sayed Pasha Abaza "inherited the position of nizar qism from "his father Hassan Abaza".[38]
The monarchy endowed the family with more villages and lands allowing the Abazas to flourish.[3]
Their lands extended beyond their Sharqia stronghold to the Beheira Governate. For example, "Sayed Pasha Abaza mudir [governor] of Beheira Province left some 6,000 feddan....in 1875-1876" to his descendants.[32]
It has been argued that Ismail Pasha Abaza was a precursor and "rehearsal" for Ahmed Urabi Pasha, the revolutionary Egyptian 'national hero', due to his "[having] the first positive and effective political role [in anti-occupation politics] ...[with] great importance and relevance to the burgeoning national movement" and by having influential and "good relations with [royal ruler] Khedive Abbas Helmi" of Egypt.[11] This was also documented in the memoirs of Ahmed Urabi Pasha.[39]
Additionally, Ismail Pasha Abaza "believed he could secure national rights" through negotiation with the British and went to England to attempt this.[11]
Fekry Pasha Abaza, known as the 'Shiekh of Journalism' and head of the Journalists' Syndicate[40]
A famous display of their clout was during the accession of the young King Farouk, when the Abaza family "solicited palace authorities to permit the royal train to stop briefly at one of their villages", so that "the king could partake in refreshments which were offered in a large, magnificently ornamented tent they had erected at the train station".[41][42]
The family is not associated with a single political stance as in the early 20th century it decided to allow all members to hold any political position and run for office with any party with the caveat that "no two Abazas [can] run against each other".[1]
During the CBC Two program where this was discussed, Mahmoud Abaza, opposition leader under Mubarak's regime, clarified that in the rare cases where two Abazas ran in an election against each other the apparent rule is "to put all support behind the stronger [candidate]" and that "no other rules exist".[1]
This led to situations where one Abaza was a minister in the governing regime and another was Mahmoud Abaza as opposition leader (see below).
Anti-feudal and anti-classist politics also exists within the family. Perhaps the most thorough example is a book by Mona Abaza, a prominent Egyptian sociologist.[44][45] In her lengthy scholarly ethnographic study of her family's feudal estate she is explicit about her experience of how ordinary farmers treated members of the family writing critically that she was "astonish[ed] at ...[a] peasant’s extraordinarily subservient behavior to a fifteen-year-old girl... no peasant in older times was allowed to stare at the ladies of the da’ira [the estate], or even to confront them face to face... all the ladies of the da’ira had to be addressed in the masculine as a sign of their superiority."[46]
She also documented at length the hierarchical and oppressive nature of the production process standard at the time in large aristocratic estates with documentation that "reveal an incredible obsession [for] controlling...[in] a highly stratified... pyramidal order".[46][47]
The family had its own football team competing with Egypt's major clubs in the early half of the 20th century and its own journal.[48] Their most famous wins were covered in English media in 1916 and 1917 with two reported wins against Qatar.[49] A lentil dish attributed to the family is known in the country as "'ads abazy" (Arabic: عدس أباظي).[50]
The family has had members in almost every Egyptian parliament,[51][52] mostly in Sharqia districts, their original historical stronghold. A famous 21st-century election included the family's 2005 winning challenge to Gamal Mubarak's and the Mubarak regime's candidate in a Sharqia district with the former New Wafd Party opposition leader Mahmoud Abaza.[53][54]
Family members also regularly feature in Egyptian cabinets and hold minister, deputy minister, assistant minister and other government and technocratic positions in state institutions. As mentioned above, Amin Abaza was a minister at the same time Mahmoud Abaza was the leader of the official opposition during the final Hosni Mubarak government. The family has also held governorships many times in both the monarchical and current periods, especially in the Nile delta.[55][51][56]
Some Egyptian media in the 21st century have referred to them as one of the "families that rule the country" due to the number of politicians, officials, and members of parliament it produced, and as one of the families that "inherited parliament".[57][58]
In the 2015 parliamentary elections, three members of the Abaza family won seats in the House of Representatives and this was criticized by some in the media referring to their win as "dynastic heredity".[59] For decades, the family had a political monopoly over several districts. In modern times media has critically remarked that "no parliamentary elections since the reign of Muhammed Ali was free of the Abazas".[57][53][60]
Many villages in the Nile Delta are named after members of the family. At least one city square in Zagazig and another in Cairo are named 'Abaza'. Roads and institutions in the country are named after members of the family including at least one street and one government school named after Aziz Pasha Abaza and streets named after other family members, for example, Ismail Pasha Abaza.[11] In addition, numerous 'ezbas' (farming estates and villages) in the Sharqia Governorate and other Nile Delta provinces are named after family members.[63][64]
Another family member, Hussein Mohammed Abaza serves as an international consultant for sustainable development and green economy in the Egyptian government and as an advisor to the Minister of the Environment.[66] He also is a member of the government's National Initiative for Green Projects.[67]
In 2014, the family sued Sada Elbalad TV for the creation of a children's cartoon named 'Abaza', and the program was forced off the air.[68] In the same year Egyptian satellite channel CBC Two aired a one-hour documentary about the family.[69]
They are also known for producing many CEOs and owners of businesses and corporations.[49]
The family features a substantial number of famous or influential members and thus this section will keep to a few examples.[70][6][2]
Tharwat Abaza speaking to Maher Abaza in parliamentThe Abaza family includes several literary figures, such as Desouky Pasha Abaza,[12][71] Ismail Pasha Abaza,[11]Fekry Pasha Abaza (known as the 'Shiekh of Journalism'[72]) and Aziz Pasha Abaza. Additionally, Tharwat Abaza (1927–2002) was a journalist and novelist who notably opposed the nationalization of the Suez Canal. His best-known novel, A Man Escaping from Time, was televised in the late 1960s.[73]
Rushdy Saiid Bughdadi Abaza (1926 -1980), an actor "widely considered one of the greatest names in the history of Arab cinema", with no less than 150 movies to his name.[18] At that time, "[acting] was not allowed in such an aristocratic family...and his father and the entire Abaza family strongly objected ...[but] he insisted." He is the best known family member and a household name in the Arab world.[6][74][75]
Maher Abaza (1930–2007), the longest-serving minister in Egyptian history. As the Minister of Electricity and Energy, he was credited with connecting the vast majority of the country's rural areas to the electric grid. After leaving the ministry he became a member of the Egyptian Parliament.[16]
Wagih Abaza (1917–2004), a member of the Free Officers Movement, that toppled King Farouk in 1952. He later became governor of four provinces including the capital Cairo, Sharqia, Beheira, and Gharbia, and a prominent businessman. He is also known as the pilot who dropped the "first Egyptian bomb on Tel-Aviv" in the 1948 war with Israel and was well known for marrying the famed actress Leila Mourad.[76][77][78]
Mona Abaza (1959–2021), one of Egypt's most prominent sociologists, whose research interests "ranged from women in rural Egypt, the relation between Islam and the West, urban consumer culture, to Egyptian painting and the Arab Spring".[45]
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Abaza, Mona (2013). The Cotton Plantation Remembered: An Egyptian Family Story. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-977-416-571-9
Blattner, Elwyn James; Blattner, James Elwyn (1959). Who's who in Egypt and the Middle East. Paul Barbey Press.
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ʻAṭṭār, Salwá (1989). التغييرات الاجتماعية فى عهد محمد على (in Arabic). دار النهضة العربية. ISBN978-977-04-0454-6.
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