Masri Effendi ( , Mr. Egyptian in Arabic) was a

national personification A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in political cartoons and propaganda. In the first personifications in the Western World, warrior deities or figures symboliz ...

of the

Kingdom of Egypt The Kingdom of Egypt () was the legal form of the Egyptian state during the latter period of the Muhammad Ali dynasty's reign, from the United Kingdom's recognition of Egyptian independence in 1922 until the abolition of the monarchy of Eg ...

created by

Alexander Saroukhan Alexander Saroukhan (, ; October 1, 1898 – 1977) was an Armenian-Egyptian cartoonist and caricaturist whose drawings have appeared in a number of Arabic and international newspapers and magazines. He is considered one of the best and most famo ...

for Ruz al Yusuf in 1930. Masri Effendi is a short man with a fez and sibha (prayer beads) along with Western trousers and a jacket glasses, often giving some witty remark over the political situation as a government bureaucract. He represented the

effendi Effendi or effendy ( ; ; originally from ) is a title of nobility meaning '' sir'', ''lord'' or '' master'', especially in the Ottoman Empire and the Caucasus''.'' The title itself and its other forms are originally derived from Medieval Gree ...

, the professional middle class of Egypt during its liberal period. He fell out of favor by the

1952 Egyptian revolution The Egyptian revolution of 1952, also known as the 1952 coup d'état () and the 23 July Revolution (), was a period of profound political, economic, and societal change in Egypt. On 23 July 1952, the revolution began with the toppling of King ...

, as his character became archaic for modern Egypt.

History

Masri Effendi was created by Ruz al Yusuf to rival al-Kashkul, a competitor satirical newspaper. Masri Effendi was meant to represent the modern Egyptian man who dressed in western jackets and pants but still wore his fez and carried his prayer beads with pride. The term 'effendi' originally referred to an old Ottoman title, evolved to mean the new nationally conscious society of lawyers, university graduates and small merchants. Later on, Masri Effendi would 'write' weekly columns himself, as Ruz al Yusuf presented him as the real editor of the newspaper. Saroukhan would later draw Masri Effendi in Akher Sa'a, another popular satirical magazine. The story of El-Misri (Mr.Egyptian) was later depicted a 1949 film directed by Hussein Sedki. He was gradually phased out because his character was not seen as representative of the Egyptian.

Gallery

References

Sources

* {{Cite book , last=Zdafee , first=Keren , title=Comic Empires: Imperialism in Cartoons, Caricature, and Satirical Art , publisher=Manchester University Press , year=2020 , isbn=9781526142948 , editor-last=Scully , editor-first=Richard , chapter=Between Imagined and ‘real’: Sarukhan’s Al-masri Effendi Cartoons in the First Half of the 1930s , doi=10.7765/9781526142955.00015 , editor-last2=Varnava , editor-first2=Andrekos

External links

Ākhir sāʼah - Magazine Collection
' mostly complete archives of Akher Sa'a from 1935 to 1939 by the

American University of Cairo The American University in Cairo (AUC; ) is a private research university in New Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs at undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels, along with a continuing education program. ...

National personifications Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty Culture of Egypt