Paola Pizzo, L’Egitto agli egiziani! Cristiani, musulmani e idea nazionale (1882-1936), prefazione di Andrea Riccardi, 2017 (ed. orig. 2002), 318p., isbn 978-1542337250
Reprint of 2002 edition
This book helps us to understand the main problem for Arabic and Muslim countries: the relationship between Islam and “the Nation”. The author achieves this goal by addressing the origin of Egyptian nationalism and showing the role that Islam and Christian minorities played in its development. This is a crucial issue. Is Egypt a state founded on multiple cultural and religious heritages, or is it an Islamic state? What is the origin of Egyptian identity? Did it begin with the Arab-Muslim conquest, or did it begin in ancient times and with ancient civilizations? The answers to these questions provide different conceptions of the development of the Islamic state and the space for non-Muslims in it.