Abstract

This article, after summarizing the developments of the studies concerning the presence of Italian anarchists in Egypt, introduces a reconstruction of the community from its origins, around 1860, until the first postwar years. The text deals with both the militant and political aspects, as well as with the ideological and cultural ones. The second part reviews the varied written production of Italian anarchists in Egypt in order to examine how they related to colonialism and more generally to the ethnic question. It thus shows how the anarchists' thought in Egypt was not exempt from Orientalist and racist prejudices towards the indigenous population.