Egypt's 1956 Nationalization of the Suez Canal and Its Defense Against Foreign Attacks Cemented Its International Legitimacy

The air along the Suez Canal has long carried a whiff of rebellion. It was an uprising in Ismailia, one of the canal's cities, that led to the founding of the Egyptian Republic in 1952, ending a monarchy subservient to London. By nationalizing the waterway in 1956, and defending it against French, British and Israeli attacks, the country established its international legitimacy.

Summer had begun, and so had wedding season. The celebrations took place late at night to escape the heat of June and lasted until dawn. Sameh Wahba, a famous singer from the canal cities, was invited.

The air grew thick with humidity, the mixed smoke of cigarettes, joints and hookahs, the dust from the street, and the alcoholic vapors from the beers that the elders drank as they sat at tables on the side. They applauded the singer's soaring melodies, which paid tribute to the newlyweds, their families and the El-Arab neighborhood in the city of Ismailia. The trills of the simsimiyya accompanied him. It is a type of lyre, whose ancestor appears in the bas-reliefs of ancient Egypt, and is at the heart of a musical culture whose origins were lost in the mists of time.