ISMAILIYA is popular with Egyptian tourists and honeymooners, who come to enjoy the beaches along Lake Timsah. While many might think that the place came into being with the building of the Suez Canal in 1862, historical research dates human settlement in the region to biblical times – the area is mentioned in the Bible itself. Today the city has a schizoid character, defined by the rail line that cuts across it. South of the tracks lies the European-style garden city built for foreign employees of the Suez Canal Company, which extends to the verdant banks of the Sweetwater Canal. Following careful restoration, its leafy boulevards and placid streets, lined with colonial villas, look almost as they must have done in the 1930s, with bilingual street signs nourishing the illusion that the British Empire has just popped indoors for a quick cocktail. North of the train tracks is another world of hastily constructed flats grafted onto long-standing slums, and a quarter financed by the Gulf Emirates that provides a cordon sanitaire for the wealthy suburb of Nemrah Setta (Number Six).
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The Muslim Brotherhood
The Muslim Brotherhood
Ismailiya was the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood and its founder Hassan al-Banna, who mounted a series of attacks against the British and an economic boycott in the Canal Zone. The British suspected that the Islamist group was being aided by elements in the Egyptian police, and on January 25, 1952, tried to disarm Ismailiya’s main barracks. Fifty officers were subsequently killed, sparking rioting in Cairo the following day, which became known as “Black Saturday”. The Brotherhood was subsequently banned in 1954 but continued to operate and expand underground, putting up independent candidates for election. After the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the organization was legalized and its influence has continued to grow, with its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, triumphing in the June 2012 presidential elections.
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Festivals in Ismailiya
Festivals in Ismailiya
Around Easter time, Ismailiya is a good place to witness the spring festival of Sham al-Nessim, when families picnic in the park between the Sweetwater Canal and Lake Timsah, vehicles are decorated with flowers and little girls compete for the coveted title of “Miss Strawberry”. Even better is the “Doll-Burning” or Limbo Festival, held a week later. Its curious title refers to a hated nineteenth-century local governor – Limbo Bey – effigies of whom were torched by the citizenry. Ever since then, it has been customary to burn dolls resembling your pet hate: footballers are popular targets whenever Ismailiya’s club does poorly. The dolls are burned on the streets after dark.
