Mediterranean migration, cosmopolitanism, and the law: A history of the Italian community of nineteenth-century Alexandria, Egypt

This dissertation shed's light on the development of legal national identities in the plural legal regime of Egypt in the nineteenth century. It also examines the modern Mediterranean migration of the Italian community of cosmopolitan Alexandria, Egypt. Using Mixed Court and Italian consular court records, the dissertation traces the evolution and exchange of modern law between Europe and the Middle East within the Mediterranean context.;A long historical relationship, political patronage, economic opportunities, and legal favoritism attracted immigrants to Egypt's Mediterranean shore in the nineteenth century. Italians immigrated to Egypt as a part of the greater Italian diaspora. As the second largest immigrant group, Italians lived in a cosmopolitan mode of economic and cultural exchange among the local Egyptian and other immigrant communities. However, an individual who could claim a foreign national identity held an advantageous legal position derived from the capitulations. The capitulations were a series of treaties that granted special rights to foreign residents of the Ottoman Empire, thus providing them with privileges beyond that of their Egyptian counterparts.;Entering into litigation over issues of nationality, property, and jurisdiction, a small but influential immigrant community of Mediterranean cosmopolitans exercised consular power to challenge Egyptian sovereignty. They were able to exert enormous influence over the political system through contentious property lawsuits that they brought against the Egyptian government in the various foreign consular courts. They manipulated the plural legal regime to increase their power and wealth.;The ensuing financial and political crisis was answered by legal reform, which resulted in the establishment of the Mixed Courts. The Mixed Courts successfully centralized the financially burdensome lawsuits brought by foreigners against the government under its jurisdiction. Italian consular records show that the Italian consular courts respected the jurisdiction of the Mixed Courts. Having successfully responded to the internal threat posed by the capitulatory regime through legal reform, the indebted Egyptian government failed to protect itself from the outside threat of British imperialism.