Thetobacco industry in Egypt was a majorexportindustry that influenced globalfashion during the period between the 1880s and the end of theFirst World War. It was notable as a rare example of the globalperiphery setting trends in the global center in a period when the predominant direction of cultural influence was the reverse, and also as one of the earliest producers of globally tradedmanufacturedfinished goods outside the West.

The development of a major cigarette industry in Egypt in the late nineteenth century was unexpected, given that Egypt generally exported raw materials and imported manufactured goods, that Egyptian-grown tobacco was always of poor quality, and that the cultivation of tobacco in Egypt was banned in 1890 (a measure intended to facilitate the collection of taxes on tobacco).

One reason for the development of the industry was the imposition of a state tobaccomonopoly in theOttoman Empire, a measure designed to increase Ottoman government revenue. This resulted in the movement of many Ottoman tobacco merchants, usually ethnicGreeks, to Egypt, a country which was culturally similar to and was arguably de jure a part of the Ottoman Empire but outside the tobacco monopoly as a result of its de factooccupation by theUnited Kingdom.

The founder of the industry wasNestor Gianaclis, a Greek who arrived in Egypt in 1864 and in 1871 established a factory in theKhairy Pasha palace in Cairo.^{[Note 1]} After British troops began being stationed in Egypt in 1882, British officers developed a taste for the Egyptian cigarettes and they were soon being exported to the United Kingdom.^[1] Gianaclis and other Greek industrialists such as Ioannis Kyriazis ofKyriazi frères successfully produced and exported cigarettes using imported Turkish tobacco to meet the growing world demand for cigarettes in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.^[2]

Egyptian cigarettes made by Gianaclis and others became so popular in Europe and the United States that they inspired a large number of what were, in effect, locally producedcounterfeits. Among these was the AmericanCamel brand, established in 1913, which used on its packet three Egyptian motifs: thecamel, thepyramids, and apalm tree. Fellow Greeks in the United States also imported or produced such cigarettes. For example, S. Anargyros first importedEgyptian Deities and then producedMurad,Helmar andMogul, and the Stephano Brothers producedRamses II.^[3]

Tastes in Europe and the United States shifted away fromTurkish tobacco and Egyptian cigarettes towardsVirginia tobacco, during and after theFirst World War. What remained of the Greek-run tobacco industry in Egypt wasnationalized after theEgyptian coup d'état of 1952. Egyptian-made cigarettes were thereafter sold only domestically, and became known for their poor quality (and low price).

Cigarettes containing Turkish tobacco (which includes those varieties grown in what is now Greece) exclusively continued to be manufactured and sold as "Turkish cigarettes" in the US (brandsMurad, Helmar and others), the UK (Sullivan & Powell,Benson & Hedges,Fribourg & Treyer, Balkan Sobranie) and Germany (where the so-called "Orientzigaretten" had the major market share before the Second World War). Today, Turkish tobacco is a key ingredient in American blend cigarettes (Virginia,Burley, Turkish) introduced with Camels in 1913.

Arthur Conan Doyle paid a casual tribute to the popularity of Egyptian cigarettes in his 1904 story "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez", where a character interviewed bySherlock Holmes in a murder investigation is described as a very heavy consumer of them.

"A smoker, Mr. Holmes?" said he, speaking in well-chosen English, with a curious little mincing accent. "Pray take a cigarette. And you, sir? I can recommend them, for I have them especially prepared by Ionides, of Alexandria. He sends me a thousand at a time, and I grieve to say that I have to arrange for a fresh supply every fortnight.^[5]

The copious cigarette ash eventually helps Holmes solve the mystery.^[6]

Egyptian cigarette advertisements are parodied inHergé's graphic novelCigars of the Pharaoh.Tintin has a nightmare where characters in ancient Egyptian garb smoke opium-laced cigars.

A Kyriazi Frères tin box appears in the 2017 movieBlade Runner 2049.

An M. Melachrino et Co. cigarette box appears in the "Little House on the Prairie" episode "Love", but is used as a gift box for a cameo pendant given by one character to another.

Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard smoked Melachrino cigarettes. Script Scene D-4[1][2]

• Kyriazi freres

Notes

References

• Shechter, Relli (February 2003). "Selling Luxury: The Rise of the Egyptian Cigarette and the Transformation of the Egyptian Tobacco Market, 1850-1914".International Journal of Middle East Studies.35 (1):51–75.doi:10.1017/s0020743803000035.JSTOR 3879927.S2CID 154295357.
• Cox, Howard (2000).The Global Cigarette: Origin and Evolution of British American Tobacco, 1880-1945.Oxford University Press.ISBN 019829221X.

• Economy of Egypt
• Tobacco industry by country
• Tobacco in Egypt

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