| Cairo fire Black Saturday | |
|---|---|
 Rivoli Cinema on fire | |
| Location | Cairo, Egypt |
| Coordinates | 30°3′29″N 31°13′44″E / 30.05806°N 31.22889°E |
| Date | 26 January 1952 12:30 pm – 11 pm (UTC+02:00) |
| Target | Buildings owned by or associated with Europeans |
Attack type | Riots, arson |
| Deaths | 26[1] (inc. 9 Britons)[2] |
| Injured | 552[1] |
| Perpetrator | Unknown (several theories) |
The Cairo fire (Arabic: حريق القاهرة), also known as Black Saturday,[3][4] was a series of riots that took place on 26 January 1952, marked by the burning and looting of some 750 buildings[5]—retail shops, cafes, cinemas, hotels, restaurants, theatres, nightclubs, and the city's Casino Opera —in downtown Cairo. The direct trigger of the riots was the Battle of Ismailia, an attack on an Egyptian police installation in Ismaïlia by British forces on 25 January, in which roughly 50 auxiliary policemen were killed.[4]
The spontaneous anti-British protests that followed these deaths were quickly seized upon by organized elements in the crowd, who burned and ransacked large sectors of Cairo amidst the unexplained absence of security forces.[3] The fire is thought by some to have signalled the end of the Kingdom of Egypt.[5][6] The perpetrators of the Cairo Fire remain unknown to this day, and the truth about this important event in modern Egyptian history has yet to be established.[7]
The disorder that befell Cairo during the 1952 fire has been compared to the chaos that followed the anti-government protests of 25 January 2011, which saw demonstrations take place amidst massive arson and looting, an inexplicable withdrawal of the police, and organized prison-breaking.[8]
- ^ a b خسائر الحريق [The Fire Damage]. Al-Ahram (in Arabic). 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-05-12. Retrieved 2011-02-04.
- ^ King 1989, p. 208
- ^ a b King 1989, p. 207
- ^ a b Goldschmidt & Johnston 2004, p. 83
- ^ a b The Rebellion Within, An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. by Lawrence Wright. newyorker.com, June 2, 2008
- ^ Egypt on the Brink by Tarek Osman, Yale University Press, 2010, p.39
- ^ Hassan, Fayza (24–30 January 2002). "Burning down the house". Al-Ahram Weekly (570). Archived from the original on 2009-11-08. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
- ^ Muhammad, Mohsen (3 February 2011). خسارة [Khusara]. Al Gomhuria (in Arabic). Archived from the original (Reprint) on 6 February 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-06.