아프리카ㆍ중동

This paper studies the life and times of Henri Curiel, a Jewish Egyptian who led the creation and development of the communist movement in Egypt in the twentieth century. Curiel was of such importance in Egypt that he is still remembered there today, despite the polarization between Arabs and Jews over the Palestine Question and the state of Israel, and despite Curiel’s deportation in 1950 and his assassination at the hands of unknown killers, in France, a full quarter of a century later, in 1978. The paper traces Curiel’s origins to Spain, where his family was driven out by the Inquisition, moving to Italy, and later to Egypt in the early 1800s. This paper explores Curiel’s personal motives in Egyptianizing himself, despite belonging to a wealthy Jewish merchant family, and in becoming a top Marxist mass-organizer, despite coming from a small minority and speaking Arabic very poorly. It studies his character, from his charisma to his controlling tendency to dominate all groups in which he was active. Finally, the paper reviews the Arabic writings of others about Curiel, especially his contemporaries’ writings on his Egyptian activities, also including his subsequent decades as an international anti-colonialist revolutionary. Drawing on the author’s unique Japanese perspective, the paper also includes a most insightful look at Curiel, the internationalist, as seen through the eyes of a visiting Japanese peace activist, who sought his aid from the other side of the globe.