Dr Ahmed Sheir

University of Khorfakkan, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Bio

Dr Sheir is an Assistant Professor at the University of Khorfakkan, UAE, and an Associate Researcher at LMU Munich, Germany. He previously worked on an ERC project between Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD from the University of Marburg, Germany, specialising in Crusades history. His research focuses on the Crusades and their modern reception, Christian-Muslim encounters, and the intellectual and cultural history of the medieval and modern Arab world.

Between Anti-Colonialism and Arab Nationalism: Academic and Public Cultural Perception of the ‘Crusades’ and ‘Frankish-West’ in Twentieth-Century Egypt

Abstract

This paper examines how the Crusades were reimagined in twentieth-century Arab thought through the case of Egypt, particularly during the rise of anti-colonialism and Arab nationalism. Drawing on historiography, academic scholarship, education, political discourse, and cultural production, it traces the transformation of the medieval “Franks” into a framework for understanding the modern colonial West. It argues that Crusading history became a powerful lens through which Egyptians interpreted imperialism, Palestine, Arab unity, resistance, and national identity.