Party Historiography in Contemporary Egypt Case Study: the Saad Zaghloul's Historiography Written by Al-Aqqād

Active parties in Egypt in the years 1922-1952 were the same zealous nationalists of political scene of the country. These parties competed against each other with various styles and tools. One of these tools was “history” that led to production of species of historiography in Egypt's party historiography. One of the most important of these historiographies was the Saad Zaghloul's book, i.e. Zaim al-Thawrah, written by Abbās Mahmūd al-Aqqād, a member of the Wafd Party. The topic of this research is study and analysis of this historiographical work in order to understand how this national leader in Egypt's contemporary history has been portrayed and how Wafd Party's disputes and competitions are reflected in this text. The method of this research, according to the characteristics of historiography, is understanding the relationships between the studied text components, the author and political-cultural macro- context in this era. The result of the research shows that Al-Aqqād, in response to the political and intellectual atmosphere of Egypt, intends to defend the Wafd party and its founder, i.e. Saad Zaghloul. Due to the competition with other parties, he portrayed Zaghloul as the best example of an ideal leader in Egypt. However, because of a feud with Mustafa Nahas, the leader of Wafd Party at that time, the author presented such an ideal image only in the case of Saad Zaghloul.