Haunted Happiness

turn-of-the-century Cairo, practices of living at a distance from the city center and physical exercise were also praised as fostering rationality and producing positive emotions. While contemporaries in the Egyptian capital could draw on the same examples as their counterparts in Berlin, Arabic-language authors did not exclusively refer to “European” ideals. They also discussed specific “Egyptian” antecedents, including physical exercise among the ancient Egyptians. With the spread of suburbs and spaces for physical exercise, these arguments about emotional betterment left material traces in turn-of-the-century Cairo. Looking at these dynamics, the chapter demonstrates that practices of emotional reform in Cairo were bound to a specific class formation. The attempt at creating “rational” and emotionally controlled subjects was tied to the rising influence of the city’s Arabic-speaking, male middle class, which presented itself as the vanguard of the national movement.