|  With Europe on the verge of war, Cairo was an oasis. Savvy British administration and a cotton
boom had made the city rich. And with 96 percent of capital on the new exchange in the hands of
Europeans, European entrepreneurs and financiers flocked to Egypt like supplicants to the temple.
a flood of immigrants, not only from the West, but nearer parts of the world as well -- Jews from Syria and Turkey, merchants from the cramped alleys of Ismir -- headed south to where the money was. Business boomed. French and Armenian architects refitted Soliman Pasha for the Belle Epoch with wrought-iron and frescoes -- a Paris on the Nile. Cafe Gropi served up Italian ices. Summers were spent lounging on the beaches of Alexandria. Fueled by the wealth of this new leisure class, Cairo projected itself grandly: Jewel of the Nile, Mother of the World.
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