CAIRO — The months of March and April carry sad memories for Egyptians who are keen to preserve Egyptian nationalism. March 30 marked the 504th anniversary of the arrest of Tuman Bay, the last sultan of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and the last leader of the Egyptian resistance movements against the Ottoman invasion of Egypt (1517-1914). On April 15, 1517, he was executed by Ottoman Sultan Selim I.

Egyptians, particularly the cultural elite, would write articles in March and April of each year denouncing the Ottoman invasion and the actions of Selim I. This year, Helmy al-Namnam, a former Egyptian minister of culture, took an advanced stance and called for the need to review the manifestations of the Ottoman occupation of Egypt and get rid of some, namely the usage of the title Mufti al-Diyar al-Misriyya and only using the title of the Grand Mufti of Egypt, as well as changing some street names such as Selim I Street in Cairo governorate.

Namnam said in a press statement March 15 that the word “diyar” was used by the Ottomans to denote Egypt as a state under their authority, or “ayala” (the largest administrative and military unit in the Ottoman Empire).

Many social media activists reacted to Namnam’s statement, some even calling for criminalizing the use of surnames of Turkish origin such as "pasha" and "bay," which are titles that Egyptians routinely use in their daily lives.