Peak of Revolutionary Possibilities: Squared I: How the Revolution Was “Bound” within Tahrir

This chapter examines closely the making of Tahrir's revolutionary repertoire during the peak of the revolutionary crisis and answers the questions of how and why Tahrir constituted a physical and symbolic boundary of the Egyptian Revolution (thus, the revolution was squared in Tahrir). Atef Shahat Said argues and demonstrates how four specific processes drove the squaring of the revolution: the physical sites of battles and clashes, the “virtual” making of Tahrir through social media, the establishment of the Tahrir camp, and the mutual recognition by the regime and the protesters that the other was, in fact, its main contender. Compared to most accounts on the Egyptian Revolution, in this chapter Said provides a unique perspective from the ground on the role of rallies, battles, and clashes with police apparatus before protesters occupation of Tahrir and ethnographic notes on the variations of barricades in the revolution.