The situation was eventually contained, but not before many protesters were injured in the battles. Having been attacked, the protesters seemed to expect a popular outcry. But none really came. Because it was by then no longer clear that they were speaking for the country. The military, cloistered off from society for decades and run by an old-style elite who seem ill-prepared for the role they have taken on, nonetheless seems better attuned to a poor and conservative nation that has tired of traffic-blocking demonstrations than the young, liberal-minded protesters. Skilfully exploiting the media and the internet, the SCAF have managed to define the revolution as the day that Hosni Mubarak was toppled, nothing more. That, to the military, was the revolution. And many ordinary Egyptian look as if they agree.
Even the Muslim Brotherhood, who went back into the square in late summer quickly left again, judging that the public's patience was wearing thin with traffic-blocking protests and worried about a confrontation with the military. So for a week the protesters were stuck. They could leave the square until their demands are met. But the military could give in to the growing desiderata of demands either. On Tahrir Square the image of Hosni Mubarak in a hangman's nose was joined by pictures of Field Marshall Muhammed Tantawi, the head of the SCAF.
The military can accept many things and seem willing, compelled even, to yield when faced by broadly-supported demands, such as prosecuting those who killed the protesters in January 2011. Though they have not been ready to change the sequencing of political events that they laid out - parliamentary elections first, then a constitution and only then presidential elections -they are open to some adjustments. However, having deposed one boss they are not about to remove another.
Faced with a direct challenge, the military upped the ante by denouncing key members of the revolutionary movement - like the 6 April Movement and Kafuya - as foreign-funded agents. A patently absurd charge, it raised the atmosphere in an already broiling city. Given the military's record - since taking power they have already put more than 4000 people through summary trials in military courts - people became scared. "Marching on the military was just stupid", says a European diplomat while we lounge on his imperial porch and soothe ourselves with a Gin & Tonic. "The military had to react." If he was running the revolution, he seemed to be saying, he would do things differently.
To make matters worse, the Salafist looked ready for a confrontation on Tahrir Square too. "They are fed up with ceding the ground to the liberals and so they have declared, in effect, a protest against protests", say another diplomat. Given the historical links between the Mukhabarat, Egypt's security service, and the Salafists many also saw in their move an attempt by the military to create further divisions among the protesters, allowing them, in the case of violence, to intervene and be seen as the guardians of stability not as a partisan actors.
In the end, everyone pulled back. The military gave in to a number of demands. And by the time Friday came, the protests were peaceful and dominated by the Salafists. Even the Muslim Brotherhood left Tahrir Square. The military was also not to be seen anywhere near the centre of town. Six months after the elevation of Tahrir into a liberal and ecumenical altar, it became a Salafist place.
Earlier that day I had found myself in the smallest but liveliest newsroom I had ever seen. Behind piles of papers and a PC screens bigger than themselves sat the three girls -- two in a niqab, one without but all in stylish clothes -- who put out the Daily News, one of Egypt's three English language newspapers.
One reporter had just come from a meeting where a number of activists were debating what would be enough to declare victory. They had a clear set of demands: expediting Hosni Mubarak's trial, purging the Ministry of Interior, and compensating the families of the victims of the regime's crimes. None of these demands had been met. But the reporters were hopeful. Six months after the revolution, they said, the country is in a far better shape than many feared - especially compared to Syria, Libya or Yemen. Why would the protesters they not succeed now when they had succeeded against all the odds and everyone's expectations only six months earlier, the reporters ask.
It has now been another six months - a full year since the events that saw President Mubrakak - the man who ruled Egypt longer than all but two people in the country's 5000 year history - removed from power. Hundreds of thousands of protesters have crowded back into Tahrir Square, which during throughout a day of celebrations saw a bigger turnout than on 11 February of 2001 - the day that the Egyptian strongman actually stepped down. Though the mood has remained celebratory, from speaking to people on the scene this is clearly tinged with a dose of trepidation and a drop of fear.
Liberals and left-leaning groups were trounced at the elections, which saw Islamist parties control around two-thirds of the seats in the assembly. With only ten percent of the vote, they also remain riven by factions and fissures. Most crucially, the liberals and the Islamist still disagree on the issue of the ruling military. True to their moniker, the revolutionaries want the generals to surrender power to civilians immediately, accusing them of perpetuating Egypt's authoritarian system, undermining the transition to democracy and committing large-scale abuses. The Islamists, on the other, hand, says the military should step down, but are willing to accept their promise to step down formally in six month and for them to continue playing some kind of politico-economic role afterwards.
So far there is no resolution in sight. Much will depend on the next couple of days. Will the liberals try to stay in Tahrir Square and, like a year ago, bring people with them? Or will it be more like six months ago, when the liberals tried to retake the revolutionary touchstone only to see their support hemorrhage and the military remove the protesters forcefully while the Islamist stood by while preparing their own path to power. Until now, the military has been emollient: Field Marshal Tantawi released around 2,000 civilian prisoners sentenced under military-controlled laws, including prominent activist Maikel Nabil. But their patience is famously exhaustible and the anti-regime liberals are weak. So what to make of the revolution, one year on? French writer Victor Hugo once said, "No one can stop an idea whose time has come." That is true also in Egypt. However, the idea that has come may not be democracy, but citizenship. People now feel that they are citizens, not subjects. Democracy will come, that's clear, but it may take a little while longer. That is cause for some despair but also relief. For even the steps that have been taken now seemed impossible just over a year ago.
