Modern education and the first Egyptian intellectuals
Part 1   Part 2

The reign of Khedive Ismail constituted a decisive epoch in modern Egyptian history in so far as Egyptians learned to adopt modern European methods in many fields of private and public endeavour.
In fact, the period 1863-82 was most crucial in the evolution of modern Egypt,
for the vast educational and intellectual strides made by Egyptians after 1882 had interesting and, in many ways, enduring cultural, social and political consequences.


Generally, the period of the Mamluk dynasties from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, as well as of the Ottoman -Mamluk control of Egypt which succeeded them, had reduced the country to a monopolistic source of income for the various rulers and their client. Until the French Occupation, the native population had been subjected to a series of continuous economic and political hardships -which frequently led them to revolt. Their rebellions, whether in the cities, towns or the countryside, were no more than desperate reactions against oppression ranging from heavy taxation to forced labour.' In these circumstances, the intellectual and cultural life of the country was bound to suffer. In fact, it stagnated. Apart from the -occasional encouragement of cultural and artistic activity by the odd ruler in Mamluk Egypt in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, literary activity came to be limited to traditional forms of poetry and a body of folklore about saints and other local religious ceremonies. Jabarti described Egyptian society before the French expedition as intellectually barren and culturally stagnant. Although Arabic was the spoken language of the people, Turkish was that of the rulers and their courts.
The quality of the Arabic language and its letters was, by neo-classical standards, low indeed. Some of the more prominent chroniclers and historians like Ibn Iyas and later, Jabarti, wrote mainly in the colloquial, and apparently made no attempt to use the classical idiom. The use of the latter remained confined to Azharite teachers and students who were generally concerned with the pres-ervation of traditional Islamic learning.

Amidst foreign rulers, the Azhar stood for centuries at the apex of an educational system in Egypt consisting of village and town Koranic schools (kuttab), many of which were attached to mosques. The teachers in these schools were shavkhs who had studied at the Azhar or at one of its many religious institutes scattered around the country and supervised by the Azhar hierarchy. The kuttab taught students the rudiments of reading, writing and some arithmetic. Often the learning of these disciplines was only of secondary importance, the primary task and purpose of the kuttab being to get students to memorize the Koran, the Holy Book. Despite the increasing contacts between Europe and the Ottoman Empire after I6oo, the Azhar remained insulated from any outside non-Islamic influences. Cairo became relegated to the status of a provincial city in the Empire, whereas Istanbul emerged as the new cultural and intellectual centre to which the most ambitious and successful scholars were drawn. Thus the educational and intellectual position of the Azhar declined under Ottoman rule. More detrimental still was Azharite ignorance of the scientific and philosophical consequences of the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe, so that when Egypt was directly confronted in 1798 by the armies and administration of France - one of the most enlightened European states of the time - the educational and intellectual standards of the Azhar were really backward in comparison, even though the first stirrings of a revival had begun. Yet, in seeking to assuage the impact of his conquest of the country upon Egyptians, and to effect their liberation from the yoke of Mamluk tyranny, Napoleon Bonaparte had to appeal directly to the Azhar and its chiefs in their capacity as the intellectual and social leaders of Egypt, as opposed to the Mamluk intruders. The Cairo Council which Bonaparte created to govern Cairo consisted of nine to ten shaykhs, or religious leaders. Azharites were the first Egyptians invited by Bonaparte to witness the chemical and physical experiments conducted by the French scientists at the famous Institut.    Part 2

Extract from “The History of Modern Egypt From Muhammad Ali to Mubarak”, written by P.J.Vatikiotis. Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London 1991
   
 
 
   
Thu Mar 11 23:58:24 2010