Modern education and the first Egyptian intellectuals
Part 1
Part 2
The Azhar was thus the educational and intellectual mainstay of Egypt until 1800. What is more important
is the fact that it soon contributed from its ranks the first Egyptians to make their mark in the
modern educational and intellectual renaissance begun during the long reign of Muhammad Ali.
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Its more sensitive and intelligent members, for instance, reacted to the French presence, and particularly
to the scientific and intellectual attainments of the French savants, with astute introspection.
Despite their opposition to, and dislike of, an infidel conqueror, Shaykh Abd al Rahman al-Jabarti,
the famous chronicler of modern Egypt, Shaykh Hasan al-Attar, the famous grammarian and noted teacher
of Rifaa Rafii al-Tahtawi, another luminary of the intellectual regeneration in the nineteenth century,
and Shaykh al-Sharqawi, a melancholy lamentor of `passing tradition', were all Azharites who deplored
the condition of their society and the backwardness of their people. As a reaction to the first direct
contact with Europeans, the response of these men alone constituted an admission, though not
necessarily an understanding, of the deficiencies of their system and a reluctant admiration for the
efficacy of European learning. It was enough as a beginning to encourage later Azharites to seek the
advantages of a modern Euro-pean education.
A1-Jabarti, in describing the intellectual life of Egypt before the French invasion as well as during the first
ten years of the reign of Muhammad Ali, has paid special attention to his friend Shaykh Nasan al-Attar (d. 1833).
The importance of Shaykh al-Attar in the intellectual renaissance of Egypt is not so much due to his own writings as it
is due to his spirited teaching of young Azharites, one of whom was Shaykh Rifaa al-Tahtawi. Attar had travelled widely in
Arab lands before his first contacts with the French in Cairo.
He soon became interested in the work which French
scholars were doing in Egypt and had a chance to observe them very closely. Many of the French savants engaged al-Attar
as their Arabic tutor, and he is said to have taken lessons in French from them. His general response to the French
impact upon his country reveals his sensitivity to the weaknesses of Egyptian society as well as his instinct for
political survival. `Conditions in our country must change,' he is reported to have said. `We must introduce new
knowledge that is yet unknown in Egypt.
Al-Attar reportedly sought to improve teaching methods in the Azhar and to interest his students in new knowledge.
He deplored the rote method of learning, and sought to replace it by a more analytical approach to study. He
was apparently unhappy with the emulative nature of Islamic pedagogy and writing, and sought to free himself
and his students from its shackles. He left a collection of essays, Al-Rasa'il, first published in Cairo in 1866,
on a wide range of subjects, such as law, logic and grammar, medicine and other sciences. His proclivity towards
innovation and his sympathy with modern change brought him close to the court of Muhammad Ali. The latter appointed
him Shaykh of the Azhar and first editor of the official government newspaper AI-Waqa'I al-Misriyya.
Another religious leader of that time was Shaykh al-Sharqawi who was three times President of the Local Council
of Notables established by Napoleon. He also left a major work, Tuhf'at al-nazirin fiman w,aliya misr min al-wulat
wa al-salatin (A Survey of the History of Governors and Sultans of Egypt), first published in Cairo in 1865. In it
Sharqawi both refers to the low cultural level of his countrymen and expresses his view on the French. He deplored
the fact that Egyptians were not serious by nature; that they were cunning, deceitful and possessed of weak character;
that they were impatient under adversity and fearful of authority.'
Some advance had also been made by 18oo in the study of Arabic. Not a native Egyptian, Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi,
the famous lexicographer and grammarian, came to the country in his early twenties and devoted most of his time to the
preparation of the massive lexicon-dictionary of the Arabic language, Taj al-arus min sharh jawahir al-qarnus,
published in 1870. This, together with Jabarti's Chronicle, and the final Egyptian version of the Thousand and One
Nights, are perhaps the most important literary works of that epoch.
A few poets, among them Hasan al-Badri al-Hijazi (d. 1718), and Ismail al-Zuhuri (d. I793), composed verses that
satirized and occasionally criticized directly the religious and social life of the times. Neither language nor art
was of the best quality. All the same, their poetry reflected a certain preoccupation with the low cultural level of
their society and the freedom to express such views.
These then were some of the intellectual luminaries at the end of the eighteenth century in Egypt. Their work
manifests a glimmer of dissatisfaction with their spiritual and cultural environment and a touch of annoyance - if
not impatience - with the weighty tradition. The latter stood in the way of their desire for innovation and possibly
reform. Yet it was not until a totally alien agent of intellectual and cultural advancement was introduced into Egypt that these Azharites - the standard-bearers of Islamic traditional culture in society - sought to reform their own
establishment. Part 1
Extract from “The History of Modern Egypt From Muhammad Ali to Mubarak”, written by P.J.Vatikiotis. Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London 1991
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