Chapter XI

Prejudices of Nubian parents — Egyptian youths sent for education to Paris and London — Unsatisfactory result — Story of a Perversion — Its tragic end — Jealousy of the Egyptian Government — A grand prospect.

The efforts recently made by the Government of Egypt to educate the children of the Arabs, has as yet been attended with very little success. This is owing to the intense prejudice of the parents, who will run away into the most remote corners of the desert, rather than allow any one related to them, child or adult, to attend the schools.

To provide efficient masters, in many instances boys of good families have been sent to Europe; some to l’Ecole Polytechnique in Paris; some to the London University to qualify as professors; that when they had acquired the learning of civilization, on their return to Cairo they might become useful either in assisting to establish scholastic institutions over the country on the European model, or in preparing native scholars to undertake the duty of schoolmasters.

This portion of the scheme has produced several failures. In some instances, the young Egyptian has not only imbibed European learning, but European religion. He has been taught like a Frank, till he has become a Frank; has abandoned the religion of his family, and, as a natural consequence, has either sought employment under the mild governments of England and France, or has been induced to return to Egypt—only to feel the severest effects of its despotism.

Those who ostensibly remained Mahometans—for in general their new acquirements brought perfectly new views, both as respects religion and politics—on their return to Cairo, were employed in putting others in the way of gaining those advances in knowledge they had themselves made; and it not unfrequently occurred that, long before the pupil had mastered the elementary branches of European learning, some intrigue ousted the master out of his post, and put the pupil in it; or his real opinions escaped him in some unguarded hour, and he was sent away in disgrace to some distant province—perhaps disposed of in a still more arbitrary way, and his name never more mentioned.

He is sure of making plenty of enemies, for most of his countrymen look on the innovations he is producing with rooted aversion; and all the young men who happen to be placed under his charge, are merely preparing to become his rivals. They therefore are only too ready to assist in getting him out of the way, and the chances are a thousand to one against his escaping the various pit-falls that beset his path.

While in Egypt we were told the following story, which I may quote, without, however, vouching for its veracity.

Some time ago, a young man of a wealthy family, at Cairo, was sent to Paris for his education, and became one of the best scholars of l’Ecole Polytechnique. Gifted with great natural talent, and possessed of an Eastern imagination, he had scarcely arrived at manhood, when he gave up his mind entirely to the political sentiments then prevailing in the French capital—sentiments as antagonistic as possible to those which existed in Egypt.

This, however, was far from being the extent of his imprudence. He thought proper to entertain a passion of the warmest nature, for the daughter of one of the professors, a rigid Catholic; and to secure the hand of the young lady, he abjured the faith of Mahomet, and was received with more parade than was necessary into the fold of the Romish Church.

This “perversion” created a greater sensation at Cairo, than it had done at Paris. The family of the apostate were terribly indignant, and would hold no communication with him. The orthodox Mussulmen, who had never favoured the leanings of their ruler towards Christian enlightenment, now were loud in their denunciations of a system which brought scandal on “the true faith.”

The Government maintained an ominous silence. No notice whatever was taken of the affair—not a word was said respecting the offender. He fancied that the matter was not thought of sufficient importance, to require any particular attention from the authorities at Cairo; and though aware that his family and friends regarded his apostasy as an unpardonable offence, and as covering them with disgrace, he hoped that when time had in some degree softened their feelings, he might be suffered to return to his native city, and be received by his relatives with scarcely any diminution of their affection.

For a time, the cultivation of his attachment absorbed all his feelings, and in a great measure diverted his attention from the state of his own affairs; but when he found his resources cut off, that he had no communication whatever from home, and that he was avoided by his compatriots at Paris, he began to feel the inconvenience of his position.

He tried to get employment, but without success—he was then made painfully aware that an outcast, without funds, could have no pretension to the hand of the young lady for whom he had so completely sacrificed himself. Finding his means of subsistence at last entirely fail, he thought of applying to one of his countrymen, till lately his warmest friend, who held a minor post in the Egyptian Embassy.

His friend at first appeared reluctant to hold any communication with him; but when he ascertained that the young man was desirous to return to Cairo, in the hope of making his peace with his family, he encouraged him in that notion. The next day he advanced him funds that he might set off without delay.

During his homeward voyage, he thought only of the reception that awaited him at the hands of the dear friends, from whom he had been so long separated, and entertained himself by anticipating the delightful reunion he should be able to enjoy, after he had sufficiently expressed his contrition for the offence he had committed.

As to the light in which this offence was regarded by the Pasha, he never gave it a thought. He felt assured that the affair had been entirely forgotten by the officials, and did not for a moment dream of any danger from that quarter, or from any other.

Under these impressions, he landed at Cairo, and with all the impatience of youth was making his way for that quarter of the city in which his family resided, fully convinced that not one of his countrymen could recognize him, or could entertain the slightest idea of his being on the soil of Egypt.

In this he was woefully deceived. Every portion of his homeward journey had been under the surveillance of a spy of the Egyptian Government, who had left Paris simultaneously with himself, and was close to him whenever he moved. Information of his expected arrival had been conveyed to the Government; and the moment that he quitted the steam-boat, certain men, for whom the citizens of Cairo rapidly made way, were seen to take a direction which would intercept him on his way to his father’s house.

That house he never reached. A headless trunk floated the next day on the broad waters of the Nile. It was all that remained of the unfortunate youth.

His offence had created a feeling of terrible rage in the Pasha. It was represented that it might produce the most disastrous consequences, and that the punishment of the offender was imperative. He was, therefore, in the manner that has been described, enticed into putting himself in the power of his vindictive enemies.

The story of Bayoumi Effendi, related in a preceding chapter, conveys a lively idea of the obstacles that must present themselves in the career of the ablest of those able men, whose minds have had the advantage of European culture. It has been said that the cause of his disgrace was his being known to hold correspondence with the Government of the Sultan—an offence of the blackest die at Cairo. And it is possible that Bayoumi Effendi, getting dissatisfied with his position under the Sovereign he had selected, had listened to the overtures, which the agents of the Ottoman Porte were constantly making, to draw away from its powerful vassal the most talented of his public servants; this had been observed by some of the thousand watchful eyes that surrounded him; and the expatriation to Khartoum on a pretended scholastic mission is easily understood.

Notwithstanding these “accidents,” I believe that the Egyptian Government is sincere in its efforts to effect an educational reform throughout its dominions. Its experiments in that direction have been made regardless of cost, and with a liberality of licence regarding the amount of Frankish learning to be acquired, that cannot be too highly appreciated. For the ineffective manner in which the movement has worked, it is not exclusively to blame. In the way of obstacles, there were the prejudices of the orthodox, the intrigues of the heterodox, and the pig-headed ignorance and fanaticism of the large class, whose moral and social improvement the last two rulers of Egypt are generally believed to have had in view; and very powerful obstacles they have proved.

Whether Abbas Pasha will persevere, till he has established schools on the European model in every district of Nubia and Egypt; whether, through their agency, the blessings of civilization shall become extended to the remotest nook of the burning desert, and the land of the Arab be restored to that intellectual reputation, which it enjoyed before the now enlightened West had emerged from the darkest depths of barbarism; whether, in this way, a great nation shall arise on the banks of the Nile, that shall produce evidences of intelligence and refinement, rivalling those memorials of a glorious past—Thebes Carnac, and Aboosimbel—form portions of a question that Time alone can properly answer.

I confess, however, to placing much confidence in the future; the small streaks of light, that herald the dawn in the East, are already visible in the horizon: a little patience, and we shall probably behold a sunrise that will shed over the glorious antiquities of this interesting country, the same splendour that dwelt around them in the days of the voluptuous Sardanapalus, or in those of the wise and powerful Ptolemæus Philadelphus.