Back to the drawing board

Following the trail of festivities organised to show how much Les Français aiment Le Caire, Fayza Hassan attends a conference and visits an exhibition commemorating an engineer from Marseille who helped Mohamed Ali realise his dreams of industrialisation
Coste at the end of his life
'Remembering me from my days in Paris, Monsieur Jomard asked me if I wanted to go to Egypt to supervise the construction [of the saltpeter factory]. I accepted with gratitude'
Among the most successful events organised in the context of the month-long festival titled Les Français aiment Le Caire was a series of exhibitions, conferences and round tables on topics of interest to Egyptians and French alike. The past week was dedicated the works of Pascal Coste, an engineer from Marseille who spent many years in Egypt. In an interesting conference, Professor André Raymond, curator of the exhibition and instrumental in bringing Coste's drawings from Marseille to Cairo, outlined the different phases of this gifted artist's career, while his unique sketches and drawings, exhibited permanently at the Bibliothèque Municipale of Marseille (and showing at the Ahmed Shawqi Museum until the end of May), clearly reveal the passionate attraction Coste developed for Islamic architecture. His activities -- unlike those of many other travellers during the same period -- were neither purely selfish nor completely mercenary. His memoirs, extracts of which are published in Pascal Coste, Toutes Les Egypte (Editions Parenthèses, Bibliothèque Municipale de Marseille, 1998) show he had the interests of Egypt and its ruler, Mohamed Ali, at heart.
It is often said that to consolidate his power, Mohamed Ali looked towards Europe for technical assistance and adopted Western models in order to launch his country on the path of modernity. But, argues Dominique Jacobi, curator of the exhibition Pascal Coste, Toutes Les Egypte, which opened in Marseille in 1998, "While seeking and welcoming unreservedly the projects and methods of French experts, Mohamed Ali reorganised Egypt on a strictly Ottoman political and ideological model. His genius is also manifest in his capacity to negotiate with the West, while retaining a pure Oriental mind-set and mode of government."
Impressed by the scientific and cultural aspect of the French Expedition, Mohamed Ali had remained in touch with several of the savants who had contributed to La Description de L'Egypte and called upon the geographer Edmé Jomard to recommend a civil engineer to build his new factories. Jomard suggested a young Marseillais he had met in Paris: Pascal Coste.
In his memoirs, Coste recounts the circumstances of this recommendation, which was to change his life. He had left Marseille for Paris in 1814 to complete his architecture studies: "During my sojourn in Paris, I was introduced to Monsieur Jomard, geographer. He had been a member of the scientific and archeological mission that accompanied the Egypt Expedition. He took an interest in me and we became friends... Jomard had kept good relations in Egypt with the government of the vice-roy, Mohamed Ali... Mohamed Ali, wishing to regenerate this country, endowed only with great agricultural riches, was always prepared to welcome Europeans willing to help him in his renewal projects. Monsieur Baffi, a chemical engineer from Rome, presented him with a plan to build a saltpeter factory, which would use neither a boiler nor open fires but would purify the saltpeter by a system of evaporation, yielding 3,000 quintals of purified saltpeter a year, in exchange for a fee of 500,000 francs and the right to hire an architect to build this new establishment and others, such as gunpowder factories and soap works..."
Mohamed Ali agreed to the proposal, and after the paperwork had been completed at the British chancery to Mr Baffi's satisfaction, a French agent was dispatched to Paris to consult with Jomard. "Remembering me from my days in Paris," wrote Coste, "Monsieur Jomard asked me if I wanted to go to Egypt to supervise the construction. I accepted with gratitude." Coste's fees were 18,000 Egyptian piastres (7,200 French francs) and he was instructed to hire a French master mason who would instruct the Egyptian workmen. His travel expenses were fully paid and he was granted an extra 2,000 francs for the purchase of various instruments. The contract, signed in Marseille in September 1817, was valid for a year. Coste had just turned 30.
The son of a carpenter, Coste was normally destined to succeed his father. The young man, however, showed no inclination for carpentry but a great talent in drawing, which his father recognised, allowing him to continue his studies in engineering and architecture. Coste, we are told, was an ambitious young man and we cannot discount the fact that he may have expected to gain fame and honour from his appointment in Egypt. During his voyage, he kept a detailed diary in which he included sketches of all the places he visited. It is quite possible that he intended to publish this record on his return.
Before reaching Cairo, he stayed a while in Alexandria and passed through Rosetta, consigning a large number of views from both cities to his drawing pad. He continued this practice during his stay in Cairo and continuously penciled in people, landscapes, buildings and ruins. He painstakingly copied hieroglyphic and Islamic inscriptions and took precise measurements of all the monuments he visited, including the Pyramids of Giza.
Coste satisfied his employer, "Monsieur Baffi," and by September 1819, the saltpeter factory was completed according to specifications. He was then instructed to begin drawing up the plans for powder works to be built on the island of Roda on a 14,000-square metre plot.
Work started in October. "The masonry of all the various buildings of the factory was entrusted to Arab labourers. Greeks, Italians and Maltese carried out the mechanical and carpentry work. Anything in bronze or wrought iron was executed in the workshops of the Citadel, under the supervision of the director of the arsenal, Monsieur Gonon (of Lyon). All this was completed under my supervision, and according to my plans and details. I had selected two intelligent inspectors to follow up the work during my absence: an Arab for the masonry work and a Greek for the rest," wrote a contented Coste. The powder works were finished in 1820, to the entire approval of the Pasha, who declared that the cannon powder now produced was of the highest quality.
Around this period, Mohamed Ali conceived the idea of digging a canal that would allow the barges bringing cargoes from upper, middle and lower Egypt to reach Alexandria without passing Rosetta and the Boghaz (the mouth of the river), a point where many ships sank due to the turbulence of the waters.
The Pasha assembled the governors of the seven provinces to decide on the way to proceed. It was decided that a Turkish engineer, Shakir Effendi, would be placed in charge of the design and execution of the work. The canal would begin in the village of Atfa, below Fuwwa; that it would be a little over 80,000m long and that each governor would provide the workers (fellahin from the villages under their jurisdiction), complete with picks and baskets, in proportion to the number of inhabitants of their province (this arrangement was made according to the hated corvée system, which Mohamed Ali and his successors used extensively and which was finally abolished under Khedive Ismail during the digging of the Suez Canal).
Shakir Effendi seems to have bungled his assignment, because Coste reported in his diaries that the Pasha summoned him to Alexandria and ordered him to take over, on the condition that he would not change the plotting of the canal's curve, already completed by his predecessor. Coste accepted. He was assigned headquarters near Pompey's column in Alexandria. Regardless of the recurrent plague epidemics that struck Alexandria every December, Coste continued working. "My numerous tasks did not leave me time to worry unduly about this bane," he wrote in his memoirs. During the same period, however, he found time to introduce a Frenchman, "Monsieur Sève," to Mohamed Ali, "who liked him at once and put him in charge of the artillery workshops at the Citadel." According to Raymond, like many Frenchmen who had come to seek their fortune in Egypt, Coste was not averse to establishing prestigious social and professional relationships that could be of use to him in the future.
During the years 1820-21, Coste busied himself building a beach pavilion near the Pasha's palace in Alexandria and a private residence for Boghos Pasha, his minister of foreign affairs, in the vicinity. He then applied his talents to the erection of 19 telegraph poles, linking Alexandria to the Citadel. Other projects followed: a new palace at the Citadel to replace the old decrepit ones, which would gather the Pasha's diwan, the ministries of the interior and of finance under the same roof. Another project involved adding an important extension to the gardens of Mohamed Ali's palace in Shubra. "But," wrote Coste, "[although Mohamed Ali had approved both designs] the intrigues of Turkish and Armenian architects resulted in their taking over my projects and [in Shubra] only completing the grand ornamental lake with the gallery-diwan, thus ruining all my plans."
More successful was the digging of a canal in the province of Sharqiya to bring water to the new plantations of mulberry trees that Mohamed Ali had just introduced from Syria. This canal having been completed, Coste was once again in favour. He was then instructed by Mohamed Ali to build two mosques, one at the Citadel, the other in Alexandria. Coste argued that, since he had never been allowed inside a mosque, the chances were that he would do a good job on the exteriors, but as for the interiors, they were more likely to resemble those of a church. The Pasha understood the objection and granted the architect a firman instructing the heads of all Cairo's mosques to allow Coste to measure and draw the interiors. He warned him to avoid Al-Azhar, however, where unruly and fanatical students could object violently to his presence. Having studied the mosques of Amr Ibn Al-Aas, Ibn Tulun, Barquq, Qalawun, Sultan Hassan, Al-Mu'ayyad and Qaitbay, Coste felt that, notwithstanding the Pasha's advice, he wanted to see Al-Azhar as well.
Having carefully thought about it, he decided to pay a visit to the dean of this venerable university mosque. He was received courteously and offered coffee and a water-pipe. Coste informed the dean that the Pasha was concerned about the state of the prayer areas in the mosque and had entrusted him with taking their measurements, in view of replacing the defective tiling of the floors. Pleased with the pasha's concern and generosity, the man ordered the carpets removed from all the prayer areas to allow the distinguished envoy to do his work. Having recorded all the details he needed, Coste took his leave, promising to return promptly with his workers and the building materials. "The director is still waiting for his tiles," he noted, probably with a chuckle, in his diary. Mohamed Ali, hearing the story, was greatly amused.
In the following few years, Coste was sent all over Egypt. He visited the Delta and Upper Egypt, digging a canal here, building a factory or a palace there. After five years, however, he felt suddenly homesick. He requested, and was granted, an unlimited holiday, and sailed at once for Marseille. A year later, he was back.
To show him his appreciation, Mohamed Ali appointed him chief of all the works of Lower Egypt. More palaces, more factories had to be built; not all were completed, however, because of the drain on the state finances occasioned by the war in Crimea. More canals were dug in Tanta, Giza and Simbellawein, where Coste also extended the Mahmoudiya Canal. But all this activity had really exhausted him. He came down with several illnesses, and when a yellow scorpion stung him, he almost died. Clot Bey came to visit him and advised him to return to France immediately, which he did on 7 November 1827. Although he lived to a ripe old age, Coste never returned to Egypt. His drawings, however, serve as an eloquent reminder that he was here.
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