In part IV of this series tackling the relationship between Muslims and Christians, Jill Kamil considers leadership qualities The Internet was a fine tool for gathering together thousands of young people in Tahrir Square, but it is of little significance when it comes to winning elections across Egypt. Perhaps we have something to learn from the past, specifically from Mohamed Ali, who recognised the importance of education; Mustafa Kamel, the driving force of national identity; and Saad Zaghloul, who became prime minister of the first people-based cabinet of the constitutional monarchy under King Fouad. Mohamed Ali was a Macedonian officer in command of the Albanian contingent of the Ottoman force dispatched to Egypt to fight the French. Placed in supreme charge of Egypt at the beginning of the 19th century, he founded a dynasty that transformed a hitherto neglected Turkish colony into a kingdom recognised throughout the Mediterranean world. His aim was to create a modern industrial society with military power and launch it into the modern world. To do this foreign expertise was necessary, and he used ancient monuments as a diplomatic lever. He was not exceptional among contemporary world leaders in trading works of art or ancient monuments for know- how and technology. What is remarkable is the sheer volume of Egypt's ancient treasure that made its way abroad. The loss to archaeology and ancient history is staggering, but Mohamed Ali achieved what he wanted. Persuaded by a French engineer that the future of Egypt lay in agricultural development, especially in the cultivation of cotton, Mohamed Ali called on Bernardino Drovetti, a successful military commander under Napoleon and consul-general in Egypt from 1803, to recruit engineers to improve and develop the irrigation system and construct a barrage at the apex of the Delta. For his work in establishing a network of canals by which the flood was controlled and water diverted into basins, Drovetti received a firman, a special permit from the pasha that allowed him freely to excavate sites and build up a large collection of antiquities which he sent to France. A chance meeting in Alexandria between Drovetti and Frederic Cailliaud, a French geologist and mineralogist from Nantes, resulted in the two men finding they had much in common and determining to become fellow travellers. Drovetti introduced Cailliaud to Mohamed Ali, and the geologist soon found himself on a government assignment. The pasha commissioned him to search for ancient emerald mines in the Eastern Desert. Familiar as he was with the region, Cailliaud rapidly made his way to a mountain called Gabal Zabara where he collected numerous emeralds without much difficulty, returned to Cairo in triumph, and was promptly dispatched on another mission. European countries were then forming national museums as repositories for their own cultures and those of other nations, and there was fierce rivalry for antiquities when their consuls in Egypt set about collecting objects. The chief contenders were Drovetti and the British consul, Henry Salt (whose acquisitions are in the British Museum). Thus, at the very time that the French scholar Champollon was deciphering hieroglyphics, diplomats and tourists, traders and aristocrats, indeed Mohamed Ali himself, were despoiling the civilisation that scholars sought to understand. An uncultured Albanian can perhaps be forgiven for dismantling ancient monuments and using the stone as quarry when, with the help of French surgeon "Clot Bey" (Antoine B. Clot), Egypt's first medical school was founded and a public health service established. From the beginning, Mohamed Ali intended that Egyptians should be trained to occupy important positions in government, industry, the military and education, and he sent university graduates abroad to study and bring back much-needed skills for embarking on an extensive development programme. The country's greatest scholars emerged from the corridors of Al-Azhar University; among them Rifaa El-Tahtawi who, after returning from missions to Florence, London, Milan, Paris and Rome, was appointed editor of the Official Gazette through whose columns reformist ideas began to circulate; Abdel-Rahman El-Jabarti, who was appointed astronomer at the Abbasiya observatory and worked on a map of Lower Egypt that was published by the Bulaq Press in 1871; and Mahmoud El-Falaki, a leading scholar in mathematics and engineer and the first Egyptian to win European recognition when he attended geographical congresses in Paris and Venice. An urban middle class emerged in Egypt under Mohamed Ali's heirs, but European power was dominant. Privileges were granted to foreigners, who were exempted from taxes and had the right to trade under their own laws. Such preferential treatment was heartily resented by the local population. There was also the problem of the Suez Canal. The undertaking was colossal, and the great fanfare that accompanied its opening on 17 November 1869 dazzled thousands of European guests but brought Egypt to the brink of bankruptcy. Khedive Ismail was forced to sell his shares in the Suez Canal Company to Britain, and in 1882 the British occupied Egypt. Sir Evelyn Baring, later Lord Cromer, was appointed consul-general and, firmly believing that Egyptians were incapable of governing themselves, he wielded the power of the sultans and settled into an extended occupation. His disdain for the local population is clearly reflected in his refusal to come to terms with Mustafa Kamel (1874-1908), a charismatic figure and the driving force of national identity whose call was "Egypt for the Egyptians". Kamel possessed great skills as an orator and publicist, and he and his clique of intellectuals strongly resented their exclusion from a fair share of control over the nation's affairs. He criticised missionary schools that discouraged the teaching of Arabic and that were foreign in language, curricula and traditions. He advocated more state schools, and he pressed for the opening of an Egyptian university -- an idea that was heartily rejected by Cromer. Kamel's mindset was fixed on nationhood and independence, and he called for such in his publications and speeches. He reasoned that since the British could not be forced out of the country, their unnecessary presence should be met with peaceful resistance. To this end he masterminded strikes and demonstrations. An event in 1906 that did much to advance the nationalist cause became known as the Denshwai Incident. A British officer shot some domestic pigeons during an officers' group shooting trip in the Delta. An angry farmer shot the officer dead, and in consequence a number of peasant farmers were charged with murder and sentenced to death, penal servitude or public flogging. The event spurred Kamel to expose the scandalous nature of the incident. He demanded the evacuation of the occupation forces, stressed the importance of putting an end to British intervention in local affairs, and insisted on the employment of Egyptians in the government. He founded Al-Liwa (The Banner), a newspaper designed to spread political awareness, and called for social reform. His paper, which came out in Arabic, French and English, gained wide circulation. It closed with the premature death of its founder but not before a second group of nationalists had come to the forefront. Lotfi El-Sayed was the son of a prosperous village umda (headman), and his formal education was strictly Egyptian -- a traditional village kuttab (Quranic school) followed by a primary school in Mansoura, and the Khedival Secondary School in Cairo. He entered the school of law, and after graduation was appointed to the legal department of the government. He launched (and personally financed) the Al-Jarida newspaper, a mouthpiece for the Umma, the People's Party. The Umma, regarded as the first modern political party in Egypt, promoted secular liberal ideas. El-Sayed held that Egypt would remain forever backward and unable to manage its own affairs unless it acquired modern education. He pointed out that the French had held sway over Mohamed Ali and that the British wanted to produce clerks, not thinkers, and he attempted to impress upon his readers the need to lay down rules for a society based on a system of sound values and worthy principles. He attributed the people's despondency to a system that did nothing to develop the national characteristics. In Al-Jarida, he pointed out that powerful institutions did not relinquish their hold on a country until the local population proved it was responsible, and he wrote articles to the effect that active participation in community life was a prerequisite for political freedom. He strongly supported Qassem Amin, a lawyer and writer on Islamic modernism, in his aspiration to emancipate women and bring them into the mainstream of society, and he encouraged Amin and other leading figures to contribute articles to his newspaper. In 1908, a group of nationalists launched a fundraising committee to found a university. Mustafa Kamel, Mohamed Farid (a lawyer who backed Kamel on his nationalist platform), Lotfi El-Sayed, Saad Zaghloul (minister of education under Cromer from 1906), Qassem Amin, and Mohamed Abdu (an important religious figure of the period) managed to collect the then substantial sum of LE23,000, and Al-Gamiaa Al-Misriya, the Egyptian University, was launched. It was a private, secular institution and was initially housed in the rented first floor of the Gianaclis mansion near the British Embassy in Garden City. It started off under the guidance of foreign professionals, but the training of qualified Egyptians was seen as an urgent necessity and carefully selected students were sent on scholarships to England, France, Germany and Italy. When they returned, doctorates in hand, they took their places as university professors. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 was a landmark in 20th-century Egypt. The country was declared a British protectorate. Martial law and censorship were imposed, and civil liberties were restricted. However, far from being constrained, the nationalist movement gained momentum. The rebellious population was advised to be patient and told that Egypt's time would come. However, when the armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany in 1918, and Saad Zaghloul formed the Wafd (national delegation) and requested permission to go to London to plead the case for independence, he was refused. What is more, he was warned to stop agitating and stirring up rebellion. The episode triggered a nationwide popular uprising in 1919 when the whole nation, men and women, Muslim and Christian, fused in support of the call to rid the country of ties with Britain and asserting the sovereignty of the Egyptian people. The British did not realise that the movement was not an isolated occurrence but part of a demand for political and social justice that had long been in the making. Force was used against them. Their leaders were arrested and deported, among them Zaghloul, who managed nevertheless to direct Wafd activities from exile. He returned to Egypt in time for the 1923 constitution, which converted his Umma group into the Wafd Party. Many Egyptians sowed the seeds of national consciousness and independence, but it was Saad Zaghloul who proved the most tenacious. No other politician had quite such an impact on the Egyptian people. His home became a meeting place for intellectuals and political activists. It has now been turned into a museum. So what can we learn from the above? For one thing, we know that where there is a will there is a way. For another, the significance of the written word should not be underestimated -- and I do not mean a text message, I refer to an active, responsible and free press. Let there be a call for equality among all citizens, and an end to discrimination by gender and creed. In the post-25 January 2011 world, let a united spirit be injected into the political scene through the written word. The author's book Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs was published by Routledge in the UK and USA in 2002.
