[p.108]the poor fellow has no scholarship or fellowship-no easy
tutorship-no fat living to look forward to. After wasting
[p.109]seven years, or twice seven years, over his studies, and reading
till his brain is dizzy, his digestion gone, and his eyes half blind,
he must either starve upon college alms, or squat, like my old Shaykh
Mohammed, in a druggist's shop, or become pedagogue and preacher in
some country place, on the pay of L8 per annum. With such prospects it
is wonderful how the Azhar can present any attractions; but the
southern man is essentially an idler, and many become Olema, like
Capuchins, in order to do nothing. A favoured few rise to the degree of
Mudarris (professors), and thence emerge Kazis and Muftis. This is
another inducement to matriculate; every undergraduate having an eye
upon the Kazi-ship, with as much chance of obtaining it as the country
parocco has of becoming a cardinal. Others again devote themselves to
laical pursuits, degenerate into Wakils (lawyers), or seek their
fortunes as Katibs-public or private accountants.
To conclude this part of the subject, I cannot agree with Dr. Bowring
when he harshly says, upon the subject of Moslem education: "The
instruction given by the Doctors of the Law in the religious schools,
for the formation of the Mohammedan priesthood, is of the most
worthless character."[FN#33] His opinion is equally open to
[p.110]objection with that of those who depreciate the law itself
because it deals rather in precepts than in principle, in ceremonies
and ordinances rather than in ethics and aesthetics. Both are what
Eastern faiths and Eastern training have ever been,-both are eminently
adapted for the Oriental mind. When the people learn to appreciate
ethics, and to understand psychics and aesthetics, the demand will
create a supply. Meanwhile they leave transcendentalism to their poets
and philosophers, and they busy themselves with preparing for heaven by
practising the only part of their faith now intelligible to them-the
Material.
It is not to be supposed that a nation in this stage of civilisation
could be so fervently devout as the Egyptians are, without the bad
leaven of bigotry. The same tongue which is employed in blessing Allah,
is, it is conceived, doing its work equally well in cursing Allah's
enemies. Wherefore the Kafir is denounced by every sex, age, class, and
condition, by the man of the world,[FN#34] as by the boy at school; and
out of, as well as in, the Mosque. If you ask your friend who is the
person with a black turband, he replies,
"A Christian. Allah make his Countenance cold!"
If you inquire of your servant, who are the people singing in the next
house, it is ten to one that his answer will be,
"Jews. May their lot be Jahannam!"
It appears unintelligible, still it is not less true, that Egyptians
who have lived as servants under European roofs for years, retain the
liveliest loathing for the manners
[p.111]and customs of their masters. Few Franks, save those who have
mixed with the Egyptians in Oriental disguise, are aware of their
repugnance to, and contempt for, Europeans-so well is the feeling
veiled under the garb of innate politeness, and so great is their
reserve when conversing with those of strange religions. I had a good
opportunity of ascertaining the truth when the first rumour of a
Russian war arose. Almost every able-bodied man spoke of hastening to
the Jihad,-a crusade, or holy war,-and the only thing that looked like
apprehension was the too eager depreciation of their foes. All seemed
delighted with the idea of French co-operation, for, somehow or other,
the Frenchman is everywhere popular. When speaking of England, they
were not equally easy: heads were rolled, pious sentences were
ejaculated, and finally out came the old Eastern cry, "Of a truth they
are Shaytans, those English.[FN#35]" The Austrians are despised,
because the East knows nothing of them since the days when Osmanli
hosts threatened the gates of Vienna. The Greeks are hated as clever
scoundrels, ever ready to do Al-Islam a mischief. The Maltese, the
greatest of cowards off their own ground, are regarded with a profound
contempt: these are the proteges which bring the British nation into
disrepute at Cairo. And Italians are known chiefly as "istruttori" and
"distruttori"[FN#36]-doctors, druggists, and pedagogues.
Yet Egyptian human nature is, like human nature everywhere,
contradictory. Hating and despising Europeans, they still long for
European rule. This people admire
[p.112]an iron-handed and lion-hearted despotism; they hate a timid and
a grinding tyranny.[FN#37] Of all foreigners, they would prefer the
French yoke,-a circumstance which I attribute to the diplomatic skill
and national dignity of our neighbours across the Channel.[FN#38] But
whatever European nation secures Egypt will win a treasure. Moated on
the north and south by seas, with a glacis of impassable deserts to the
eastward and westward, capable of supporting an army of 180,000 men, of
paying a
[p.113]heavy tribute, and yet able to show a considerable surplus of
revenue, this country in western hands will command India, and by a
ship-canal between Pelusium and Suez would open the whole of Eastern
Africa.[FN#39]
There is no longer much to fear from the fanaticism of the people, and
a little prudence would suffice to command the interests of the
Mosque.[FN#40] The chiefs of corporations,[FN#41] in the present state
of popular feeling, would offer [p.114]even less difficulty to an
invader or a foreign ruler than the Olema. Briefly, Egypt is the most
tempting prize which the East holds out to the ambition of Europe, not
excepted even the Golden Horn.
[FN#1] In the capitals of the columns, for instance.
[FN#2] This direct derivation is readily detected in the Mosques at Old
Cairo.
[FN#3] The roof supported by arches resting on pillars, was unknown to
classic antiquity, and in the earliest ages of Al-Islam, the cloisters
were neither arched nor domed. A modern writer justly observes, "A
compound of arcade and colonnade was suggested to the architects of the
Middle Ages by the command that ancient buildings gave them of marble
columns."
[FN#4] "The Oriental mind," says a clever writer on Indian subjects,
"has achieved everything save real greatness of aim and execution."
That the Arab mind always aimed, and still aims, at the physically
great is sufficiently evident. Nothing affords the Meccans greater
pride than the vast size of their temple. Nothing is more humiliating
to the people of Al-Madinah than the comparative smallness of their
Mosque. Still, with a few exceptions, Arab greatness is the vulgar
great, not the grand.
[FN#5] That is to say, imitations of the human form. All the doctors of
Al-Islam, however, differ on this head: some absolutely forbidding any
delineation of what has life, under pain of being cast into hell;
others permitting pictures even of the bodies, though not of the faces,
of men. The Arabs are the strictest of Misiconists; yet even they allow
plans and pictures of the Holy Shrines. Other nations are comparatively
lax. The Alhambra abounds in paintings and frescoes. The Persians never
object to depict in books and on walls the battles of Rustam, and the
Turks preserve in the Seraglio treasury of Constantinople portraits, by
Greeks and other artists, of their Sultans in regular succession.
[FN#6] This is at least a purer taste than that of our Gothic
architects, who ornamented their cathedrals with statuary so
inappropriate as to suggest to the antiquary remains of the worship of
the Hellespontine god.
[FN#7] At Bruges, Bologna, (St. Stefano), and Nurnberg, there are, if I
recollect right, imitations of the Holy Sepulchre, although the
"palmer" might not detect the resemblance at first sight. That in the
Church of Jerusalem at Bruges was built by a merchant, who travelled
three times to Palestine in order to ensure correctness, and totally
failed. "Arab art," says a writer in the "Athenaeum," "sprang from the
Koran, as the Gothic did from the Bible." He should have remembered,
that Arab art, in its present shape, was borrowed by Al-Walid from the
Greeks, and, perhaps, in part from the Persians and the Hindus, but
that the model buildings existed at Meccah, and in Al-Yaman, centuries
before the people had "luxurious shawls and weavings of Cashmere" to
suggest mural decoration.
[FN#8] See Theophile Gautier's admirable description of the Mosque at
Cordova.
[FN#9] Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, declares that Cairo contained in his
day (A.D. 1678-93) 5 or 6000 Mosques, public and private; at the same
time he corrects Mr. Collins, who enumerated 6000 public, and 20,000
particular buildings, and M. de Thevenot, who (Part I. p. 129),
supplied the city with 23,000!
[FN#10] In Niebuhr's time, a Christian passing one of the very holy
buildings on foot was liable to be seized and circumcised. All Mosques
may now be entered with certain precautions. When at Cairo, I heard
occasionally of a Frank being spat at and insulted, but the instances
were rare.
[FN#11] The "Handbook" contains the story current among the learned
concerning the remarkable shape of the minaret.
[FN#12] The columns support pointed arches, which, therefore, were
known at Cairo 200 years before they were introduced into England. By
the discoveries of M. Mariette, it is now ascertained that the
Egyptians were perfectly acquainted with the round arch and key-stone
at a period antecedent to the architectural existence of Greece.
[FN#13] A "Jami'" is a place where people assemble to pray-a house of
public worship. A "Masjid" is any place of prayer, private or public.
From "Masjid" we derive our "Mosque": its changes on the road to Europe
are almost as remarkable as that described in the satiric lines,-
"Alfana vient d'equus, sans doute,
Mais il faut avouer aussi,
Qu en venant de la jusqu'ici
Il a bien change sur la route."
[FN#14] So called, because supposed to contain relics of Hasan and
Husayn, the martyred grandsons of Mohammed. The tradition is little
credited, and the Persians ostentatiously avoid visiting the place.
"You are the first 'Ajami that ever said the Fatihah at this holy
spot," quoth the Mujawir, or guardian of the tomb, after compelling me,
almost by force, to repeat the formula, which he recited with the
prospect of a few piastres.
[FN#15] This is becoming the fashion for young Egyptians, who will
readily receive a pair of common green persiennes in exchange for fine
old windows of elaborately carved wood. They are as sensible in a
variety of other small matters. Natives of a hot climate generally wear
slippers of red and yellow leather, because they are cool and
comfortable: on the banks of the Nile, the old chaussure is gradually
yielding to black shoes, which blister the feet with heat, but are
European, and, therefore, bon ton. It must, however, be confessed that
the fine old carved wood-work of the windows was removed because it was
found to be dangerous in cases of fire.
[FN#16] Irreligious men neglect this act of propriety. There are many
in Egypt who will habitually transgress one of the fundamental orders
of their faith, namely, never to pray when in a state of religious
impurity. In popular Argot, prayer without ablution is called Salat
Mamlukiyah, or "slaves' prayers," because such men perform their
devotions only in order to avoid the master's staff. Others will touch
the Koran when impure, a circumstance which highly disgusts Indian
Moslems.
[FN#17] An "adviser," or "lecturer,"-any learned man who, generally in
the months of Ramazan and Muharram, after the Friday service and
sermon, delivers a discourse upon the principles of Al-Islam.
[FN#18] Amongst them is a foundation for Jawi scholars. Some of our
authors, by a curious mistake, have confounded Moslem Jawa (by the
Egyptians pronounced Gawa), with "Goa," the Christian colony of the
Portuguese.
[FN#19] Cairo was once celebrated for its magnificent collections of
books. Besides private libraries, each large Mosque had its
bibliotheca, every MS. of which was marked with the word "Wakf"
(entailed bequest), or "Wukifa l'Illahi Ta'ala" (bequeathed to God
Almighty). But Cairo has now for years supplied other countries with
books, and the decay of religious zeal has encouraged the unprincipled
to steal and sell MSS. marked with the warning words. The Hijaz, in
particular, has been inundated with books from Egypt. Cairo has still
some large libraries, but most of them are private property, and the
proprietors will not readily lend or give access to their treasures.
The principal opportunity of buying books is during the month Ramazan,
when they are publicly sold in the Azhar Mosque. The Orientalist will,
however, meet with many disappointments; besides the difficulty of
discovering good works, he will find in the booksellers, scribes, et
hoc genus omne, a finished race of scoundrels.
[FN#20] Lane (Mod. Egyptians) has rectified Baron von
Hammer-Purgstall's mistake concerning the word "Azhar"; our English
Orientalist translates it the "splendid Mosque." I would venture to
add, that the epithet must be understood in a spiritual and not in a
material sense. Wilkinson attributes the erection of the building to
Jauhar al-Kaid, general under Al-Moaz, about A.D. 970. Wilson ascribes
it partly to Al-Moaz the Fatimite (A.D. 973), partly to his general and
successor, Al-Hakim (?).
[FN#21] Wakf, property become mortmain. My friend Yacoub Artin declares
that the whole Nile Valley has parcel by parcel been made Wakf at some
time or other, and then retaken.
[FN#22] If I may venture to judge, after the experience of a few
months, there is now a re-action in favour of the old system. Mohammed
Ali managed to make his preparatory, polytechnic, and other schools,
thoroughly distasteful to the people, and mothers blinded their
children, to prevent their being devoted for life to infidel studies.
The printing-press, contrasting in hideousness with the beauty of the
written character, and the contemptible Arabic style of the various
works translated by order of government from the European languages,
have placed arms in the hands of the orthodox party.
[FN#23] Finding the Indian Riwak closed, and hearing that an endowment
still belonged to it, I called twice upon the Shaykh or Dean, wishing
to claim the stipend as a precedent. But I failed in finding him at
home, and was obliged to start hurriedly for Suez. The Indians now
generally study in the Sulaymaniyah, or Afghan College.
[FN#24] As the attending of lectures is not compulsory, the result is
that the lecturer is always worth listening to. May I commend this
consideration to our college reformers at home? In my day, men were
compelled to waste-notoriously to waste-an hour or two every morning,
for the purpose of putting a few pounds sterling into the pocket of
some droning Don.
[FN#25] The would-be calligrapher must go to a Constantinople Khwajah
(schoolmaster), and after writing about two hours a day regularly
through a year or two, he will become, if he has the necessary
disposition, a skilful penman. This acquirement is but little valued in
the present day, as almost nothing is to be gained by it. The Turks
particularly excel in the ornamental character called "Suls." I have
seen some Korans beautifully written; and the late Pasha gave an
impetus to this branch of industry, by forbidding, under the plea of
religious scruples, the importation of the incorrect Korans cheaply
lithographed by the Persians at Bombay. The Persians surpass the Turks
in all but the Suls writing. Of late years, the Pashas of Cairo have
employed a gentleman from Khorasan, whose travelling name is "Mirza
Sanglakh" to decorate their Mosques with inscriptions. I was favoured
with a specimen of his art, and do not hesitate to rank him the first
of his age, and second to none amongst the ancients but those Raphaels
of calligraphy, Mir of Shiraz, and Rahman of Herat. The Egyptians and
Arabs, generally speaking, write a coarse and clumsy hand, and, as
usual in the East, the higher the rank of the writer is, the worse his
scrawl becomes.
[FN#26] The popular volumes are, 1. Al-Amsilah, showing the simple
conjugation of the triliteral verb; 2. Bisi'a, the work of some unknown
author, explaining the formation of the verb into increased infinities,
the quadrilateral verb, &c.; 3. The Maksu'a, a well-known book written
by the great Imam Abu' Hanifah; 4. The "Izzi," an explanatory treatise,
the work of a Turk, "Izzat Effendi." And lastly, the Marah of Ahmad
al-Sa'udi. These five tracts are bound together in a little volume,
printed at the government establishment. Al-Amsilah is explained in
Turkish, to teach boys the art of "parsing"; Egyptians generally
confine themselves in Al-Sarf to the Izzi, and the Lamiyat al-Af'al of
the grammarian Ibn Malik.
[FN#27] First, the well-known "Ajrumiyah" (printed by M. Vaucelle), and
its commentary, Al-Kafrawi. Thirdly, the Alfiyah (Thousand Distichs) of
Ibn Malik, written in verse for mnemonic purposes, but thereby rendered
so difficult as to require the lengthy commentary of Al-Ashmumi. The
fifth is the well-known work called the Katr al-Nida (the Dew Drop),
celebrated from Cairo to Kabul; and last of all the "Azhari."
[FN#28] I know little of the Hanafi school; but the name of the
following popular works were given to me by men upon whose learning I
could depend. The book first read is the text, called Marah al-Falah,
containing about twenty pages, and its commentary, which is about six
times longer. Then comes the Matn al-Kanz, a brief text of from 35 to
40 pages, followed by three long Sharh. The shortest of these,
"Al-Tai," contains 500 pages; the next, "Mulla Miskin," at least 900;
and the "Sharh Ayni" nearly 2000. To these succeeds the Text
"Al-Durar," the work of the celebrated Khusraw, (200 pages), with a
large commentary by the same author; and last is the Matn Tanwir
Al-Absar, containing about 500 pages, and its Sharh, a work upwards of
four times the size. Many of these books may be found-especially when
the MS. is an old one-with Hashiyah, or marginal notes, but most men
write them for themselves, so that there is no generally used
collection. The above-mentioned are the works containing a full course
of theological study; it is rare, however, to find a man who reads
beyond the "Al-Kanz," with the shortest of its commentaries, the
"Al-Tai."
[FN#29] He begins with a little text called, after the name of its
author, Abu Shuja'a of Isfahan, and proceeds to its commentary, a book
of about 250 pages, by Ibn Kasim of Ghazzah (Gaza). There is another
Sharh, neatly four times larger than this, "Al-Khatib"; it is seldom
read. Then comes Al-Tahrir, the work of Zakariya al-Ansari,-a
celebrated divine buried in the Mosque of Al-Shafe'i,-and its
commentary by the same author, a goodly MS. of 600 pages. Most students
here cry: "Enough!" The ambitious pass on to Al-Minhaj and its
commentary, (1600 pages). Nor need they stop at this point. A man may
addle his brains over Moslem theology, as upon Aristotle's schoolmen,
till his eyesight fails him-both subjects are all but interminable.
[FN#30] The three best known are the Arbain al-Nawawi, and the
Sahihayn-"the two (universally acknowledged to be) trustworthy,"-by
Al-Muslim and Al-Bokhari, celebrated divines. The others are Al-Jami'
al-Saghir, "the smaller collection," so called to distinguish it from a
rarer book, Al-Jami' al-Kabir, the "greater collection"; both are the
work of Al-Siyuti. The full course concludes with Al-Shifa, Shamail,
and the labours of Kazi Ayyaz.
[FN#31] Two Tafsirs are known all over the modern world. The smaller
one is called Jalalani ("the two Jalals," i.e. the joint work of Jalal
al-Siyuti and Jalal al-Mahalli), and fills two stout volumes octavo.
The larger is the Exposition of Al-Bayzawi, which is supposed to
contain the whole subject. Some few divines read Al-Khazin.
[FN#32] To conclude the list of Moslem studies, not purely religious.
Al-Mantik (or logic) is little valued; it is read when judged
advisable, after Al-Nahw, from which it flows, and before Ma'ani Bayan
(rhetoric) to which it leads. In Egypt, students are generally directed
to fortify their memories, and give themselves a logical turn of mind,
by application to Al-Jabr (algebra). The only logical works known are
the Isaghuji (the [Greek text] of Porphyry), Al-Shamsiyah, the book
Al-Sullam, with its Sharh Al-Akhzari, and, lastly, Kazi Mir. Equally
neglected are the Tawarikh (history) and the Hikmat (or philosophy),
once so ardently cultivated by Moslem savans; indeed, it is now all but
impossible to get books upon these subjects. For upwards of six weeks,
I ransacked the stalls and the bazar, in order to find some one of the
multitudinous annals of Al-Hijaz, without seeing for sale anything but
the fourth volume of a large biographical work called al-Akd al-Samin
fi Tarikh al-Balad al-Amin.
The 'Ilm al-'Aruz, or Prosody, is not among the Arabs, as with us, a
chapter hung on to the tail of grammar. It is a long and difficult
study, prosecuted only by those who wish to distinguish themselves in
"Arabiyat,"-the poetry and the eloquence of the ancient and modern
Arabs. The poems generally studied, with the aid of commentaries, which
impress every verse upon the memory, are the Burdah and the Hamziyah,
well-known odes by Mohammed of Abusir. They abound in obsolete words,
and are useful at funerals, as on other solemn occasions. The Banat
Su'adi, by Ka'ab al-Ahbar (or Akhbar), a companion of the Apostle, and
the Diwan 'Umar ibn Fariz, a celebrated mystic, are also learned
compositions. Few attempt the bulky volume of Al-Mutanabbi-though many
place it open upon the sofa,-fewer still the tenebrous compositions of
Al-Hariri; nor do the modern Egyptians admire those fragments of
ancient Arab poets, which seem so sweetly simple to the European ear.
The change of faith has altered the national taste to such an extent,
that the decent bard must now sing of woman in the masculine gender.
For which reason, a host of modern poetasters can attract the public
ear, which is deaf to the voices of the "Golden Song."
In the exact sciences, the Egyptian Moslems, a backward race according
to European estimation, are far superior to the Persians and the
Moslems of India. Some of them become tolerable arithmeticians, though
very inferior to the Coptic Christians; they have good and simple
treatises on algebra, and still display some of their ancestors'
facility in the acquisition of geometry. The 'Ilm al-Mikat, or
"Calendar-calculating," was at one time publicly taught in the Azhar;
the printing-press has doomed that study to death.
The natural sciences find but scant favour on the banks of the Nile.
Astronomy is still astrology, geography a heap of names, and natural
history a mass of fables. Alchemy, geomancy, and summoning of fiends,
are pet pursuits; but the former has so bad a name, that even amongst
friends it is always alluded to as 'Ilm al-Kaf,-the "science of K," so
called from the initial letter of the word "Kimiya." Of the state of
therapeutics I have already treated at length.
Aided by the finest of ears, and flexible organs of articulation, the
Egyptian appears to possess many of the elements of a good linguist.
The stranger wonders to hear a Cairene donkey-boy shouting sentences in
three or four European dialects, with a pronunciation as pure as his
own. How far this people succeed in higher branches of language, my
scanty experience does not enable me to determine. But even for
students of Arabic, nothing can be more imperfect than those useful
implements, Vocabularies and Dictionaries. The Cairenes have, it is
true, the Kamus of Fayruzabadi, but it has never been printed in Egypt;
it is therefore rare, and when found, lost pages and clerical errors
combined with the intrinsic difficulty of the style, exemplify the
saying of Golius, that the most learned Orientalist must act the part
of a diviner, before he can perform that of interpreter. They have
another Lexicon, the Sihah, and an abbreviation of the same, the Sihah
al-Saghir (or the lesser), both of them liable to the same objections
as the Kamus. For the benefit of the numerous students of Turkish and
Persian, short grammars and vocabularies have been printed at a cheap
price, but the former are upon the model of Arabic, a language
essentially different in formation, and the latter are mere strings of
words.
As a specimen of the state of periodical literature, I may quote the
history of the "Bulak Independent," as Europeans facetiously call it.
When Mohammed Ali, determining to have an "organ," directed an officer
to be editor of a weekly paper, the officer replied, that no one would
read it, and consequently that no one would pay for it. The Pasha
remedied this by an order that a subscription should be struck off from
the pay of all employes, European and Egyptian, whose salary amounted
to a certain sum. Upon which the editor accepted the task, but being
paid before his work was published, he of course never supplied his
subscribers with their copies.
[FN#33] Would not a superficial, hasty, and somewhat prejudiced
Egyptian or Persian say exactly the same thing about the systems of
Christ Church and Trinity College?
[FN#34] And when the man of the world, as sometimes happens, professes
to see no difference in the forms of faith, or whispers that his
residence in Europe has made him friendly to the Christian religion,
you will be justified in concluding his opinions to be latitudinarian.
[FN#35] I know only one class in Egypt favourable to the English,-the
donkey boys,-and they found our claim to the possession of the country
upon a base scarcely admissible by those skilled in casuistry, namely,
that we hire more asses than any other nation.
[FN#36] The story is, that Mohammed Ali used to offer his flocks of
foreigners their choice of two professions,-"destruction," that is to
say, physic, or "instruction."
[FN#37] Of this instances abound. Lately an order was issued to tax the
villages of the Badawin settled upon the edge of the Western desert,
who, even in Mohammed Ali's time, were allowed to live free of
assessment. The Aulad 'Ali, inhabitants of a little village near the
Pyramids, refused to pay, and turned out with their matchlocks, defying
the Pasha. The government then insisted upon their leaving their
houses, and living under hair-cloth like Badawin, since they claimed
the privileges of Badawin. The sturdy fellows at once pitched their
tents, and when I returned to Cairo (in December, 1853), they had
deserted their village. I could offer a score of such cases, proving
the present debased condition of Egypt.
[FN#38] At Constantinople the French were the first to break through
the shameful degradation to which the ambassadors of infidel powers
were bribed, by 300 or 400 rations a day, to submit. M. de Saint Priest
refused to give up his sword. General Sebastiani insisted upon wearing
his military boots; and the Republican Aubert Dubajet rejected the
dinner, and the rich dress, with which "the naked and hungry barbarian
who ventured to rub his brow upon the Sublime Porte," was fed and
clothed before being admitted to the presence, saying that the
ambassadors of France wanted neither this nor that. At Cairo, M.
Sabatier, the French Consul-general, has had the merit of doing away
with some customs prejudicial to the dignity of his nation. The next
English envoy will, if anxious so to distinguish himself, have an
excellent opportunity. It is usual, after the first audience, for the
Pasha to send, in token of honour, a sorry steed to the new comer. This
custom is a mere relic of the days when Mohammed the Second threatened
to stable his charger in St. Peter's, and when a ride through the
streets of Cairo exposed the Inspector-general Tott, and his suite, to
lapidation and an "avanie." To send a good horse is to imply
degradation, but to offer a bad one is a positive insult.
[FN#39] As this canal has become a question of national interest, its
advisability is surrounded with all the circumstance of unsupported
assertion and bold denial. The English want a railroad, which would
confine the use of Egypt to themselves. The French desire a canal that
would admit the hardy cruisers of the Mediterranean into the Red Sea.
The cosmopolite will hope that both projects may be carried out. Even
in the seventh century Omar forbade Amru to cut the Isthmus of Suez for
fear of opening Arabia to Christian vessels. As regards the feasibility
of the ship-canal, I heard M. Linant de Bellefonds-the best authority
upon all such subjects in Egypt-expressly assert, after levelling and
surveying the line, that he should have no difficulty in making it. The
canal is now a fact. As late as April, 1864, Lord Palmerston informed
the House of Commons that labourers might be more usefully employed in
cultivating cotton than in "digging a canal through a sandy desert, and
in making two harbours in deep mud and shallow water." It is, however,
understood that the Premier was the only one of his Cabinet who took
this view. Mr. Robert Stephenson, C.E., certainly regretted before his
death the opinion which he had been induced to express by desire.
[FN#40] There are at present about eighteen influential Shaykhs at
Cairo, too fanatic to listen to reason. These it would be necessary to
banish. Good information about what goes on in each Mosque, especially
on Fridays, when the priests preach to the people, and a guard of
honour placed at the gates of the Kazi, the three Muftis, and the
Shaykh of the Azhar, are simple precautions sufficient to keep the
Olema in order.
[FN#41] These Rakaiz Al-'Usab, as they are called, are the most
influential part of the immense mass of dark intrigue which Cairo, like
most Oriental cities, conceals beneath the light surface. They
generally appear in the ostensible state of barbers and dyers.
Secretly, they preside over their different factions, and form a kind
of small Vehm. The French used to pay these men, but Napoleon,
detecting them in stirring up the people, whilst appearing to maintain
public tranquillity, shot eighteen or twenty (about half their number),
and thereby improved the conduct of the rest. They are to be managed,
as Sir Charles Napier governed Sind,-by keeping a watchful eye upon
them, a free administration of military law, disarming the population,
and forbidding large bodies of men to assemble.
[p.115]CHAPTER VII.