INTIMATE TALKS WITH TWO KHEDIVES
To-day Egypt is governed by a king. Her last sovereign had the title of
sultan, and for fifty years before that she was ruled by khedives. There
were four khedives in that time, and with two of them I had face-to-face
chats. The first was with Tewfik Pasha, whom I met in the Abdin Palace
during my second visit to Cairo. The other was with Abbas Hilmi, the son
and successor of Tewfik, with whom I talked sixteen years later. Abbas
Hilmi’s pro-German intrigues finally led to his being deposed by the
British and to the establishment of the Protectorate, which ended in the
nationalization of Egypt under a ruler with the title of king.
I give you here the stories of the two interviews, reproducing the notes
I made at the time.
* * * * *
I have just returned from a long audience with the Khedive of Egypt.
Khedive is a Persian-Arabic word, meaning “king,” and Mohammed Tewfik
occupies much the same position now as the Pharaohs did in the days of
Moses. It is true that he is in a measure the vassal of the Sultan of
Turkey to whom he pays a tribute of about three and three quarter million
dollars a year, and that he has also several European advisers who keep
sharp watch over the revenues of his kingdom to see that a great part
of them go to the interest on the debts that he and his predecessors
have contracted with the bankers of Europe. But he is, nevertheless, the
king of Egypt, and as kings go to-day, he has more power than many other
monarchs. His residence in Cairo is a grand palace with hundreds of rooms
filled with magnificent furniture. He drives about the city with soldiers
carrying swords, riding prancing horses in front of his carriage, and
with a score of cavalry following behind. He has five hundred thousand
dollars a year for his personal expenses, and he has several palaces
besides the one he occupies in Cairo.
It was at the Abdin Palace that I met His Highness to-day. The interview
had been arranged by the American consul general. We left his office
together in the consular carriage. The dragoman of the legation, a
bright-eyed Syrian in the most gorgeous of Turkish clothes of brown
covered with gold embroidery and with a great sword shaped like a
scimitar clanking at his side, opened the carriage door for us and took
his seat by the coachman. The Arabian Jehu cracked his whip and away
we went through the narrow streets. We drove by the modern European
mansions of the rich Greeks, past the palaces of Egyptian princes from
which came the sweet smell of orange flowers and over which whispered
broad spreading palms. We then went through a business street amid
droves of donkeys, through a caravan of camels, by veiled women clad
in black, past the palace in which Ismail Pasha had his harem when he
was khedive, and on into a great square of many acres. On the right of
this square were vast barracks filled with Arab troops in blue uniforms
and fezzes. A regiment of Egyptian troops was going through a gymnastic
drill, performing the motions as well to-day as they did at the time
when our American General Stone was their commander and when General
Grant reviewed them and said that they seemed to be good soldiers for
everything except fighting.
The Abdin Palace, built in the form of a great horseshoe, is at the end
of this square. It is a vast building of two stories, of brown stucco,
with many windows and a grand entrance way in the centre. At the left
there is a door leading to the harem, and as our carriage drove up we
were passed by a closed coach drawn by two magnificent Arabian horses. On
the box beside the liveried coachman sat a scowling eunuch whose black
skin and dark clothes were all the more sombre by contrast with his
bright red skullcap. In front of the carriage ran two fleet _syces_ with
wands or staffs held up in the air in front of them, warning plebeians
to get out of the way. I was told that the carriage was that of a
princess who was about to make a call upon the Khedivieh, or queen. These
runners, who are a part of every nobleman’s turnout, are among the most
picturesque sights of Egypt.
At the door of the palace stood two pompous soldiers with great swords
in their hands. They were in Turkish costumes with embroidered jackets
of blue and gold and full zouave trousers of blue broadcloth. Upon their
heads were turbans, and their faces made me think of the fierce troops
that conquered this land in the days of the Prophet. Passing up the
massive steps we came to the palace door which was opened by an Arab
clad in European clothes and wearing the red fez, which the Egyptian
never takes off in the house or out of it. We were ushered into a grand
entrance hall, floored with marble mosaic, the walls of which were
finished in cream and gold. In front of us a staircase so wide that
two wagonloads of hay could be drawn up it without touching led by easy
flights to the second floor, while at the right and the left were the
reception rooms for visitors and halls leading to the apartments reserved
for the chamberlains, masters of ceremonies, and other officers of the
royal household. After chatting a moment with one or two of the cabinet
ministers, who were just passing out after a council with His Highness,
we moved on up the stairs. In one of the drawing rooms on the second
floor we were met by another Egyptian official in black clothes and red
fez who conducted us to a reception room, the door of which stood open,
and motioned us to enter.
In the centre of this room, which was not larger than a good-sized
American parlour, there stood all alone a man of about thirty-six years
of age. He was dressed in a black broadcloth coat buttoning close up at
the neck like that of a preacher. Lavender pantaloons showed below this,
fitting well down over a pair of gaiter-like pumps. On the top of his
rather handsome head was a fez of dark red with a black silk tassel.
This man was the Khedive of Egypt. He is, I judge, about five feet six
inches in height and while rather thick-set, does not weigh more than one
hundred and fifty pounds. His frame is well rounded, his head is large,
and his features are clean cut. He has a nose slightly inclined to the
Roman. His forehead is high, and the dark brown eyes that shine from
under it change from the grave to the smiling during his conversation.
The Khedive extended his hand and said he was glad to see me and that he
liked to have Americans come to Cairo. Seating himself on a divan, with
one leg doubled up under him, he motioned me to join him. There was an
absence of pomp or snobbishness in his manner, and though dignified he
did not put on half the airs of the average backwoods member of our House
of Representatives. As he seated himself, his black coat opened so that
I had a chance to note the contrast between his costume and that of the
gorgeous rajahs whom I have met in India. His only jewellery consisted
of a set of pearl studs the size of the smallest of peas and a watch
chain of thin links of gold. He wore a cheap black bow tie in his white
turnover collar, and his cuffs, though scrupulously clean, had not the
polish of the American laundry.
Besides being a good French scholar, Tewfik Pasha speaks English, and
that was the language used in our conversation. In speaking of his life
as Khedive, he said:
“I am told that many people envy me my position. They say that I am a
young man whose lot must be a pleasant one. They do not understand the
troubles that surround me. Many a time I would have been glad to lay down
all the honours I have for rest and peace. The ten years of my reign have
been equal to forty years of work and of worry. If life were a matter of
pleasure I would be a fool to remain on the throne. I believe, however,
that God put man on the world for a purpose. Duty, not pleasure, is the
chief end of man. I do the best I can for my country and my people, and I
feel happiest when I do the most work and when my work is the hardest.”
[Illustration: “In the famous Abdin Palace I interviewed Tewfik Pasha,
when he was Khedive of Egypt, and later, in the same audience room,
talked with Abbas Hilmi, his son and successor.”]
[Illustration: The gorgeous kavass is essential to the official dignity
of the representative of foreign governments in Cairo. Besides attending
on the person of minister or consul general on state occasions, he also
serves as major domo and general “fixer.”]
As the Khedive said these words I thought of the thorns which have filled
the pillow of his reign. I thought of how, upon his entering manhood,
his father Ismail was deposed and he was put upon the throne. I thought
of how he boxed the ears of the messenger who came to tell him he had
succeeded to that uncomfortable seat. I thought of his trouble under
foreign dictation. I thought of the plots and nearly successful rebellion
of Arabi Pasha, of the revolution of the Mahdi, of the creditors who
to-day are grinding Egypt between their upper and nether millstones,
of the danger of assassination, and of the other perils that are ever
present about the throne of an oriental monarch. Recalling all these
things, I could appreciate why his mouth hardened and his eyes grew sad
when he spoke thus to me.
The talk then turned upon the condition of Egypt and its future, but as
to these matters Tewfik was reticent. He spoke proudly of the reforms
which he had inaugurated in government and of the fact that now, though
the taxes were heavy, every peasant knew just what he would have to pay
and that the taxes were honestly collected. He spoke of the improvement
of the courts and said that the _pasha_ and the _fellah_ were equal
before the law. “When I came to the throne,” said he, “the people were
surprised that I put the prince on the same footing as other people. Now,
there is no difference in justice. The prince and the peasant are the
same in our courts, and the former may be punished like the latter.”
At this point, coffee and cigarettes were brought in by the servants of
the palace. The coffee was _à la Turque_. It was served in little china
cups shaped like egg cups, in holders of gold filigree, each holding
about three tablespoonfuls of rich black coffee as thick as chocolate and
as sweet as molasses. There were neither saucers nor spoons. Trying to
follow the Khedive’s example I gulped down half the contents of the cup
at a swallow. It was as hot as liquid fire. I could feel the top of my
mouth rising in a blister, the tears came into my eyes, and my stomach
felt as though it had taken an internal Turkish bath. Tewfik Pasha
took the boiling mixture without winking and went on talking as though
his throat were used to scalding fluids. Surprised to see him refuse a
cigarette, I asked him if he did not smoke. He replied:
“No! I neither smoke nor drink. I do not drink for two reasons. I believe
a man is better off without it, and, what is of more moment to me, it is
against the laws of life as laid down in the Koran. We do not believe it
right to drink anything intoxicating and good Moslems drink neither wine
nor liquor. I believe that every man should be faithful to the religion
which he professes. My faith is that of Islam and I try to follow it
as well as I can. I am not illiberal in it, however, for I tolerate
all religions and all sects in my kingdom. We have Copts, Jews, and
Christians, and your missionaries are at work in the land. They make very
few converts, if any, among the people of my faith, but they have schools
in Upper Egypt that are doing much in the way of education.”
The consul general here spoke of the Khedive’s knowledge of the Koran,
mentioning the fact that His Majesty knows the whole book by heart. There
is no doubt that Tewfik has as much faith in his religion as we have in
ours. He spoke with some pride of the Mohammedan conversions in Africa
and the fact that there are more than one hundred millions of people in
the world who believe the same as he does. We talked of the band of one
hundred American Catholics, who are stopping in Egypt on their way to
the Holy Land, and the Khedive said he was interested in these pilgrims
who are following the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. He spoke of the
immense sums brought into Egypt by tourists and said that it bettered
the business of his country.
Throughout our whole conversation the talk was of the most cordial and
unceremonious character and I left the palace with the impression that
the Khedive of Egypt is a man of great sense and of more than ordinary
ability. He stands well with his people. Indeed, the leading men in
Cairo tell me he would do much for Egypt if he were not hampered by
foreign intervention. He gave up a number of his palaces a year or so
ago and he is, for a king, most economical. Had other rulers of the past
been equally careful, Egypt would be a rich country to-day instead of
being ridden with debts. He is a man of domestic tastes, and though a
Mohammedan and an oriental king, he is the husband of but one wife to
whom he is as true as the most chaste American. A friend of Tewfik Pasha
reported to me a talk he recently had with him upon this subject in which
the Khedive expressed himself strongly in favour of monogamy: “I saw,”
said he, “in my father’s harem the disadvantages of a plurality of wives
and of having children by different wives, so I decided before I came to
manhood that I would marry but one woman and would be true to her. I have
done so, and I have had no reason to regret it.”
From what I can learn the ruler’s family life is a happy one. He is much
in love with his wife, who is said to be one of the cleverest women of
Egypt. A woman friend of hers, who visits often at the royal harem, tells
me that this queen of Egypt is both beautiful and accomplished. She keeps
up a big establishment separate from that of the Khedive, and when she
sits down to dinner or breakfast it is not with her husband, but with her
own ladies. The Khedive eats with his officers, according to Mohammedan
etiquette, and his apartments, or the _salumlik_, are separate from hers.
Both she and her husband have done much to break down the rigidity of
Mohammedan social customs. Tewfik Pasha takes the Khedivieh with him
wherever he goes, though she usually travels in a separate train or car.
She has stuck to the Khedive through the stormiest days of his reign.
During the last war she refused to take refuge on the English gunboats
when invited to do so.
Both the Khedive and the Khedivieh are wrapped up in their four children.
They have two boys and two girls. The boys are Abbas Hilmi, who will be
fifteen years old in July, and Mehemet Ali, who is two years younger.
These boys are now at school in Berlin. They speak French, English,
German, and Arabic, and they are, I am told, very clever. The girls are
rather pretty, cream-complexioned maidens of eight and ten, who are as
much like American girls as they can be considering their surroundings.
They wear European clothes and may be seen along the sea shore at
Alexandria, walking together and swinging their hats in their hands like
other little girls at our summer resorts. They have European governesses
and talk French quite well.
* * * * *
In Cairo sixteen years later I found on the throne Abbas Hilmi who was a
boy at school when I had my interview with his father. Again through the
courtesy of our consul general an audience with the Khedive was arranged
for me, and together we went to the palace to pay our respects. Here is
the story of my visit:
In the very room where I met Tewfik Pasha I was received in the same
cordial and informal manner by his son, the present Khedive. He does
not look much like his father. He is a trifle taller and seems to have
more dignity, perhaps because in place of his father’s simple garb Abbas
Hilmi wears the more formal frock coat and striped trousers of modern
officialdom.
[Illustration: Though stripped of most of their political powers, the
khedives surrounded themselves with all the trappings of rulership, and
made the most of the magnificence of the Abdin Palace in Cairo, where
they granted audiences and gave grand balls.]
[Illustration: One of the most famous hotels in the world is Shepheard’s,
at Cairo, through which for many years leading characters of all nations
have passed on their way to the East or to the West. Its site was once
part of the garden of Princess Kiamil, daughter of Mehemet Ali.]
[Illustration: A school among the Moslems is a simple matter, consisting
usually of young men sitting at the feet of a teacher whose sole textbook
and equipment are the Koran, lengthy passages of which are learned by
rote.]
My conversation with His Highness covered a wide range. It dealt with the
present prosperity of Egypt, and I could see that he understands both his
country and its people. He thinks that the Nile valley has by no means
reached the maximum of its development, and says that by increasing the
dams and drainage facilities Egypt might yield much greater crops than
she does now. I spoke to him about having met his father, mentioning the
great interest that Tewfik Pasha showed in Egypt and its future. The
Khedive expressed a similar desire to do all he could for the Egyptians,
but practically the only matters in which he has full sway are those
regarding his own estates, his management of which shows great business
capacity. He has an allowance of five hundred thousand dollars a year out
of the public treasury, but in addition he owns thousands of acres of
valuable lands, so his private property must be worth many millions of
dollars. He handles this in such a way that it pays well, his experiments
and improvements being the talk of farmers and business men throughout
the Nile valley.
I have heard a great deal of these khedivial farms since I have been in
Egypt. Abbas Hilmi inherited much land from his father, but he has other
large tracts, which he himself has redeemed from the desert, and yet
others which he has made good by draining. Not far from Cairo he owns
twenty-five hundred acres which a few years ago were covered with swamps,
quagmires, and hillocks. He bought this cheap and then began to improve
it. He cut down the hills, drained the swamps, and put water on the land.
At present that estate is paying over sixty thousand dollars a year,
bringing His Highness thirty per cent. and upward on his investment.
He has another great farm not far from Alexandria which was all desert
not long ago. The Khedive has irrigated it and thus turned four thousand
waste acres into cultivated fields. Farm villages have grown up about
them and His Highness has so laid out the estate with trees and flowers
that it is said to be like an earthly paradise. In one place he has a
plantation of fifteen thousand mulberry bushes, the leaves of which
furnish food for his silkworms. This estate is at Montzah, a few miles
out of Alexandria, on a beautiful bay of the Mediterranean Sea. Abbas
Hilmi has built a palace there, or rather two palaces, a little one for
himself and a larger one for his family. In other parts of the estate he
is carrying on all sorts of breeding experiments. He has chicken houses
and rabbit hutches as well as a tower containing thousands of pigeons.
The Khedive is interested in fine stock and is doing much to improve
that of Egypt. On his various farms he has high-bred horses, cattle, and
sheep. He has a large number of Arabian thoroughbred horses, and some
Jersey, Swiss, and other fine breeds of cows. His water buffaloes, known
here as _gamoushes_, are far better than any others of the Nile valley.
He is also breeding cattle for oxen and mules for draft animals. He has a
school on his estate near Cairo where two hundred boys are being educated
to take places on his various properties. This school is run at his own
expense, the boys being taught farming and surveying as well as reading,
writing, and arithmetic. The course of study lasts for five years, at the
end of which the graduate is pretty sure of a good position as a steward
or overseer on one of the khedivial farms.
Abbas Hilmi has made a great deal of money within the last three or four
years. He is investing largely in Cairo and is building apartment houses
with elevators, telephones, electric lights, bathrooms, and all other
modern improvements. He has a brick factory on one of his estates near
here, and his profits from cotton and other crops must be very large.
Abbas Hilmi’s wife is the Princess Ikbal Hanem, whom he married when he
was about twenty. She is said to be both accomplished and beautiful,
but like all Mohammedan ladies, she leads a secluded life, and does not
appear at the great functions at the palace. She is not seen at the
Khedive’s grand ball, given to his officials and the foreigners about
once a year, to which something like fifteen hundred guests are invited.
She is present, all the same, however, for she has a screened chamber
looking down upon the ballroom, with the curtains so arranged that she
can watch the dancing and flirting while she herself is unseen. Her
Majesty has gorgeous apartments in each of the palaces and a little court
of her own of which the noble ladies of Egypt are a part.