THE AMERICAN COLLEGE AT ASYUT
At Asyut up the Nile valley about as far south of the Mediterranean as
Washington is south of Buffalo, the United Presbyterians of the United
States have established a training college for young Egyptians which is
doing a wonderful work. I came from Cairo to see it, winding my way in
and out along the great river. The valley is narrow above Cairo, being
only from three to nine miles in width, so that from the railroad I
could see the yellow sand on both sides of the green, watered strip. We
were sometimes far out in the desert, and sometimes moving in and out
of the irrigated lands. We passed mud villages which border the river
and the larger canals. The date trees hanging over them were loaded with
honey-coloured fruit. Upper Egypt has vast numbers of dates. There are in
the whole country something like eight million of these palms, which, at
a rough estimate, bring in one dollar annually for every tree.
Asyut is the largest city in Egypt south of Cairo. It is the capital
of this part of the Nile valley and the chief centre of its commerce
and trade. Before the railroad was built, caravans from the Sudan
brought great quantities of merchandise from Central Africa to Asyut and
transferred it to other camel trains bound for Tripoli, Cairo, or Suez.
The railroad now carries this trade, and the iron tracks have been
extended southward beyond the city of Khartum. The gap in the railroad
between Shellal and Wady Halfa is filled by steamers on the river.
Asyut itself has many good buildings. Not far from the railroad station
are brick houses of two and three stories which would be considered fine
anywhere. They are owned by Copts, who started life poor and have become
millionaires. Most of the houses of the city are Egyptian in character,
flat-roofed buildings of one, two, and three stories, facing the street.
Many of them are new and substantially built. The bazaars are far better
than when first I visited Asyut, and the town, which has now over fifty
thousand people, is double the size it was then.
The Asyut Training College is a missionary institution, but it gives a
good general education. It is run upon broad lines and has among its
students Mohammedans, Copts, and other Christians. This is about the only
one of our Protestant denominations that is working here, the other sects
having apparently given up Egypt to it. This Church has mission stations
scattered throughout the Nile valley, and schools not only in Lower and
Upper Egypt but also in the Sudan, and even on the borders of Abyssinia.
There are more than fifteen thousand boys now being taught in its various
institutions. It is surprising that a large part of the money that the
mission is spending upon education comes from the natives themselves. In
one year over one hundred thousand dollars was spent, of which almost
eighty thousand was subscribed by the Egyptians. Of the fifteen thousand
in the schools, more than thirteen thousand are paying for tuition, so
that the institutions are largely self-supporting. The Egyptians of
to-day have learned the value of modern school training and are anxious
to have their sons go to college. They want them taught English and are
willing to pay something in order that they may get a good education.
I went through the college with its president, John Alexander, D.D., who
has been in charge for almost a generation. To him it is largely due that
it is the most successful institution of its kind in northern Africa. Dr.
Alexander is by birth an Ohioan. He was educated at Wooster University
and shortly after he left there he came to Egypt. He has lived here ever
since and he knows the people and their wants as well as any man. He
says that the natives are thoroughly alive to the advantages of modern
education and that they could use more schools and better facilities than
either the government or the mission can supply. He tells me that he has
to refuse many applications for entrance to the training school for lack
of room and that the college stands ready to erect new buildings as soon
as it can raise the money. It has already bought twenty acres of land at
the junction of the Nile and the great irrigating canal which runs from
here to the Faiyum, and it now needs only an appropriation for additional
buildings. My examination shows me that the institution is ably and
economically managed, and I know of no place where any one of our rich
men can better invest his surplus and have it pay big dividends in a
charitable way than right here.
This college is conducted on the dormitory plan. The majority of its
students live in the buildings and are continually under the eyes of
their professors. The training partakes somewhat of a military character.
The boys not only go to classrooms, but they have to attend chapel,
weekly prayer meeting, and Sunday-school. They are also compelled to take
part in college athletics. Twice a week they must engage in football and
tennis and every effort is made to develop them as our boys are being
developed. They study well and do good work on track and football field.
I should like to show you these Egyptian boys as I saw them to-day.
There were seven hundred and thirty of them in the campus when I went
through—bright-eyed, dark-faced young fellows, ranging in age from ten
to twenty years and coming from every class of Egyptian life. Some were
Mohammedans, the fatalistic, sober followers of the Prophet; others were
Copts, having the bronze faces, the high cheekbones, and the black eyes
which mark them as the descendants of those who oppressed the Israelites
when Pharaoh ruled. All the students wear red fezzes that extend about
eight inches above their heads and are kept on both in classroom and
chapel. They wear long gowns, often belted in at the waist, and look more
dignified than the college boy of America.
The students are of all classes and conditions. Many are working their
way through school. There are three scales of expense, graduated
according to the tables at which the boys eat. One class has a table
where all have knives and forks and the food furnished is as good and as
varied as can be found anywhere. This is for the rich, who can pay as
much as one hundred dollars a year for room and board. The second table
is filled by students who can afford to pay only fifty dollars a year,
and the third by those who cannot spare more than thirty-five dollars a
year. Of the students of the first class only two or three live in one
room, and of the second from four to eight, while those of the third are
lodged in large rooms accommodating twenty or thirty, each of whom has
his own bed, which he furnishes himself.
The boys of the second class have simpler food than those of the first
and eat with their fingers in native style. Those of the third class have
still cheaper food, but in all cases it is as good as or better than the
boys get at home, for here they have wheat bread and meat at least once a
week.
A pupil must pay a minimum fee of one dollar a session in money, but as
far as is possible he may work out the rest of his expenses. The average
tuition is only ten dollars a year.
This big American college is doing so much good for Egypt that it is
commended by the government and by every tourist who learns anything of
Egyptian affairs. It was founded in 1865 and its first work was done in
a donkey stable with five students. Dr. Hogg, a Scotch missionary, then
constituted the entire faculty. It has now seven large buildings, which
cover two acres, built around a campus shaded by date palms, and among
its professors are graduates from the best of our colleges, including
men from Princeton and Yale. It has not far from one thousand students,
who come from all parts of Egypt and even from the Sudan and the other
countries of northern Africa. These youths represent more than one
hundred towns throughout the Nile valley and the graduates are scattered
all over Egypt. Many of them are influential business men; some are
lawyers, doctors, and teachers, and others are government officials. The
graduates of the school are anxiously sought by the government as clerks.
Their training is considered better than that of the Mohammedan colleges,
where little except the Koranic law is taught, and they are found to be
trustworthy and of high moral character.
[Illustration: From Asyut come the famous metal shawls of silver or gold
on black or white. The bazaar is over a mile long, and before the days of
railroads was the trading place of caravan merchants from the south and
buyers from the north.]
[Illustration: The Egyptian complained that under British rule not enough
of his tax money was spent on native schools. Only twelve per cent of the
men and less than two per cent of the women can read and write.]