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Educational and Career Choices of Egyptian Students, 1882–1922

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Donald M. Reid
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Extract

In 1899 seventeen-year old Ahmad Lutfī al-Sayyid (1872–1963) nearly entered the Cairo School of Engineering instead of the School of Law.1 Had he done so, he might never have climbed to fame as a writer, educator, and cabinet minister. An occasional engineer did reach national prominence in Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century, but it was the lawyers who ran the show. Upon entering law school in the fall of 1889, Lutfī had as colleagues three future prime ministers (Ismā'īl Ṣidqī, 'Abd al-Khāliq Tharwat, and Muhammad Tawfīq Nasīm) as well as the enthusiastic nationalist Mu⋅⃛afā Kāmil.2 He had made a wise choice.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , July 1977 , pp. 349 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 al-Sayyid, Aḥmad Luṭfī, Qiṣṣat Ḥayātī (Cairo, ca. 1962), pp. 18–34Google Scholar, discusses his schooling and early years. The research for this article was carried out under a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and the sponsorship of the American Research Center in Egypt.

2 Bāshā, Ismā‘īl Ṣ.idqī, Mudhakkirātī (Cairo, ca. 1950), p. 7.Google Scholar

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5 Un Groupe d'officiers égyptiens, “A Review of the Condition of the Egyptian Army under the British Occupation,” in Oeuvres du Congrès National Egyptien tenu à Bruxelles le 22, 23, 24 Septembre 1910 (Bruges, 1911), pp. 237–53.Google Scholar

6 Unless otherwise specified, all observations on cabinet positions held by men of various occupations are based on Karam, Fu'ād, al-Niṣārāi wa al-Wisārāt al-Miṣrīyah (Cairo, 1969), I.Google Scholar

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10 Hourani, , Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, p. 163Google Scholar, and Safran, Nadav, Egypt in Search of Political Community (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), p. 139Google Scholar, give brief accounts of the ‘Abd al-Rāziqs’ careers. For Husayn, see Cachia, Pierre, Taha Husayn (London, 1956)Google Scholar, and Hourani, , Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, pp. 324–340.Google Scholar

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16 Accounts of education during the British period are found in Tignor, Robert L., Modernization and British Colonial Rule in Egypt, 1882–1914 (Princeton, 1966), pp. 319–48Google Scholar and Salāmah, Jirjis, Athar al-Iḥtilāl al-Briṭānī fī al-Ta‘līm al-Qawmī Misr (1882–1922) (Cairo, 1966).Google Scholar See also Szyliowicz, Joseph S., “Education and Political Development in Turkey, Egypt, and Iran,” Comparative Education Review, 13 (1969), 150–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The observations on British educational policies in this article are based largely on study of the Annual Reports of the British Consul-General in Egypt, published both in the House of Commons Sessional Papers and separately (hereafter, AR 1901, etc.) and on the mimeographed annual “Note on the Progress and Condition of Public Instruction in Egypt” by Douglas Dunlop, adviser to the Egyptian Ministry of Public Instruction (hereafter, “Note 1901,” etc.).

17 Berque, Jacques, Egypt: Imperialism and Revolution, tr. Stewart, Jean (London, 1972), p. 205Google Scholar and Milner Mission Papers, FO 848/3, “The Government of Egypt. Administration (Education),” pamphlet by J. Boyd-Carpenter, p. 1.

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28 Milner Mission Papers, FO 484/3, “Education in Egypt,” memorandum by Douglas Dunlop, p. 5.

29 Tignor, , Modernization and British Colonial Rule in Egypt, p. 323Google Scholar, and AR 1892, p. 30.Google Scholar

30 For this paragraph see “Note 1905,” pp. 46–48 and AR 1901, p. 39.Google Scholar

31 Final Report, pp. 57, 62, 66Google Scholar summarizes the history of these schools. In this article the term “teachers” excludes teachers in the higher schools, who looked down on secondary teachers and identified themselves more with the profession in which they had been trained (law, etc.) than with teaching.

32 See the statistics of Abdel Aziz Chaouiche in Recueil des travaux du premier Congrès Égyptien réuni à Héliopolis (Alexandria, 1911), pp. 156–59.Google Scholar Shāwīsh's statistics might seem suspect because he was anti-Copt, but they are generally in line with figures in other sources.

33 Lampson, to Eden, , 04 16, 1937, FO 407/221Google Scholar, “Egyptian Personalities.” In this paper the term “lawyers” includes anyone with a law degree or who worked as a lawyer or judge. Others on the list included 6 army officers, 5 religious leaders, 4 landowners, and 4 from business. Four were from the royal family. Fourteen were government officials whose educational background was not indicated; the occuptaion and education of nine others is not listed.

34 On the two Cairo law schools, see Bey, Muḥammad Kāmil Mursī, “Kullīyat al-Ḥuqūq,” Kitāb al-Dhahabī lil-Maḥākim al-Ahlīyah (Cairo, 1937), I, 409–432Google Scholar and Faure, Fernand, “L'École Française de Droit du Caire,” Revue Politique et Parlementaire, 83 (1915), 390–405.Google Scholar

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36 For this paragraph, see Ziadeh, , Lawyers, the Rule of Law, and Liberalism, pp. 37–39, 67.Google Scholar

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42 Berque, , Egypt: Imperialism and Revolution, p. 457Google Scholar, notes that of 62 law graduates in 1934, only 6 got government jobs.

43 Of Muḥammad Farīd's law class of 1887, for example, three became Pashas, ten became beys, and only two did not achieve at least beylical rank (Rāfi,'ī, Farīd, pp. 22–23).

44 On the history of the school see Mahfouz, Naguib Bey, The History of Medical Education in Egypt (Cairo, 1936)Google Scholar; Mahfouz, Naguib, The Life of an Egyptian Doctor (Edinburgh, 1966)Google Scholar; and Heyworth-Dunne, , Introduction to the History of Education, passim.Google Scholar

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47 For this paragraph, see AR 1903, p. 62Google Scholar and AR 1911, p. 28.Google Scholar

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55 Willcocks, William, Sixty Years in the East (Edinburgh, 1935), pp. 95–96.Google Scholar

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59 This paragraph is based on AR 1910, pp. 57, 59Google Scholar; AR 1920, p. 74Google Scholar; and Final Report, p. 48.Google Scholar

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62 AR 1892, p. 35Google Scholar; Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī, al-A'lām (Beirut, ca. 1969), 1, 310.Google Scholar

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67 AR 1906, p. 39.Google Scholar

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69 Milner Mission's Papers, FO 848/3, “Education in Egypt,” memorandum by Douglas Dunlop, p. 5 and FO 848/19, Section B. Mission's Review of the Administration, and Causes of Unrest, “Ministry of Education,” p. 4.Google Scholar

70 Bowman, Humphrey, Middle-East Window (London, 1942), pp. xiii, 37.Google Scholar

71 Final Report, p. 47.Google Scholar

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73 Note 1909, pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

74 AR 1914–1919, p. 56.Google Scholar

75 AR 1893, p. 27.Google Scholar Figures on those who left teaching for law are derived from the lists in Kitāb al-Dhahabī-li-Madrasat al-Mu'allimīn al-'Ulyā, p. 139 ff.Google Scholar

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77 See for example the samples of the membership of the Muslim Brethren in Mitchell, Richard P., The Society of the Muslim Brothers (London, 1969), pp. 328–330.Google Scholar

78 The observations on the current state of the professions are based on a number of con versations with Egyptians in Cairo in 1966–67 and 1971–72.

79 Halpern, Manfred, The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton, 1963), pp. 257–258.Google Scholar