Printing and Translations under Muḥammad 'Alī of Egypt: The Foundation of Modern Arabic

J. Heyworth-Dunne

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00113231

Printing and Translations under Muḥammad 'Alī of Egypt: The Foundation of Modern Arabic

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

J. Heyworth-Dunne

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Perhaps one of Muḥammad 'Alī's most remarkable achievements was the new direction he gave to the Arabic language and its literature. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century the use of the literary language had been confined to the needs of the mosque and the madrasahs attached thereto and, in a very limited way, to the antiquated scientific pursuits of a few of the 'ulamā' of al-Azhar. The literary language was also used for a certain amount of the popular literature and by the poets. Persian was read by a few, especially those interested in literature. Most educated Turks knew the “three languages”, al-lughāt ath-thalāth as they were called, i.e. Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. The Turk appears to have used Arabic for his faith, Persian for his literary taste, and Turkish for governing. Turkish was used for official purposes and there is ample. evidence in al-Jabartī that there were many in Egypt who knew Turkish, but it was not until the period of Muḥammad 'Alī that Egypt became Ottomanized in spite of the fact that it had been a part of the Turkish Empire for three centuries. One might have supposed that the sudden intensive use of the Turkish language would have ousted Arabic altogether and, normally, this would have occurred but for the scientific needs of the new ruler. Whereas the Turks favoured the purely military achievements of MuḤammad 'Alī, they had very little inclination and no patience for supplying the scientific requirements of a modern army.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , July 1940 , pp. 325 - 349

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00113231 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1940

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^{page 326 note 1} Ṭukhī was the first Egyptian to be educated in Europe; other Copts were sent in the early part of the eighteenth century, vide Appleyard, , Eastern Churches, London, 1850, p. 116Google Scholar, and Sonnini, , Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, London, 1799, vol. iii, pp. 122 and 173Google Scholar.

^{page 326 note 2} Essai sur les mæurs des habitants modernes de I'Égypte, Paris, 1800, p. 66Google Scholar.

^{page 326 note 3} Vide especially Caralī, as-Sūriyūn fī Miṣr.

^{page 326 note 4} Ṭarrāzī seems to have thought that Napoleon brought the press from Paris; vide Ta'rīkh aṣ-Ṣaḥāfat al-'Arabiyah, Bayrūt, 1913, vol. i, p. 45Google Scholar.

^{page 327 note 1} 'Ajā'ib al-Āthār fī't-Tarājim wa'l-Akhbār, Cairo, 1879, vol. iii, p. 141Google Scholar.

^{page 327 note 2} Al-Hilāl, vol. xxii, 1913–1914, p. 109Google Scholar, and Geiss, , “Histoire de l'Imprimerie en Ègypte,” Bulletin de l'Institut égyptien, 5e serie, Tome ii, 1908, p. 196Google Scholar.

^{page 328 note 1} Cattaui, , Le Règne de Mohamed Aly d'après les archives russes en Égypte, Cairo, 1931, vol. i, pp. 387–8Google Scholar. Another interesting example of this type of acquisition is quoted in The Times, the 4th July, 1818, column 4, where Muhammad 'Alī ordered 600 volumes of French works.

^{page 328 note 2} Douin, , Une Mission militaire française auprès de Mohamed Aly, Cairo, 1923, p. 23Google Scholar.

^{page 328 note 3} Sāmī, Amīn Pasha, Taḳwīm, an-Nīl, vol. ii, p. 322Google Scholar.

^{page 328 note 4} Ibid., p. 323.

^{page 329 note 1} Ibid., p. 330, also Royal Archives, 'Abdīn Palace, Daftar No. 31, letter No. 24.

^{page 329 note 2} Amīn Pasha Sāmī, op. cit., p. 347.

^{page 329 note 3} Daftar No. 22, letter No. 202; it was called Shāfī Zādah fī Fann al-Jirāḥah.

^{page 329 note 4} Daftar No. 21, letter No. 2204, dated the 24th Rabī'I 1241 (6th November, 1825).

^{page 329 note 5} Brocchi, , Giornale delle osservazioni fatte nei viaggi in Egitto, nella Siria e nella Nubia, Bassano, vol. i, pp. 160–1Google Scholar.

^{page 329 note 6} Ibid., p. 172.

^{page 329 note 7} Loc. cit., and Zaydan, , Ta'rīkh Ādāb al-Lughal al-'Arabiyah, Cairo, 1914, vol. iv, p. 58Google Scholar; see also Michaud, and Poujoulat, , Correspondence d'Orient, Paris, 1834, vol. vi, p. 291Google Scholar.

^{page 329 note 8} Michaud and Poujoulat, loc. cit.

^{page 330 note 1} Examples of this type can be seen in Don Raphael's Kitāb aṣ-Ṣibāghah. and in his Italian–Arabic Dictionary. Perron, , in his article in the Journal Asiatique, 07–08, 1843, p. 19Google Scholar, writes regarding the type used in Constantinople: “Il est préféré partout à vos caratères européens qui, aux yeux des musulmans, sont trop larges, trop lâches et n'ont nullement 1'allure orientale. On ne trouve de bien que le petit caractère arabe de l'Imprimerie royale de France. Tous les autres sont jugés détestables et sans grâce; leur seul aspect fait souvent refuser d'acheter les livres arabes imprimés en Europe.”

^{page 330 note 2} Most of the best calligraphists, even in Egypt, have been of Turkish origin.

^{page 330 note 3} Al-Hilāl, op. cit., p. 199.

^{page 330 note 4} Būlāḳ, 1854, vide Sarkis, , Mu'jam, p. 178Google Scholar. Senglākh's art and skill were used in other fields; he did the beautiful inscriptions on the tombs of the ruling family in the Ḥosh al-Bāshā, near the mosque of the Imām ash-Shāfi'ī. Senglākh can be considered as the creator of a new school of calligraphy in Egypt.

^{page 331 note 1} Geiss, op. cit., p. 200.

^{page 331 note 2} Ibid.; also al-Hilāl, vol. xxii, p. 201.

^{page 331 note 3} Al-Kīlānī also helped to make the ta'līḳ founts for the press; vide Taḳwīm an-Nīl, vol. ii, p. 401.

^{page 331 note 4} Al-Hilāl, vol. xxii, p. 429.

^{page 332 note 1} La Contemporaine en Égypte, Paris, 1831, vol. ii, pp. 276 and 293–4Google Scholar.

^{page 332 note 2} Egypt and Muhammad Ali, London, 1834, vol. i, pp. 129–130Google Scholar.

^{page 332 note 3} Loo. cit.

^{page 332 note 4} Ibid., p. 18.

^{page 333 note 1} Loc. cit.

^{page 333 note 2} Amīn Pasha Sāmī, op. cit., p. 398.

^{page 333 note 3} Perron, loc. cit.

^{page 333 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 333 note 5} Brocchi, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 173.

^{page 336 note 1} Nos. 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, 30, 34, 39, 50, 52, 53, 63, 76, 86, 91, 96, 101, 119, 212 of Perron's list.

^{page 336 note 2} Hammer, , Codices Arabicos, Persicos, Turcicos, bibliothecae Caesareo regio palatiniae Vinobonensis, Vienna, 1920Google Scholar; this list of works published in Constantinople between 1728 and 1820 is of interest. Hammer, gave further information in his Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman, translated by Hellert, , Paris, 1839, vol. xiv, pp. 492–501Google Scholar, which brought it up to 1830. About one hundred works were produced altogether, 10 dictionaries, 20 religious works, 15 history, 13 grammar, 10 military, 1 medicine, 8 geometry, 1 mathematics, 1 magnetism, 2 nautical science, 3 administration, 2 logic, 1 philology, 1 rhetoric, 2 literature, 1 philosophy, 3 jurisprudence, 1 astronomy, 4 calenders, 2 geography.

^{page 336 note 2} Franco, , Histoire et littérature juives, Paris, 1905–1906, pp. 12–13Google Scholar; Sureyya, , Sijil'Uthmānī, Constantinople, 1308, vol. i, p. 328Google Scholar; Fraschery, , Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire et de Ge'ographie, Constantinople, 1889, vol. ii, pp. 899–900Google Scholar; Galanté, , Tures et Juifs, Stambul, 1932, pp. 111–12Google Scholar.

^{page 337 note 1} Royal Archives, Daftar No. 22, letter No. 202.

^{page 337 note 2} Bachatly, Charles, “Un membre oriental du premier institut d'Ègypte, Don Raphael,” Bulletin de I'Institut d'Égypte, vol. xii, 1935, pp. 237–260Google Scholar; also “Un manuscrit autographe de Don Raphael,” op. cit., vol. xiii, 1931, p. 27–35.

^{page 338 note 1} Called fī uṣ;ūl al-ulūm aṭ-ṭbbiyah, Perron's list, work No. 21.

^{page 338 note 2} Bachatly, op. cit., where he gives an excellent account of Don Raphael's life.

^{page 338 note 3} Planat, , Histoire de la Régénération de l'Égypte, Paris, 1830, pp. 93–4Google Scholar: “La patience de M. Koenig, jeune orientaliste, fit triompher des premiers embarras; ce fut lui qui traduisit, aprés bien des recherches, tous les termes techniques dont on avait besom en turc; et comme une grande partie de ces mots n'existait pas Osman Bey ('Uthmān Nūr-addīn) les composa par le secours de la langue arabe, et lea fit accepter dans les écoles”, vide also Cadalvene, and Breuvery, , L'Égypte et la Turquie, Paris, 1836, p. 126Google Scholar.

^{page 339 note 1} Royal Archives, Daftar No. 6, Document No. 702, dated the 7th Dhī'l-Ḥijja 1236 (4th September, 1821).

^{page 339 note 2} Daftar No. 61, letter No. 281, dated the 28th Rajab 1251 (20th November, 1835).

^{page 339 note 3} Daftar No. 16, letter No. 92, dated 16th Rabī'I, 1239 (20th November, 1823), where Giovanni was ordered to translate medical works in this way; vide also Taḳwīm an-Nīl, vol. ii, pp. 427 and 434, where Kiānī Bey and Ḥasan were attached to Sulaimān Pasha to translate a work on manœuvres which he had compiled from various sources; for other references of this kind, vide ibid, pp. 396, 406, 425, 448, and 455.

^{page 340 note 1} Sarhank, , Ḥaḳā'iḳ al-Akhbār 'an Duwal al-BiḤār, Cairo, 1894–1923, ii, p. 237Google Scholar.

^{page 340 note 2} St. John, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 402, and Perron, op. cit., p. 6.

^{page 340 note 3} Perron, op. cit., p. 59, and Pellissier, , Rapport adressé à M. le Ministre de l'Instruction et des Cultes, Paris, 1849Google Scholar.

^{page 340 note 4} Perron, op. cit., Nos. 73, 87, 92, 160, and 219.

^{page 341 note 1} Zaydan, op. cit., vol. iv, pp. 188 and 191; also Sarkīs, op. cit., p. 1567. Vacca's work is not mentioned by Clot Bey.

^{page 342 note 1} Sarkīs, op. cit., p. 1567, and Zaydān, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 205. The work appears to have been Begin's Éléments de Chirurgie, with some additional notes by Clot Bey.

^{page 342 note 2} Taḳwīm an-Nīl, vol. ii, 451, in September, 1936.

^{page 343 note 1} Zaydān, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 206.

^{page 343 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 342 note 2} Paton, , History of the Egyptian Revolution, London, 1870, vol. ii, p. 270Google Scholar.

^{page 344 note 1} p. 3 of manuscript in my possession.

^{page 344 note 2} Ibid., p. 4.

^{page 345 note 1} Paton, op. cit., p. 268.

^{page 345 note 2} Taḳwīm an-Nīl, vol. ii, p. 461.

^{page 347 note 1} Vide BSOS., vol. ix, part 4, and vol. x, part 2.

^{page 347 note 2} Sarkīs, op. cit., p. 622.

^{page 347 note 3} Būlāḳ, 1844.

^{page 348 note 1} Abū's-Su'ūd was one of the leading figures of his time; he was the editor of the Wādī an-Nīl, established in 1866.

^{page 348 note 2} Pellissier, op. cit., p. 7.

^{page 348 note 3} Bowring, , Report on Egypt, London, 1840, p. 144Google Scholar.

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Printing and Translations under Muḥammad 'Alī of Egypt: The Foundation of Modern Arabic

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