A new weekly series about Egypt 

The author of this series "Egyptian Frescoes" André Dirlik was born in Egypt and spent the first twenty years of his life in Cairo, then moved to Beirut where he studied at the American University. He later completed his studies at Mc Gill University, in Montreal. 

André's long career as professor exclusively at the "Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean" was only interrupted when that institution closed it's doors in 1995. 

Egyptian Frescoes part (3 of 19) issued with the permission of the author. 

Egyptian Frescoes (3): The Neo Mu'tazilah and Nationalism

Picture a young lad just arriving at Bab al-Hadid Central Train Station from a village in the Nile Delta. 

Old Bab El-Hadid Train Station

Picture him now taking a horse carriage to Bab al-Futuh, one of the four gates of the once walled city of al-Qahira, the Victorious, which the Fatimids, Shi’a Berbers, built when they toppled the Tulunid Sunni rulers in Egypt in 970AD. Beyond the gate is al-Mu’iz street which extends, a few miles further to Bab Zuwayla, another gate to the city. Past al-Hakim Mosque and its two dainty minarets, the Qalqawun complex where the Fatimid Palace stood were mansions and palaces. Not too far ahead, one entered the spice market, the ‘Attarin, from which scents of India and Yaman, roots from the Horn of Africa, and medicinal plants from Aswan and beyond filled the evening air. Al-Azhar Mosque, consecrated in 970, sits next to al-Ghuri Mosque and faces Sayyidna al-Husayn, another mosque. Al-Azhar is the most imposing structure in the City of a Thousand Minarets. The various dynasties which replaced the Fatimi Shi’a, the Ayyubi descendants of Saladin in 1171, the Mamlukes in 1266 and the Ottomans in 1517, all added to the expansion of this Madrasah and made it one of the most famous in the Muslim World. Muhammad  ‘Abduh roamed about the city. After the calls to Sunset Prayer, oil lamps were hung to all minarets. The streets were bustling with life. The young Fallah from the Nile Delta was discovering Egypt and the Muslim World in al-Qahira.

‘Abduh eventually entered al-Azhar Mosque in order to enrol as a Talib, a student. He had crossed the magnificent Bab al-Muzayyinin which  ‘abd al-Mu’in Katkhuda, head of the Janissaries, donated in 1749. Katkhuda also had a fountain built for people to draw water from. The Azhar Mosque area was vast, compared to the Ahmadi Coranic School he had frequented near his village. The dome rested on at least one hundred columns, mostly different from one another which had been borrowed from buildings of older times, as was customary in the past. Against these columns, elderly ‘Ulama’ lectured loudly, their white turban neatly wrapped around their red shishiya made of soft felt. They were surrounded by Talaba, students, ‘Abduh’s age and older. In the atrium, a wide Sahn where the Believers went for their ablutions, the water fountains sang sweet melodies and sparrows and doves flew around.  ‘Abduh knew he had made a good choice by coming to al-Azhar.

Mohamed Abduh

The schooling at al-Azhar lasted six years. Arabic philology, mathematics, history and geography, and the Sira, the biography of the Prophet Muhammad were required. Religious studies dealt with Kalam, theology, Tafsir, exegesis, and Hadith, the quotes of the Prophet.  Reciting and pronouncing the Words of Allah was naturally a requirement for all. Jurisprudence, Fiqh, encompassed the four schools of Law in Sunni Islam, the Maliki, the Shafi’i, the Hanafi and the Hanbali schools and teachers belonging to those schools occupied each his corner of the mosque. It is while Muhammad ‘Abduh was at al-Azhar that he met Jamal ed-Din al-Afghani. Their association would last many years. It had started when Afghani was discoursing on European Philosophy, seated as others against a column. Medieval tradition allowed the learned to share their knowledge in public. This was in 1872.

One can easily imagine the pair strolling around the lively streets neighbouring al-Azhar and sharing their thoughts. Both had studied Falsafa and knew Socrates and his peripatetic habits: Afghani would prove most convincing on a one to one basis. In the district of Gamaliyah they watched the children play with spinning-tops, women argue loudly around vegetable stalls as they ate fava beans accompanied by salads and bran Baladi bread. Or, they could pick a rolled Fitir, a pancacke, and a glass of sugarcane juice in the Sagha, the gold market. They could wonder, past the walls, towards the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, the second oldest after the Mosque of  ‘Amr ibn al- ‘As, the conqueror for the Umayyads of Egypt. Many prayed at ibn Tulun, named after the ‘Abbasi governor who commissioned that mosque and marvelled at its unusual minaret, the shape of a Zigurat from Samarra, in Iraq, its marble Mihrab which indicated the direction for prayer and its Cedar Wood adorned and carved Mimbar where Friday sermon was delivered. 

Bab El-Foutouh

The discourse which occupied both men dealt with the jeopardy of Islam in their day and age. al-Afghani related the state of Muslims as far as India or Central Asia which he had visited.  ‘Abduh heard about the Indian Mutiny of 1857 for the first time. al-Afghani’s thoughts as to how Islam could remedy the ills of the Faithful appealed to  ‘Abduh: reforming Islam would bring unity among Muslims and the sciences of the Europeans could then be borrowed in the same manner Muhammad ‘Ali had done at the turn of the century.

Seated in the gardens of al-Azhar at dusk, they must also have admired the minarets of the mosques of Katkhuda or Abaghawiyya or al-Ghuriyya or Qaytbay, some square and stout and others elegantly chiselled and darting into the sky. To the Fallah from the Delta and his senior from the Land of ‘Ajam, al-Qahira was one unlike other cities. It could be likened to Makkah where faces from all over the world were constantly passing through on their way to Hajj, the pilgrimage, or back. Or else, they both supposed, Istambul, the seat of the Caliphate, might also be likened to their city.

Jamal Ed-Din El-Afghani

al-Afghani claimed to have originated from Afghanistan. He knew much about the Shi’a and may have been a Shi’i from Iran himself, according to Nikki Keddie. He had travelled  extensively East of Egypt. In al-Qahira ventured Blacks from Africa, south and west of Egypt. Beyond the gate of Bab Zuwayla, past the mosques of al-Rifa’i and Sultan Hasan, were the Muqattam hills. Muhammad ‘Ali‘s fort and his mosque  which had been built in the style of Sinan, the architect of Sulayman-the-Magnifcient, dominated the Muqattam Hills. And, hanging from its cliffs near by, the Tekkeh of the Biktashiyyah Sufi Brotherhood hosted fair haired Turks and Albanians, Pomaks from Bulgaria or Bosniaks near the Adriatic Sea. Both men must have commented on the vastness and the diversity of Dar ul-Islam while they sipped mint tea and smoked from their Shisha in amazement of the opportunity that had been offered them to be at the heart of eventful times.

al-Afghani spoke of poverty which was the bride of ignorance. Muslim rulers were unfair rulers. It had been so since time immemorial. al-Mawardi, the great political theoretician at the time of the ‘Abbasi Caliphate, constantly warned against tyrants and despots. Islam advocated equality and justice. ‘Abduh had become conscious of the fairness that accompanies piety. Afghani was also urging Islah, reform of the Religious Sciences: a return to Ijtihad, the free exercise of thought, and the advancement of Ra’y, reflection, to those ‘Ulama’ who would practice Tafsir, exegesis, and Fiqh, jurisprudence. His was reviving the attitudes of the Mu’tazilah who, at the height of the ‘Abbasi Period of Islam when the ‘Ulama’, men of knowledge and intellectual pursuit, were incorporating the mathematics, medicine, the sciences and astronomy from India and the philosophies from Greece into what would become Islamic Civilization. The zenith of Medieval Islam was the result of the borrowing from others who were non-Believers in accordance with the Divine Message revealed in the Qur’an.

Jamal ed-Din al-Afghani was eventually and inevitably expelled from Egypt for his subversive teaching in 1878: he headed for Turkey. In 1882, Muhammad ‘Abduh  took the road to exile for his pro-‘Urabi sympathies. After a short stay in Beirut, ‘Abduh joined al-Afghani who had now moved to Paris. He would not return to Egypt before 1888. He travelled to Oxford and Cambridge, and to Berlin. He also studied French Law. ‘Abduh and Afghani finally edited a newspaper, al-‘Urwa al-Wuthqa, The Firmest Bond, in Paris. Their ideas could now reach wider audiences of Muslims. The new trends and discoveries in Europe were publicised. The debates they had with Ernest Renan and Gabriel Hannotaux, in Paris, were made available. ‘Abduh argued that Islam, a simple, straightforward and logical religion, and Science, could not fundamentally be in contradiction with one another. Unlike Christianity that was burdened with miracles and mysteries. Islamic Reformism, Islah, would dispel any fears Islam would have from modernity. Yet, while al-Afghani toiled to unite the Faithful against British occupation of Muslim lands and attract the Caliph in Istambul to Muslim Nationalism and its struggle against Imperialism, it was becoming apparent to ‘Abduh that he return to Egypt where he would embark upon the task of changing Egyptians and their traditional beliefs through education and education only.

Mustafa Kamel

Meanwhile, in Egypt itself, the young Mustafa Kamel (1874-1908) was making a name for himself. He was the son of an officer. He had studied Law at the French School of Law located in Munirah, not far from the Mosque of al-Sayyida Zaynab, the sister of al-Hassan and al-Hussayn and the daughter of ‘Ali and Fatimah. It is said that the skull of al-Hussayn, her brother whom the Umayyads had beheaded, is buried in the crypt of the mosque. During the celebrations of ‘Ashurah, a parade of the faithful from the Mosque reminded one of past Isma’ili practices during Fatimi times and of the Festivals of the Shi’a.

Mustafa Kamel moved to Toulouse, in France, to complete his legal education. Upon his return, he supported the Khedive ‘Abbas Helmi II’s opposition to British occupation but, at the same time, called for constitutional reforms that would limit the powers of the ruler. He became the champion of parliamentary government and the rule of law. He had founded a newspaper, al-Liwa, the Banner. An incident in the fields of Dinshaway, in 1906, in which peasants had mishandled British officers who had been pigeon hunting on their land and had trampled their crops, led to these peasants being hanged by the occupier. Kamel defended the accused. al-Liwa covered the trial and much agitation resulted from the verdict of the Court. In 1907, Kamel was encouraged to found the first political party, the National Party, al-Hizb al-Watani, in the country. The newspaper and the political party were new tools that aimed at bringing independence from Britain while stirring the population into directions yet unknown to the Egyptian masses. Mustafa Kamel was the precursor of Sa’d Zaghlul. He died too young to witness the changes in Egypt that followed the First World War.

Al-Azhar complex

Meanwhile, Lord Cromer prepared to retire to Britain after 24 years of stewardship during which much change had been brought about. The rapport between the Pro-Consul and Mufti Muhammad ‘Abduh had proven constructive. ‘Abduh often visited Cromer at his Residence, along the Nile, in Garden City. Cromer wanted more reforms. Mufti Muhammad ‘Abduh supported these reforms as he believed they were good, at the end, for Egypt and Egyptians and for Islam. Education was one such reform. ‘Abduh encouraged al-Azhar to update its curricula. Relations between Muslims and Copts always remained tense: ‘Abduh urged for dialogue, tolerance and understanding.

Foreigners in Egypt had been increasing in numbers: ‘Abduh considered their presence useful and thus overlooked certain abuses. 

Gamaliyah

Elias Nehmeh Tabet, my grandfather who had come from Lebanon, visited the Mufti in his home in the Gamaliyah Dictrict, near al-Azhar, and requested his legal opinion on the purchase by Muslims of life insurance. My grandfather represented the first life insurance company in the Middle East, Gresham Life Insurance Company Limited. A fatwa was granted that stated that life insurance was not usury nor Bid’a, an innovation contrary to Islam, and could therefore be purchased.

Muhammad ‘Abduh had formed many enemies. At al-Azhar, he was considered an Infidel by the older establishment, the Traditionalists and the Literalists. Amongst the Secularists, his al-Radd ‘ala al-Dahriyyin, his Rebuttal of Materialism, did not go well with Westernized Egyptians. He finally criticised Sufi excesses and this did not ingratiate him to the many Mystical Brotherhoods. His influence amongst the younger students at al-Azhar and in the growing number of government schools had grown meanwhile, in Egypt, in the Arab World, from Morocco to ‘Iraq and beyond into Turkey and as far as Indonesia. Muhammad ‘Abduh never commented on the national anthem which Mustafa Kamel composed, Biladi, My Country. He must  have approved of the words ‘’If I were not an Egyptian I would have wished to be one’’. ‘Abduh remained a patriot who always endured the short run for the sake of the long one. Welcome now General Allenby and Sa’d Zaghlul in our next frescoe.