Show 1 bamm r XZ awa W r I 1 Z ar e I 1 11 1 i C I 1 I 1 old did egypt takes on old worlds new ways playground round of five continents Is now finding a new national life of its own by WILLIAIM T ELLIS cairo egypt this old nation Is ii in a new and ever newer egypt the whole worlds playground because ot of the charm and mystery ot at its past it yet has nothing more alluring to show the thoughtful traveler than its own transformation the emergence of egypt within a generation era tion from a land of bloodshed injustice poverty and misery into a well kept prosperous and improving land Is ono one of the great achievements of the present generation still there Is unrest of which civilization has not yet heard the last of the complaints of the nationalists and the answer of the defenders of 0 the british regime more will be said in the next article this one can treat only of the awaking of this ancient people into surprising modernity that it carefully retains some of the bizarre and oriental effects so that the unsophisticated tourist in cairo thinks himself in the simon pure east Is merely good business policy the astute oriental tully fully understands tho the commercial value of at the impression of cletur esq eness which he be makes on the visitor no other city on earth Is more cleverly staged tor for purposes of revenue than this same cairo even the swaggering bedouin Bedou ln posing in front of the hotels knows that his eness enhances his wage earning capacity as a guide the bazars of old cairo never lose sight for a moment of the gullibility of the traveler who sees no incongruity in being addressed in the english tongue in this to him remote spot como bome changeless things in old egypt I 1 antiquities and are the luosa market ablo assets of cairo truly there Is something awesome about the persistence which a discerning person may perceive here out at one looks upon pictures in the tombs painted three tour four or five thousand years ago of farmers plowing with a bent stick drawn by humped bumped but buffaloes then ile he goes out into the neighboring fields and perceives that identical picture in real life the plow is the same bame the animals are the sap same the very physiognomy of the farmer s are the same so with the men meir carrying water in skins one could imagine thit that the very pictures train from the tombs had stepped down and come to life the the sha shad dut along the river and an 1 canals whereby the animals sometimes camels sometimes donkeys sometimes bullocks sometimes cows cows draw up the water tor for irrigation I 1 purposes has been drawn with fidelity to present day life by artists who have heen mummies tor for thrice the length of time that great britain has been beca a nation in even larger aspects tho the survival of ancient egypt Is noticeable in many essentials this nation with the oldest recorded history has remained the same it Is still a rainless land I 1 and as of yore it is still dependent upon the nile for its life even as anciently it Is threatened by the environing vi and encroaching desert the coptic fell fellaheen abeen of today are lb the sons eona of the ancient egyptians of five or six thousand years ago in physiognomy and habits the type remains unchanged though the now new education which has lately come in will probably filter alter the latter within a generation or two the philosopher who in the presence of these strange sur rivals asks himself whether the egyptian fellah will be working his bis shad dut and plowing with his berit bent stick centuries after great britain has ceased to exist asa as a nation will ably have to return a negative answer in present day world phenomena nothing ts Is more remarkable than the ille final overthrow of usages and institutions which have lasted from the beginning of 0 recorded history I 1 A high type of oriental tall handsome stat stately elyj the egyptian tian is the best looking type of man in the east both the copt and the arab have a free self confident and swinging carriage they are quick of wl and self resourceful uke all sun bun warmed peoples they are ara of an affectionate and passionate disposition and little given to orderliness and method they would rather wear fine clothes than practice the homely vir tures of thrift poetical philosophical and courteous they have a real intellectual future before them i for this nation of tho the wondrous past with memories of world dominion shouldering ing jn in its breast Is far from being a spent race tho future e u undoubtedly n holds for it t a 0 destiny e even v e n as a did the past for li egypt has suddenly awakened from its fruitless reverie ale agon boon the glories that are gone to ambitions for the futura that Isab Is ahead cad the contact with the west has haa stirred into fiame biame its latent powers the magical learning of at the west after which all tho the older nation nare ara thirsting has made its appeal to egypt also the young men aad women are breaking with the deadly conservatism of the and seeking the new life awl pow ei r that t the e western school books hold I 1 riots at the iha bliest UnIv ralty EP Azhar university at cairo has a history rr of about 1000 1004 kaars in that time its character has changed very little though it has haa grown to such proportions por tlona that if it la Is not the tha oldest it la Is surely the largest university in the world with about students its ita recent history quite typifies the change that has come over egypt the title university Is a misnomer top fop el azhar Is really only a theological school holding its sessions on the floor of a huge mosque or group of mosque buildings garfielda Garf Gar lelda fields definition of a satisfactory college as a log with mark hopkins on en one end and a student on the la is nearly realized at el azhar tor for the students simply sit on oa the floor with a teacher in the center any place will do for a class clasa room though certain pillars are associated with certain classes it if a visit threads his way among these groups as I 1 have done he Is likely to be hissed in token of the students hatred of at all christians lie ile books studied consist almost exclusively of 8 six ix works dealing with the noran koran and the life of mohammed of course the study Is entirely y jn the th arabic language and the stu deca s come from all parts of at the moslem world no fees are paid by the students tut but on the contrary they are paid for attending of course none of the tha modern 13 sciences have had a place in the curriculum ri culum twelve years Is a common period tor for students to spend at el azhar and some have been la in attendance for 20 and 30 years all AH live in the mosque within the past sit months the history of the venerable school has haa been stormy there have been riots with violence to the professors and de of property the university has been closed and the students have made demonstrations before the palace of the khedive both professors and students have been on strike and now after revolutionary overturns the whole establishment has been put on oa a new basis the story of the riots in their successive phases li Is too long to be told here it began with the demand of two thirds of the teachers wh jbf were receiving only on ay a pound and a halt half a month wages to be raised nearer the level of the other third who were getting twenty and thirty pounds the students thought the time tumie to demand an increase in the food which they got from the state and also for a stated payment in cash every month they also demanded a modernization of the institution all this means that old el azhar Is libed and managed trade la is quietly and carefully regulated all public servants ot of whatever department lire are in uniform the tha city has literally all the modern conveniences sewage water gas electric light street cars telephones excellent paving and street cleaning and tho the whole man a aid ad id with british thoroughness and precision the order of london Is here but none nona of landoas Lon lAn dons somberness som bernesa the sidewalk cates cafes seem moro more numerous than in parts paris and the streets are full of all manner of costumes from the tha veiled women of at cairo to the swaggering Aln macedonian donlan with his huge sabbi und and pistol or tho the white robed moor or the globetrotter globe trotter in helmet or tyro lose less hat bat A veritable panorama of the na nations tlona passes dally daily la in front of the big hotels small wonder that the tourist fascinated by the strange ness mess and colorfulness of it all thinks himself in tho the veritable east tho barbarism which underlies mor cairo creeps out after nightfall and one who strolls up the sid elde e streets and alleys may see the dignified young egyptian put aside hla his col legs lege education and forget his paris tan ian clothes and do tho the sinuous oriental dances common to all barbaric people to the accompaniment of a tom tom and other primitive musical instruments painted hall bourla ris sit at Poor doorways ways and windows but there thera la Is less open vice on oil the streets of cairo cal ra than on oa the streets of oc now new york that some of the worst phases of oc the tha life of old cairo persists under the tha surface Is party due to the patronage of the tourists at tho the crossroads cross roads of tho the world the meeting and mingling of tho the east and the west at cairo which even the tha most casual tourist abs observes v e 13 Is but typical of the political arid I 1 blom which obtain here egypt Is the meeting place of at africa and asta asia and within a fow few hours sail of europe it was in the battle ground of all the world conquerors in the pre christian centuries egypt itself was waa once the most powerful as well as the tha most highly civilized nation on earth ita its dominion extended clear to the tigris river and the hebrews were not the only people who felt its oppressive power today the greatest waterway that the hand of man has bas fashioned or controlled runs through egypt the suez canal so crowded is it with profitable tonnage that the british are seriously considering the creation of I 1 I 1 I 1 01 IW M 11 11 I 1 I 1 ovo ry s W t fl I 1 pj 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 i ii ta 4 allt I 1 A 2 9 1 I 1 11 1 N A 1 T 11 1 I 1 it I 1 IN aw 6 r k E R TIP M 11 V j 4 II moa 4 LANM 14 I 1 11 3 1 ORN I 1 4 W a 1 1 1 ap 1 NV n 1 3 aly I 1 b 1 0 I 1 ai I 1 I 1 1 4 valk I 1 1 AIM I 1 I 1 r r M the asselt college of the american mission Ml lon egypt disintegrating the khedive ts to said to 0 desire a reduction of the students to two or three thousand as the present b lot are a heavy expense to the state and are really useless it Is from the village and mission schools t that the new life of egypt Is coming so tl el azhar has been graded and r reorganized from top to bottom and the students will henceforth have to learn such revolutionary teachings as that the world Is round and that there la Is a history and geography entirely untouched by the career a r and teachings of the prophet americas unique place in egypt in sharp contrast to el azhar azbar aro are tho the schools little and big scattered over oer egypt which are commonly known as american schools or more specifically as american mission schools these thesa are a feature of the work of the united presbyterian churchs churche mission in egypt which has baa almost a monopoly of the mission work in this country in the educational department they have of students and these are scattered through all grades of schools from village day schools to tho the really remarkable college at assist all sorts of observers from lord cromer and mr roosevelt to everyday officials and travelers have credit credited ed these schools with being potent factors perhaps the most potent in the real awakening of egypt it la Is an open secret that tho the british government in egypt frequently consults with the american missionaries upon lipon governmental antal policies tor for it is freely admitted that they know more about the real situation than anybody else they are closest to the people and the officials really lean upon them for help in no oer nation known to meas me is the standing at 0 the missionaries so BO high as aa it is here it is a curious instance of the interrelationship of nations that the members of one of the smallest american religious denominations should bo be a potent force in the national affairs of one of the oldest nations and that half a world away old and new cairo this Is a land of paradoxes here at the crossroads cross roads of the earth Is the worlds popular playground greatness and mummies of tho the ancient phar before whom tho the world trembled Is but a diversion and a spectacle for tourists tour Ssta and globetrotters globe trotters and old cairo ta la one of the newest anti and best governed cities on earth most moat american municipalities c cyb d take lessons from what the british nare done here it Is as safe as aa now york or safer and as clean or cleaner cla clo aner it is thoroughly well viell po f a new and exclusively british canal to compete with it ri for or this be ba it over ever remembered Is the tha one best beat route to india which la Is the most precious and jealously guarded jewel la in the crown ot of british empire although touched in every way by the influences of now new life raila railways 11 8 ll steamships literature A schools travel and tree free speech egypt remains in some respects the tha most reactionary country a on I 1 n the globe it is ID intensely moslem and it wit witnesses outbreaks ot at fanaticism which show that almost anything la Is possible at any moment momen t in egypt when the sacred carpet for mecca left alexandria last year there was an unprovoked and unexpected attack upon inoffensive europeans merely because they were christians christiana it Is known that the movement which has its headquarters and stores of arms at Jera bub an oasis in the desort desert is powerfully represented in cairo and has its teachers in el E I 1 azhar to inflame the tha fanaticism odthe of the students against the christians for the old old moslem dream of world c conquest has never been given up I 1 and the signs ate aie that its point of outbreak will be this same new old city of 0 cairo copyright asu by joaeph 13 bowles |