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Cairo University
Historical snapshots Part (1)
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The Beginning
On March 31, 1914; Husayn Rushdi, minister
of Justice and the University Rector was speaking at the
university's ground ceremony for a new building, he said:
"On the eastern side of Cairo, al-Azhar has stood for nearly a
1000 years. It has been a lofty beacon sending light all directions
and immortalizing the sciences of the Arabs and the civilization of
Islam. Now here is the new university which will be built in the age
on the western side of the city to spread Arabic sciences together
with Western learning. These twin brothers will cooperate henceforth
in enlightening both banks of the blessed Nile, from the right and
from the left, in the things which will restore the people of the
valley to complete well-being and full glory"
The Egyptian University:
As a major offshoot of the national Egyptian
movement that goes back to the beginning of the century, a number of
national leaders, enlightenment pioneers and social thinkers called
for the establishment of an Egyptian university. In the beginning of
this century, social thinkers like Mohammed abdu, Mostafa Kamel,
Mohammed Farid, Kasem Amine and Saad Zaghloul called for the
establishment of an Egyptian University to be a lighthouse of
liberal thought and the basis of a comprehensive academic
revival in all fields of knowledge in order to be able to cope
with the international scientific and academic advancement.
Origin of the university idea:
At least five different parties; claim to
have planted the seed of the Egyptian University. Royalists; Prince
Ahmad Fuad. Nationalists with Watanist affinities pressed Mustafa
Kamil's claims, Umma Party and the Wafd; which have emphasized the
contributions of Saad Zaghlul, Qasim Amine, and Muhammed Abduh.
But early suggestions came from the Armenian bureaucrat Yaqub
Artin and the Syrian journalist Jurji Zaydan. In 1894 Yaqub Artin;
suggested that the existing higher professional school could well
provide the basis for a university. Jurji Zaydan had two models in
his mind for the new university.
In 1900 al-Hilal; called for an "Egyptian
College School" to provide home-grown modern higher education in
Arabic, so that Egyptians would not have to go to Europe. The other
model was the Syrian Protestant College which American missionaries
had founded in Beirut.
In 1908, Mustafa Kamil and Qasim Amin died,
and Khedive Abbas took the project of the university under his wing
naming his son Crown Prince Abd al-Munim as honorary head. Then he
considered four other princes: Husayn Kamil, Umar Tusun, Muhammed
Ali, and Ahmed Fuad; or the actual leadership of the university.
Only Fuad was both willing to serve and acceptable to the British.
He was named for the post late in 1907. Abbas assigned the
university E5,000 annually from the Awqaf Department which, unlike
the rest of the state budget, was still under his personal control.
Prince Ahmed Fuad (The first Rector of the Egyptian
University)
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Prince Ahmed Fuad (1st rector of the
EU)
Fuad was born on 1868. Year after his
birth his father Khedive Ismail attempted to dazzle European royalty
at the opening of the Sues Canal in 1869. He accompanied his deposed
father into Italian exile ten years later. Fuad was a Machiavellian
by instict. He shared his father Ismail's apprecian for culture, or
at least for what cultural patronage could do for a prince's image.
Schooled in Geneva and the Turin military academy, Prince Fuad
obtained a commission in the Italian army.
His father got on well with King Umbert and Queen
Margherita, and Fuad befriended their son, the future Victor
Emmanuel III. Fuad learned Turkish at home, and his schooling added
French and Italian. Service as military attaché in Vienna and
enabled him to pick up german.
While waiting for the throne,
Fuad presided over organizations needing a royal sponsor. He headed
up an association for encouraging tourism and an "aviation week" at
Heliopolis. Less of a scholar than his brother Ibrahim Hilmi or his
second cousin Umar Tuson, Fuad was following Islamic as well as
European Renaissance tradition in dispensing cultural patronage. He
headed an international first aid society and the Red Crescent
Society and revived the Geographical Society his father had founded.
But the university was the most important cultural achievements as
prince. It benefited from his connections and his administrative
energy. His university lectures, as befits a prince, were confined
to marksmanship and horsemanship.
Administrative
Council of the Egyptian University (May 1908)
By May 1908, the Royal Palace chose the
administrative council of the project of EU. Prince Fuad was rector,
and palace employee Ahmed Zaki was secretary. Council members
included Dr. Alwi Pasha (personal physician to Fuad's sister
Princess Fatima Ismail) and Yusuf Sadiq of the Khedive's Reform
Party. Husayn Rushdi, Ibrahim Najib, Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat, and
Yaqub Artin were high-level bureaucrats willing to work with the
palace. Palace official Ahmed Shafiq later served as one of the two
vice rectors, and in 1912 the addition to the council of Ismail
Sidqi and Prince Yusuf Kamal.
Administrative
council of the Egyptian University in 1909
Seated from
right:Prince Ahmed Fuad, Yaqub Artin; standing from right:Dr. M.
Alwi, Mr. Masbero,;
Standing from left:
Abd al-Khalik Tharwat, Hassan Said Pasha, setting on steps:Aly
Bahgat, Morkus Hana the Lawer
Princess Fatima
Ismail, The donor of largest Fund :
One of the most important contributions in
funding the Egyptian university was that of Princess Fatima Ismail
(Fuad's sister). Urged by her physician Dr. Alwi, she became the
largest benefactor. She contributed 600 feddans of waqaf land,
jewels worth E18,000, in addition to six feddans for a campus near
her palace in Bulaq al-Dakrur, Giza.
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