1.6 Observing Muhammad CAIi Paa and his administration at work, 1843-1846 Paul Sedra
Preface
There are few figures in the history of the modern Middle East who generate as much controversy as
Muhammad Ali Pap. Indeed, that controversy extends as far as his name, with one set of scholars insisting upon
the Ottoman Turkish rendering, Mehmed 'All Pasa, and a different set endorsing the prevalent Arabic rendering,
Muhammad cAli Pap. As this particular question of naming suggests, the general controversy hinges upon
differing conceptions of the Pasa's relationship with Egypt, and with the Ottoman Empire, respectively.
Partisans of the Arabic rendering tend to identify Muhammad CAli as the 'founder of modern Egypt', a visionary
to whom they attribute the genesis of an independent Egyptian state and nation. In stark contrast, partisans of
the Ottoman Turkish rendering caution against such a sanguine view of the man, insisting upon viewing
Mehmed All within an Ottoman imperial context, and rejecting the notion that an independent Egypt figured in
Pasa's aims as vali or viceroy of the province.
Whatever one's position in this controversy, there can exist little doubt that Muhammad Ali was a savvy, often
ruthless leader who aimed to secure control of the wealthy Ottoman province for himself, and his family after
him. He employed a variety of methods to secure this control, including the development of schools, a
monopoly-based agricultural policy, and, above all, a well-structured and disciplined army.
Joseph Hekekyan was among the technicians Muhammad CJj entrusted with such projects. (For complete
biographical details, please refer to 'The journals of an Ottoman Student in England, July 182 9 to January
1830', Sec. 6.3 in this volume.) In 1830, after detailed studies of weaving and spinning technology and
hydraulic-engineering works in Britain, undertaken at Muhammad cAJis expense, Hekekyan was recalled to
Egypt and subsequently dispatched to examine and enhance the pasha's cotton factories. Muhammad cjJj soon
entrusted him with a leadership role in expanding the nascent education system, with particular reference to
engineering education.
The extracts from Hekekyan's journals drawn together below give an impression of the scope of Muhammad
Ali's ambitions, the lengths to which he ultimately went to achieve them, and the consequences of his projects
for the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, as well as his leadership style and idiosyncrasies. They were written in the
final years of Muhammad Ali's rule, at a time when his debts had reached unprecedented levels, and the
shortcomings of his various projects were becoming plain.
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Text
Selections from the Journals
Hekekyan on the Translation Committee of the Department of Schools, January 1843]
During the discussions I perceived three distinct parties-the first party was composed of such persons as had
already given in translations and whose translations had been printed. Their argument was that they had
already given out works of which hundreds of copies were printed, and no body read them, and that they were
in heaps in the Central Magazine of Books near the Mehkeme-that they had recommended their publication-that
Government had incurred a great expense-and they were liable to be called to account on some future day and
consequently they opposed the publication of such works as were not absolutely of an immediate necessity in
the schools, and even of these the numbers were warmly disputed. The arguments of the second party
were-that the more books we had the better chance there would be of people reading them, that we should
not look merely to the present-but more particularly to the future-that there was a great demand in
Constantinople, the Hedjaz [sic and other partsand by proper measures some might be disposed of in India and
Persia. The third party insisted on the publication of such elementary works as were especially wanted in their
respective establishments. The most complete work we shall have will be that of the programme of the
Polytechnic School, the entire course of studies of which is based on that adopted in the French School. The
themes and exercises are first translated by the Professors and taught for the first year-the second year the
same are lithographed in the school-the third year the same are improved and revised with a view of ulterior
printing: by which means we shall possess a complete course of the Theoretical Branches of Mathematics and
Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and Astronomy &c.
Hekekyan on Government in the Countryside, April 1843]
Many cultivators or fellahs ruined by the exactions of the government had taken refuge in the towns, and in
particular Cairo, when acting as servants or artisans they gained a pittance for their families and for themselves
.14 The Government, latterly making great efforts to restore cultivation adopted the arbitrary measure of
seizing and conveying to the provinces all individuals of the above description their agents could lay their
hands on. But many of them contrived to elude vigilance, and to secrete themselves in their masters' houses;
several, in fact,
82 British Library, Hekekyan Papers, Additional Manuscript 37,449, vol. 2, Journals 1841-1844, pp. 89-90. 83
Peasants.
84 Muhanmiad 'All imposed a range of taxes upon peasants, most significant among them a land tax, which
rose by 5% in 1839, and 12'h% in 1844. For a detailed account of government exactions in the countryside,
refer to Kenneth M. Cuno, The PasbacPeasants. Land Society, and Economy in Lower Egypt 1740-1858
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
State and society 41
emigrated to Syria, and many of them putting on the bedoween [i.e. bedouin] garb entered the service of the
independent sons of the deserts. Hence the edict of the government to the purport that whoever should be
found to connive or abet in the secretion of a fellah should be decapitated, and all fellahs found away from
their villages after a certain time fixed, I believe forty days, should be immediately executed. It is the property
of a weak and barbarous government to proclaim laws which it cannot put into execution, though acquiring all
the odium which it would acquire, could it put such sanguinary and murderous edicts into execution. But if the
government actually sent back to their own villages the unhappy individuals who fell into its hands, in order to
assist their fellow villagers to pay the land tax, which is fixed and not diminished on account of drafts into the
army, epidemics, emigration and some part of the odium would be palliated; instead of which all men who are
caught are chained by the neck, put into boats and sent to the Pasha's farms.
When a boat full is collected, an endless chain is passed around their necks, so that they have to march in a
body and no individual can separate or run away: two or three men are sufficient to manage two hundred so
shackled. They are crammed into a boat, and as they descend the Nile, their wives and children follow them
along the banks. The fellah wife never abandons her husband. 86
[Hekekyan on the Pasa 's Factories, June 1843]
Latiff Bey long since proposed to substitute fellahs instead of oxen to turn the Pasha's cotton machinery-the
cost of maintaining an ox being equal to that of four or five men, and because there were a great number of
infirm, weak, sick and blind and who would not be of any use in the army or navy or any other employment.
The Pasha did not listen to the proposal, but when the murrain deprived us of cattle, men were pressed at a
time when any body able to work can get from three to five piastres in the country, there being a great
demand for men in agriculture. They get a piastre a day-but it is managed in the following manner-half of it is
given to them in bread-the remainder is kept back on account of deficiency in their daily work which is
arbitrarily fixed. In Mabieda alone they prefer to put an end to their miserable existence by throwing
themselves out of the windows, and attempting to hang themselves. Formerly two men were allotted to each
machine-now only one. The Pasha has ordered criminals to the Mills-so that we stand a chance of seeing some
of them burnt down to the ground.
[Muhammad cAli on the Urgency of the Census, 1846]
Hekekyan We have no men-we have no men-every body hides his money. They will not believe they are
safe-their children will. Egypt is small: but is
81 Nomadic tribesmen. Vol. 2, p.120. 87 Vol. 2, p. 148.
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there a finer country? How rich it might be made. What think you, that we have five millions of inhabitants?
The highest number allowed was three millions, and it was generally supported to be only two millions and a
half. I told the Shaikhs at Mansourah that they must assist me in the census. They understand what it
means-but as they wish to escape the just burden of service in men and money they are induced to give
indirect opposition. I have determined to effect the entire establishment of the European system. I told the
Shaikhs that I would surround some of their villages, and if I found they had deceived me that I would put them
to death. I think the true number must be more than five millions-but the census must be repeated-and by and
by we shall have a correct one."'
[The Pasa Discusses the Census with Cairo Shaykhs, 1846]
PASHA: I hope authority has been found to sanction it.
LEADING SHAIKH: We trust much in the wisdom of the Prophet and of our Lord.
PASHA: I wish to do nothing against common reason. I am working for your advantage and that of all
Musselmans. We must introduce order in our house. I am old and before I depart I must sow the seed, for you,
for yours and those who will come hereafter. I declare before God and the Prophet it is not for myself I am
giving myself so much trouble. But I will have no opposition.
SHAIKH: We all know our Lord's good wishes and intentions, and we pray daily of God to give us the means of
pleasing him-but our Lord certainly knows that such great things cannot be done at once. It is well known that
the revelations were made not in one day or one year-they took twenty-three years to come down.
PASHA: Surely in the mass of divine revelation which took twenty-three years to come down there must be not
one but several passages authorizing the census, as some have been found for the Nizam Gedeed,89 for the
European costume, for quarantines &c. Go and see-go and see.9°
88 British Libra Hekekyan Papers, Additional Manuscript 37,450, Vol. 3,Journals 1844-1850, p. 134.
Hekekyan's transliteration of nizam al-jadid. Literally, 'new order.' A reference to the reform of
the Ottoman army in terms of structure and discipline. 9° Vol. 3, pp. 13 5-.