Some Of Them Become Tolerable Arithmeticians, Though
Very Inferior To The Coptic Christians; They Have Good And Simple
Treatises On Algebra, And Still Display Some Of Their Ancestors'
Facility In The Acquisition Of Geometry.
The 'Ilm al-Mikat, or
"Calendar-calculating," was at one time publicly taught in the Azhar;
the printing-press
Has doomed that study to death.
The natural sciences find but scant favour on the banks of the Nile.
Astronomy is still astrology, geography a heap of names, and natural
history a mass of fables. Alchemy, geomancy, and summoning of fiends,
are pet pursuits; but the former has so bad a name, that even amongst
friends it is always alluded to as 'Ilm al-Kaf,-the "science of K," so
called from the initial letter of the word "Kimiya." Of the state of
therapeutics I have already treated at length.
Aided by the finest of ears, and flexible organs of articulation, the
Egyptian appears to possess many of the elements of a good linguist.
The stranger wonders to hear a Cairene donkey-boy shouting sentences in
three or four European dialects, with a pronunciation as pure as his
own. How far this people succeed in higher branches of language, my
scanty experience does not enable me to determine. But even for
students of Arabic, nothing can be more imperfect than those useful
implements, Vocabularies and Dictionaries. The Cairenes have, it is
true, the Kamus of Fayruzabadi, but it has never been printed in Egypt;
it is therefore rare, and when found, lost pages and clerical errors
combined with the intrinsic difficulty of the style, exemplify the
saying of Golius, that the most learned Orientalist must act the part
of a diviner, before he can perform that of interpreter. They have
another Lexicon, the Sihah, and an abbreviation of the same, the Sihah
al-Saghir (or the lesser), both of them liable to the same objections
as the Kamus. For the benefit of the numerous students of Turkish and
Persian, short grammars and vocabularies have been printed at a cheap
price, but the former are upon the model of Arabic, a language
essentially different in formation, and the latter are mere strings of
words.
As a specimen of the state of periodical literature, I may quote the
history of the "Bulak Independent," as Europeans facetiously call it.
When Mohammed Ali, determining to have an "organ," directed an officer
to be editor of a weekly paper, the officer replied, that no one would
read it, and consequently that no one would pay for it. The Pasha
remedied this by an order that a subscription should be struck off from
the pay of all employes, European and Egyptian, whose salary amounted
to a certain sum. Upon which the editor accepted the task, but being
paid before his work was published, he of course never supplied his
subscribers with their copies.
[FN#33] Would not a superficial, hasty, and somewhat prejudiced
Egyptian or Persian say exactly the same thing about the systems of
Christ Church and Trinity College?
[FN#34] And when the man of the world, as sometimes happens, professes
to see no difference in the forms of faith, or whispers that his
residence in Europe has made him friendly to the Christian religion,
you will be justified in concluding his opinions to be latitudinarian.
[FN#35] I know only one class in Egypt favourable to the English,-the
donkey boys,-and they found our claim to the possession of the country
upon a base scarcely admissible by those skilled in casuistry, namely,
that we hire more asses than any other nation.
[FN#36] The story is, that Mohammed Ali used to offer his flocks of
foreigners their choice of two professions,-"destruction," that is to
say, physic, or "instruction."
[FN#37] Of this instances abound.
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