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Arab World Studies, No. 4, 2021
Executive Summary
Internal and external factors such as the colonial expansion of Western countries in Egypt, the decline of traditional Islamic education in Egypt, the need for large-scale reforms, and the introduction of advanced Western ideas and culture constituted the main driving force of Egyptian educational reform during the Time of Muhammad Ali. The content of the reform mainly includes the establishment of various professional schools, the opening of secular schools at all levels and the dispatch of international students, etc., and its educational structure shows the basic characteristics of "inverted pyramid", highlighting pragmatism, the education model is biased toward elite education, and religious education is retained. This educational reform broke the monopoly position of Traditional Islamic Education in Egypt and had the following effects: it built a pattern of secular education and religious education standing side by side; it promoted the prosperity of Egyptian cultural undertakings and the ideological emancipation of Egyptian society; it promoted the industrial development of modern Egypt; it cultivated practical talents and ensured the smooth implementation of reforms in other fields. In addition, the educational concept of elites going overseas to study has also been inherited to this day. Although Egypt's educational reform opened the way to the modernization of Egyptian education, its purpose was to maintain Ali's dominance, and there was a lack of long-term planning in general.
keyword
Egypt; Muhammad Ali; Educational Reform; Educational Modernization
About the Author
Chen Tianshe, Ph.D., is a professor at the School of History, Zhengzhou University
Xiaodong Chang is a 2019 master's student in world history at the School of History, Zhengzhou University
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Image credit: Getty Images
Regarding the meaning of modernization, there are many schools of academic circles at home and abroad, and their views are different. The views of the famous scholar Luo Rongqu have a great influence on the domestic academic circles. He said: "In a broad sense, modernization, as a worldwide historical process, refers to a drastic change that human society has experienced since the industrial revolution, and this change is driven by industrialization, leading to a global transformation process from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial society, which makes industrialism penetrate into the economic, political, cultural, and ideological fields, causing profound corresponding changes; in a narrow sense, modernization is not a natural process of social evolution. It is the way for backward countries to adopt efficient efficiency (including available traditional factors), through planned economic and technological transformation and learning from the world's advanced, to promote a wide range of social reforms, in order to quickly catch up with the advanced industrial countries and adapt to the development process of the modern world environment. "Generally speaking, modernization includes three dimensions: economic modernization, political modernization and social modernization. It can be roughly understood that the process of modernization is the transformation process of a nation and a country from a traditional society to a modern society.
The modernization of education is one of the important contents of modernization, and its basic purpose is to realize the transformation of traditional education to modern education, and the separation of religion from education and the secularization of education are its key. Muhammad Ali (1805-1848), known as the "father of modern Egypt", introduced a series of reforms in the political, economic, military, educational and cultural fields during his reign in Egypt, which was regarded by Egyptians as "the beginning of the Westernization of Egypt". Muhammad Ali's reforms had a profound impact on the course of Egyptian history, taking a major step forward egyptian society that had stagnated for centuries and was called "the only viable part of the Ottoman Empire at that time" by Marx. Muhammad Ali's reforms and their influence have attracted long-term attention from domestic and foreign academic circles, and this paper attempts to explore its educational reform from the perspective of modernization, reveal the transformation of traditional education in Egypt to modern education, and then explore the beginning of modern education in Egypt.
I. The background of Muhammad Ali's educational reforms
Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 opened a new page in Egyptian history. Since then, the exploration of a path of modernization that suits oneself has become the proposition of egypt's time. Before Muhammad Ali came to power and in the early days of his administration, Egypt faced a complex and severe internal and external situation. Internally, Egypt, which was still under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire, was in a state of disarray, with the mamluks, sheikhs, Ottoman legions and other three political forces plotting against each other and having no intention of social construction. At the same time, Egypt, which is in a strategic location, has also become the object of infiltration and competition by Western powers, and Britain and France have successively carried out commercial activities and political competition in Egypt to support their respective agents. After Coming to power, Muhammad Ali, in the process of interacting with Western countries, deeply understood the dilemma in Which Egypt was located, and began a comprehensive reform process in modern Egypt, which scholars regard as "egypt's early modernization process".
(1) Egypt is involved in the tide of hegemony in Western countries
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Western countries gained great economic and military power through the Industrial Revolution. In order to obtain cheap raw materials and markets, Britain and France began to expand outward, and at this time the backward agricultural areas became the main targets of their plunder, and the Ottoman Empire bore the brunt of its geographical proximity to Europe and the decline of its overall power. Britain, France and other countries actively interfered in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire in an attempt to integrate it into the capitalist system, which led to the Ottoman Empire being forced to be involved in the complex international relations of Europe at that time. In 1798, the French invasion of Egypt led to the rupture of friendly relations between the Ottoman Empire and France, and the British took the opportunity to win the Ottoman Empire into the anti-French camp. In short, the declining Ottoman Empire was forced to get involved in the struggle of the Western powers, becoming the object of co-optation and contention between Britain and France, and Egypt became the focus of the Anglo-French competition.
At that time, Egypt was nominally a province of the Ottoman Empire, but in fact it was relatively independent, and its relations with Britain and France were more complicated. Britain not only valued Egypt's rich natural resources, but also tried to use Egypt as an important base for its conquest of the East. France, on the other hand, hoped to control Egypt, a strategic route between the East and the West, to cut off Britain's ties with the East, threaten Britain's important overseas colony india, and gradually establish its dominance in the East. In order to fight the Anti-French Alliance, Napoleon invaded and occupied Egypt, but this move seriously violated the interests of Britain and the Ottoman Empire, and was opposed by the joint British and Ottoman Empires. The British navy defeated the French navy, cutting off the French from the mainland, and then the combined British and Ottoman empire attacked the French. Under pressure from the combined British and Ottoman offensives and resistance of the native Egyptian people, the French army was forced to withdraw from Egypt in 1801. After the French withdrew from Egypt, the British took advantage of the situation and secretly supported the Mamluk forces, while uniting with the Ottoman Empire to exert influence on Egypt. Faced with a complex situation, Muhammad Ali aimed to rebuild the mighty Arab Empire, determined to implement comprehensive reforms, and vigorously learned from the West, and educational reform became an integral part of his extensive reforms.
(ii) The Decline of Traditional Islamic Education in Egypt
By the time Muhammad Ali introduced educational reforms, Egypt's traditional Islamic education was already behind the times. Formal education in Egypt arose very early, and school records can be found in historical records of the Old Kingdom period before 2500 BC. After the Arab conquest of Egypt in 640 AD, Egypt gradually Arabized and Islamized, and Egyptian education was marked with a strong Islamic mark, and mosques became the main educational places.
By the eve of the reign of Muhammad Ali, Egypt's traditional education was lagging behind. Religious education is the subject, including Islamic education and Christian education, but Islamic education is the subject. In terms of teaching content, the content of Egyptian Islamic traditional education is mainly Islamic theology, and primary education is limited to the Quran and the Sunnah, although it pays attention to the recitation of scriptures, but there is no requirement for students to understand knowledge. At that time, Al-Azhar University, Egypt's only institution of higher learning, followed the old ways, offering only courses in religion, language, and Islamic law, opposing Western science and technology. At this time, the Western countries witnessed the rapid development of capitalism, the wide spread of Enlightenment ideas, the rapid progress of natural science, the liberation of education from the shackles of religion, and secular education becoming the mainstream. In contrast, Egyptian education at that time was clearly behind the development trend of the times. As Florence Wilson put it in the Survey of Education in the Near East: "Many subjects, such as art, economics, biology, traditional and modern literature, Arabic and European culture, which are conducive to enlightenment of the mind, are not set up or taught in any school in Egypt." ”
In terms of teaching methods, Egyptian Islamic traditional education mainly relies on oral teaching by teachers and repeated memorization by students, which is relatively boring and single. In addition, Egyptian education also lacks normativity, which is highlighted by the lack of clear regulations on the qualifications of teachers in schools, teachers are mainly held by religious figures or religious scholars, and some schools do not even have full-time teachers. The conferral of the graduation certificate is also relatively arbitrary, and the imam can freely decide the object, time, and method of the graduation certificate. It can be seen that before the beginning of the 19th century, the incompatibility between the old-fashioned and boring Islamic education and the trend of the times became increasingly prominent, especially it could not meet the needs of Egypt's social development, and educational reform was imperative.
(iii) The practical need for Muhammad Ali to carry out extensive reforms
During the time of Muhammad Ali, Egypt introduced extensive reforms. In order to effectively implement the reform measures, education reform is urgent. Military reform is the core of Muhammad Ali's reform, and its top priority is to build a new type of army, and the new type of army has relatively high requirements for officers and soldiers, and the original Islamic traditional education is far from meeting the needs of training new talents. To this end, the Authorities of Muhammad Ali have established military specialized schools and medical schools, such as officer schools, staff schools, infantry schools, artillery schools, etc., to train officers, soldiers and doctors for the new army. In the field of political reform, Muhammad Ali established a highly centralized political system, set up state councils and trade and diplomacy, education, army, navy, finance and other departments in the central government, and established provincial, county, township and village management agencies at the local level. The new management system requires new administrative talents at all levels. To this end, while sending international students to Europe to learn advanced management concepts, Egypt has also set up a special administrative school to train administrative personnel. Muhammad Ali vigorously promoted the development of agriculture and industry and commerce, new agriculture put forward higher requirements for breeding, fertilization and irrigation and planting technology, and modern industry and commerce also require practitioners to master the necessary knowledge and skills, but traditional Islamic education can not produce new professionals. Forced by reality, Muhammad Ali hopes to cultivate new talents needed for economic reform and the development of agriculture, industry and commerce through agricultural schools and accounting schools. It follows that muhammad Ali's military, political, and economic reforms will necessarily require complementary educational reforms if they are to be successfully implemented. Therefore, while other reforms were vigorously pursued, Muhammad Ali was also active in promoting educational reforms.
(4) The introduction of advanced Western ideology and culture
Napoleon's invasion of Egypt had a profound impact on Egypt. Despite his short reign in Egypt, Napoleon brought advanced European ideas and culture to Egypt. In 1798, Napoleon founded the Egyptian Academy of Sciences, which consisted of four departments of mathematics, physics, political economy, and culture and art, as well as a library, a printing house, a mechanical laboratory, and a physics research laboratory. The primary purpose of the Egyptian Academy of Sciences is to develop and popularize science in Egypt, which has brought new educational models, teaching contents and educational concepts to Egypt. Napoleon also brought scientific and engineering experts, cultural scholars, and various books into Egypt, sowing the seeds of advanced Western science, technology, ideology and culture for Egypt. The introduction of Western civilization had a strong impact on egypt's traditional Islamic values and way of life. The strong collision and conflict between the two civilizations inspired the national awakening of Egypt, and the Egyptian people began to think about the road to national rejuvenation. At the same time, Western civilization opened the eyes of Egyptians and enabled Egyptians to face the challenges of Western civilization. In the course of the arduous anti-French struggle, Muhammad Ali fully recognized the great military strength of France, as well as the shortcomings of traditional Islamic education and the advantages of Western education. It can be said that napoleon's invasion objectively promoted the rise of new education in Egypt and became an important external driving factor for Muhammad Ali to carry out educational reform.
In short, Muhammad Ali's reforms conformed to the development trend of Egypt's modernization era. Although Muhammad Ali is not a native-born Egyptian, he closely linked his fate to the fate of Egypt, with the mission of reviving Egypt, and took the initiative to carry the banner of reform and promote Egypt's modernization and transformation. The educational reform of Muhammad Ali is the result of the combination of internal and external factors in Egypt, aiming to achieve the transformation of Egyptian education from traditional education to modern education, and is also a necessary part of Egypt's modernization process.
Second, the main content of Muhammad Ali's educational reform
During the reign of Muhammad Ali, especially in the early years of his reign, he introduced comprehensive reforms. In the field of agriculture, Muhammad Ali nationalized the land and established new agricultural production relations; controlled the crop planting plan and implemented the monopoly system of agricultural products; vigorously developed cash crops and improved the economic efficiency of agricultural products; and built water conservancy projects to improve agricultural production conditions. In the military sphere, he established a new army and navy, abolished mercenaries, and introduced conscription. In the field of industry, he followed the example of Western countries, built factories, and developed industry. In the field of administration, he established centralized state power institutions and separated political power from clerical power. In line with the above reforms, Muhammad Ali also carried out educational reforms, which mainly had the following three aspects.
(1) Establish all kinds of professional schools
Prior to Muhammad Ali's educational reforms, Egyptian training in technical fields such as engineering and handicrafts was done through apprenticeships rather than formal schooling. In the course of the struggle against Britain and France, Muhammad Ali fully realized the importance of new talents for rich countries and strong soldiers, so he began to imitate Western countries and build various professional schools throughout Egypt to cultivate various new talents. Muhammad Ali's original motivation for founding professional schools was inextricably linked to military reform. To bolster Egypt's military, Muhammad Ali initially chose to hire foreign experts at high salaries for a new style of army building and military training. However, due to the high economic cost and deep dependence on foreign experts, Egypt decided to establish military professional schools to train local Egyptian talents. In 1825, the first staff school was established in Egypt. In 1826, Egypt established its first military school with the help of the French. In 1834, an engineering school was established in Egypt. In addition, Egypt has successively established military academies such as infantry schools and artillery schools.
In addition to military academies, Muhammad Ali gradually expanded the category of professional schools to include medicine, economics, administration, and translation. To meet the reform's demand for medical personnel in the new army, Egypt founded medical schools in 1822 to send doctors and nurses to the army. In 1826, the Egyptian government established the School of Accounting. In 1834, the Egyptian government established an administrative school to train native Egyptian managers needed for the new management model. In 1835, the Egyptian government established a language school to provide English, French, Italian and other foreign Chinese courses and professional courses such as philosophy and law to train professional translators to make up for the serious shortage of professional translators at that time. During the time of Muhammad Ali, the Egyptian government also established agricultural schools, veterinary schools, mining schools, art schools and comprehensive colleges. According to statistics, 23 professional schools of various types were founded in Egypt during the time of Muhammad Ali. During this period, the teachers of professional schools were mostly hired by professionals from abroad, and there were also a small number of local talents with rich reform experience and specially trained returned students. After graduating from professional schools, most of them enter the military or state departments. These specialized schools have trained professionals for Egypt's military training, economic development and administration, which are conducive to strengthening the country's overall strength.
(2) Establishment of secular schools at all levels
During the time of Muhammad Ali, Egypt established a relatively complete secular education system. Rather than abolishing or reforming the system of religious education, Muhammad Ali created a new parallel secular education system, starting with specialized schools in military science, engineering and medicine and extending all the way down to primary education.
In the new secular education system, higher education was the first to develop. In order to meet the needs of building a strong army and modernization, and to train the army and all kinds of new talents urgently needed for modernization as soon as possible, the Egyptian government first established military, medical, administrative and other institutions of higher learning. With the help of these institutions of higher learning, Egypt has trained a number of professionals such as officers and soldiers, engineers, doctors, and technicians. The development of higher education needs a good source of students as a support, but the old Islamic tradition of education has been unable to provide good students to match it, which has further spawned secular secondary and primary education. In order to accelerate the development of secular secondary and primary education and to solve the shortage of students in higher education, the Muhammad Ali authorities have established a number of new primary and preparatory schools. The new primary school is to provide excellent students for the preparatory school, who can enter the preparatory school for further study after graduation, and its academic system is 3 or 4 years, and the teaching content is mainly reading and writing, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, religious knowledge, etc. Boarding systems are widely practised in the new primary schools, with paramilitary management of school students. The duration of the preparatory school is 4 or 5 years, and the main teaching contents are language, history, geography, engineering, military technology, mathematics, calligraphy and painting. After graduation, students of preparatory schools can enter military, medical, administrative, language and other schools for further study and become professionals. After several years of development, by 1836, Egypt had 50 secular primary schools and 2 secular secondary schools, with 5,500 and 2,000 enrolled students, respectively.
Most of the managers and lecturers of the new schools are in two categories: one is the high-paid foreign experts and scholars, and the other is the specially trained returned students. They master the advanced knowledge culture, educational concepts and teaching methods of the West, and the overall level is significantly higher than that of the teaching staff of traditional Islamic schools. The Egyptian Government has also actively developed policies to encourage school-age children to attend secular schools for education. Secular primary schools generally practice free education and accommodation, and students receive a certain amount of allowances and items such as clothing. In general, Muhammad Ali gradually established a relatively complete secular education system of primary education- secondary education and higher education.
(3) International students
Sending students abroad is an important step for Muhammad Ali to carry out educational reform. There are three main considerations for Muhammad Ali to send students to study in Europe: First, to use international students as an important bridge for Egypt to learn from the West and foreign cultural exchanges, and to directly learn military, technical, management and other knowledge from advanced countries, which can be used for Egyptian social construction after returning to China, so as to promote the development of various fields in Egypt. The second is to use international students as an important means to make up for the shortage of foreign teachers. Muhammad Ali hopes that international students returning from their studies will become teachers in the new schools, thus alleviating the shortage of teachers in the new schools and the high cost of hiring foreign teachers. The third is to regard international students as an important force to replace foreign experts. Muhammad Ali hopes that international students will grow into the new kinds of talents needed for national reform, and gradually reduce the country's dependence on foreign experts. He instructed: "The children of Arabia should remember what they learned from foreign technicians so that they can replace them in the future", and promised that "whoever learns first, the government will give them a high salary and promote them to be foremen." ”
The Mohammed Ali authorities started earlier in sending students abroad. In 1809, Egypt sent students to Livorno, Milan and Rome in Italy. But before 1813, Egyptian students sent to Italy and France gained expertise through private tutoring, rather than organized foreign student groups. In 1813, Egypt sent the first group of students to France and Italy to study military affairs. According to statistics, from 1809 to 1818, a total of 28 students in Egypt were sent to Europe. In 1826, Muhammad Ali again sent 44 international students to Europe to study military, political, medical, biological, chemical, agricultural, artistic and archaeological, which became the largest group of students sent by the authorities during the Muhammad Ali period. From 1813 to 1847, Egypt sent a total of 319 students to Italy, France, and Britain in nine batches. Egyptian students studied advanced military knowledge, management methods, science and technology, and bourgeois ideology and culture in Europe. After returning to China, they entered and occupied important positions in the military, government departments at all levels, the education system, modern factories, etc., gradually replacing foreign experts.
In general, the basic point of Muhammad Ali's educational reform is to reform the traditional Education of Islam, break the monopoly of religion on education, establish a Western-style modern secular education, and promote the transformation of traditional education in Egypt to modern education. This educational reform is a relatively mature and successful reform in Egypt's modern history. On the basis of drawing on Western experience, Muhammad Ali has comprehensively used various means to develop education and achieved considerable results. The various reform measures cooperated with each other and complemented each other, which not only promoted the development of Egypt's education and culture at that time, but also promoted the reform of other fields, and then promoted the modernization and transformation of Egypt's rich country and strong army and society.
III. Characteristics of Muhammad Ali's Educational Reform
As an important part of Egypt's modernization reform, Muhammad Ali's educational reform not only has the common points of educational modernization reform, such as the decoupling of religion and education, the rise of secular education, etc., but also has its own unique features, which are mainly reflected in the following aspects.
(1) The educational structure presents an "inverted pyramid"
From the perspective of educational structure, Muhammad Ali's educational reform showed a clear "inverted pyramid", and higher education was given priority development, while the development of secondary and primary education was relatively lagging behind. In order to meet the urgent needs of rich countries and strong soldiers for all kinds of new talents, Muhammad Ali was the first to establish military, engineering, administration, medical, accounting, agriculture and other higher professional schools. Therefore, The educational reform of Muhammad Ali began not only in higher education, but also in the direction of teachers, educational funds, educational facilities, etc., which affected the development of secondary and primary education. The development of secondary and primary education is unbalanced with the development of higher education, resulting in an ineffective guarantee of student resources in professional schools. To address the shortage of students in professional schools, the Muhammad Ali authorities embarked on basic education reforms and the development of secular primary and preparatory schools. Although the "inverted pyramid" education structure does not conform to the development law of modern education, it has rapidly cultivated a group of new talents urgently needed for reform for Egypt in a short period of time, which basically meets the needs of Egypt's reform and construction. Although the construction of secular primary schools and preparatory schools lags behind that of professional schools, after its establishment, it provides a high-quality source of students for professional schools, and gradually replaces traditional religious schools as the main provider of students in professional schools, alleviating the pressure of students in professional schools and improving the quality of students in professional schools.
(2) Educational reform highlights pragmatism
Whether it is the purpose of reform or the reform measures, Muhammad Ali's ideas on educational reform highlight a strong pragmatic color. As far as the primary purpose of the reform is concerned, the educational reforms pursued by Muhammad Ali are not to develop Egyptian education, but to serve the enrichment of the armies and the advancement of reforms in other areas. As far as the reform itself is concerned, the three major initiatives of Muhammad Ali's educational reform are all pragmatic. First, all kinds of professional schools were established in order to quickly cultivate all kinds of high-level talents who are rich and strong. Muhammad Ali's educational reforms were mainly for the country's military construction, administration, economic development, and professional schools directly serving the military dominated. Second, secular primary schools and preparatory schools were established to solve the problem of insufficient students in professional schools and higher education. Third, the purpose of sending students abroad is to directly learn advanced science and technology, ideology and culture from the West, and at the same time hopes to replace the status of foreigners in Egypt with international students. In other words, the basic purpose of Muhammad Ali's educational reforms was to solve the pressing real problems facing Egypt at that time, and there was a general lack of long-term planning.
(3) The reform model is biased towards elite education
Muhammad Ali's educational reform is not to create mass education for ordinary people, but to create elite education for a small number of people. Although Egypt has established secular schools at all levels using foreign experts and returned students, Muhammad Ali has always been vigilant about mass education. In a letter to his son, Muhammad Ali wrote: "The misfortune of Europe is the result of the popularization of education to all sectors of society, which is in crisis and has been unable to stop what has happened. If this is an example before us, then it is our duty to teach the people only how to read and write to a limited extent, so that they can better accomplish the tasks of labor, and universal education cannot exceed this limit. "This fully shows that Muhammad Ali does not pay attention to universal education. Under the guidance of this ideology, the educational reform he promoted is also biased towards elite education, which is mainly manifested in the following three aspects.
First, reforms focused on higher education, which itself has an elite nature. Only people with a certain scientific knowledge base could enter various professional colleges and universities, but such people were very few in Egypt at that time. It is difficult for the children of the common people to receive a professional education in scientific knowledge from the beginning, while the children of the elite have the ability to be exposed to Western-style education from an early age, so the children of the elite are more likely to enter the professional schools of interest.
Second, compared with traditional Islamic schools, the number of secular primary and preparatory schools founded by Muhammad Ali is generally small, and the overall enrollment scale is not large. As a result, only a small number of students can attend secular primary and preparatory schools, and most school-age students do not have access to secular schools for a new type of education. In this case, the children of the elite often have all the convenient conditions for entering secular schools, and can give priority to secular primary and preparatory schools, while the children of ordinary people encounter invisible obstacles to secular education.
Third, Egypt's sending students abroad also has the nature of elite education. At that time, the number of students sent by Egypt to the outside world was limited and not large. In the selection process of international students, the children of nobles and officials will also be given priority, and it is more difficult for children of civilian families to study in Europe.
(4) Preserve religious education
The preservation of religious education was also a feature of Muhammad Ali's educational reforms. The separation of education from religion is one of the basic characteristics of educational modernization, but the educational reform of the religious field in the Muhammad Ali educational reform is relatively limited. In Egypt, Ulyma (religious scholars) had a long monopoly on education. Muhammad Ali established the Ministry of Education, which was in charge of the state's education work, thus depriving Urima of its monopoly on education. But for Al-Azhar University, the stronghold of traditional Islamic education, Mohammed Ali did not take reform measures, but advocated sending Students who remained in Europe from Al-Azhar graduates, or sending some graduates to new schools for further study, in order to train them to become a new type of "Urima". The reason why Muhammad Ali did not carry out a major reform of Islamic education is because the Islamic religious forces are deeply rooted in Egypt, and in order to consolidate the foundation of his regime, he hopes to gain the support of the Islamic religious community; second, because the reform of religious education is not very urgent compared to other areas of reform.
The above characteristics of Muhammad Ali's educational reform are closely related to the influence of the Egyptian national conditions at that time and the personal choices of Muhammad Ali himself. Because of this, Muhammad Ali's educational reforms inevitably have the limitations of the times and reflect the limitations of Egypt's modernization process. The most prominent point is that he did not reform the traditional Islamic education, but adopted the method of bypassing the traditional Islamic education and creating a modern secular education, which led to the situation that modern education in Egypt was not completely free from religious control and religious education still occupied a considerable position.
The impact of Muhammad Ali's educational reforms
Although educational reform was not at the heart of Muhammad Ali's reforms, his educational reform initiatives had a profound impact on egypt's educational landscape, the reform process, and the modernization of society.
First of all, the monopoly of Islamic education was broken, and the educational pattern in which secular education and religious education coexisted in Egypt gradually took shape. The greatest contribution of Muhammad Ali's educational reform was the creation of a secular education system that opened the way for the modernization of education in Egypt. Prior to Muhammad Ali's educational reforms, Egyptian education was primarily the islamic tradition, which was primarily for the service of religion rather than for the purpose of raising the overall level of knowledge of the population, which hindered the spread of knowledge of the natural sciences. Whether it is the teaching content or the teaching method, traditional education is not conducive to the expansion of students' thinking and ideological enlightenment. In the face of the advanced ideology, culture and education system of the West, Egypt's traditional education is seriously disconnected from the development of the times, which is obviously not in line with the development trend of the modern era. Muhammad Ali vigorously learned from European countries, widely absorbed the advanced scientific and cultural knowledge of the West, actively developed secular education, opened the door of Egyptian secular education, and promoted the transformation of Egyptian education from Islamic traditional education to modern education.
The development of secular education in Egypt has impacted the dominance of Islamic education in Egyptian education and broken the shackles of Islamic religious education. However, Muhammad Ali did not deeply reform the traditional Islamic religious education system, Al-Azhar is independent of the secular education system and other religious education systems, and Egyptian education has formed a dualistic pattern of secular education and religious education, which has been followed until the 21st century. In 2016/2017, there were 11,250 pre-primary education schools with 35,105 classes and 1.244 million students in Egypt; there were 18,263 schools with 239,000 classes and 1,107 students in primary education. There are 50,000 students; there are 11,667 preparatory education schools with 110,000 classes and 4.726 million students; there are 3,334 schools with 41,296 classes and 1.641 million students in upper secondary education. In the Al-Azhar education system, in 2016/2017, there were 3,567 primary schools with 30,245 classes and 938,000 students; preparatory schools with 3,333 classes with 13,873 classes with 401,000 students; and 2,181 high schools with 13,357 classes and 391,000 students.
The dualistic system of education in Egypt still plays an important role in modern Egypt. On the one hand, the secular education system and the religious education system dominated by Al-Azhar together constitute the education system of modern Egypt, which has become the main way for modern Egypt to popularize education and disseminate knowledge. On the other hand, secular education systems and Al-Azhar-led religious education systems are complementary in terms of educational content, with secular education emphasizing the construction of knowledge systems and the provision of modern knowledge, while religious education focuses on inculcating religious beliefs and shaping moral concepts. The two cooperated with each other, which had an important impact on the study of theoretical knowledge and the shaping of ideological concepts of modern Egyptians. Of course, secular education and religious education are not only complementary, but also inevitable struggles between the two, which are prominently reflected in two aspects: one is the contradiction and conflict between modern thought and religious belief, and the other is the competition between the two sides for educational resources and educational dominance. In addition, the dual education system has led to the emergence of different elite education systems in Egypt, and the secular education system and the religious education system have produced secular elite groups and religious elite groups, respectively, and the interests of these two elite groups are not consistent, which is closely related to the mundane education system created by Muhammad Ali's educational reform to create a secular education system, but did not deeply reform the traditional Islamic religious education system.
Second, to promote the prosperity of Egyptian cultural undertakings and promote the ideological emancipation of Egyptians. The educational reforms of Muhammad Ali contributed to the rise and development of the Egyptian translation movement. Egypt purchased books from European countries on military, engineering, science, economics, art, etc., and ordered people to organize translations. Egypt has also established specialized language schools to train translators. Language school students translate books in various foreign languages under the guidance of teachers. The translation movement contributed to the reform of the Arabic language in Egypt. During the translation campaign, translators discovered that Arabic lacked terminology that corresponded to Western science, reformed the Arabic language, absorbed and borrowed a large number of French, English, italian words, and created many new words. The Arabic reforms not only updated and enriched the Arabic vocabulary, but also facilitated the transition from classical Arabic to modern Arabic.
As an important product of Muhammad Ali's educational reform, returned students have also made important contributions to Egypt's educational reform. After being exposed to advanced educational concepts, teaching methods and curriculum content in Europe, international students deeply feel the backwardness of Egyptian education and vigorously promote Egypt's educational reform after returning to China. Under the impetus of international students, the curriculum of Egyptian education has been greatly enriched, "in addition to military subjects such as shooting, art of war, fortifications, military reconnaissance, etc., there are also languages (Arabic, Turkish, Persian, French, etc.), algebra, geometry, history, geography, calligraphy, painting, physics, land surveying and other disciplines, which are relatively complete." After entering the education system, these international students follow the Western education model and actively participate in the reform of the education system and education methods. The translation movement and educational reforms promoted the spread of Western bourgeois ideas such as freedom, equality, and democracy in Egypt. International students not only learned expertise, they also learned the "implicit curriculum" of Western liberal values. The spread of these "hidden courses" in Egypt further promoted the rise of Egyptian Islamic modernism and accelerated the awakening of the national consciousness of Egyptians.
At that time, representative figures among Egyptian students included Rifaa Tahtawi, the pioneer of the Egyptian modern cultural enlightenment, and Ali Mubarak, the "father of modern education in Egypt". In 1826, Tahtawi went to France with the group of students as the provost of the group, but soon converted to an international student to study translation. During his five years of studying in France, he studied French assiduously, read a wide range of books on law, philosophy, culture, etc., and actively absorbed bourgeois ideas and culture. After returning to Egypt, Tahtawi worked first as a translator and teacher, and then as a language school. In 1842, he became editor-in-chief of the Chronicle of Egypt. After returning from studying abroad, Tahtawi devoted himself to introducing advanced Western culture to Egyptian society, presided over the translation of a large number of Various Western works, became the leader of Egyptian translation and introduction of Western modern thought, and exerted an important influence on the formation of Islamic modernism. Ali Mubarak went to France in 1844 to study, and during his study abroad, he attached great importance to the examination of the French educational system. After returning to China, Ali Mubarak actively participated in the reform of Egypt's education system, and established cultural and educational institutions such as the "Science Museum" and the "Book Museum", which played an important role in promoting the development and prosperity of Egypt's educational and cultural undertakings in the 19th century.
Third, to help the industrial development of modern Egypt. During the time of Muhammad Ali, Egypt carried out the industrialization strategy and established a number of modern factories and military factories, including textile, sugar, paper, dyes and other civilian factories, as well as weapons, saltpeter, gunpowder, shipbuilding, etc. The development of Egypt's modern industry is not only due to the direct introduction of advanced western science and technology, but also inseparable from the new types of workers and new talents cultivated by educational reform. Workers are an important force in industrial development, and modern factories have higher requirements for workers' knowledge and ability and quality than traditional handicraft workshops, and traditional religious education cannot provide matching knowledge, and it is difficult to cultivate workers suitable for new factories. Muhammad Ali's educational reforms produced a new type of worker needed for the industrial development of modern Egypt. According to statistics, the number of workers in various factories in Egypt at that time was about 31,000. In addition, in the process of industrial development in modern Egypt, the new talents cultivated by Muhammad Ali's educational reforms have played their part. On the one hand, students of relevant professional schools enter the factory after graduation to become technicians or managers, and use the professional knowledge they have learned to carry out technical research and development or daily management, ensuring the orderly operation of the factory. On the other hand, some international students have become technicians of factories after returning to China, using advanced science and technology brought back from Europe to update the production technology of Egyptian factories and continuously improve the quality of Egyptian industrial products. Some international students have become managers of modern factories in Egypt after returning to China, and they have practiced the advanced management methods and business concepts learned in Europe in the Egyptian factories, which has promoted the transformation of Egyptian factory management methods and the transformation of production categories.
Thanks to the efforts of the new types of workers and talents cultivated by Muhammad Ali's educational reforms, Egypt's industry at that time developed rapidly. In the field of textiles, for example, construction of egypt began in 1816 on the construction of the first textile mill, and by 1829 nearly 30 cotton mills had been established, with 1,459 spinning machines and 1,215 looms. In the field of military industry, the artillery workshop of the Cairo Castle Arsenal, founded in 1820, has 1,500 workers and casts three or four cannon doors per month; the gun workshop has 900 workers and produces 600,700 French rifles per month. Between 1830 and 1840, there were 18 naval warships built at alexander shipyard alone, 2 of which were equipped with 130 guns and 8 with 100 guns.
Finally, we should cultivate practical talents and ensure the smooth implementation of reforms in other fields. Muhammad Ali's educational reforms not only cultivated talents in the field of education and culture, but also cultivated the administrative, economic and military talents needed for reform, thus providing a strong talent support for the success of political, economic and military reforms. In the political sphere, Muhammad Ali began to establish a central and local management system after eradicating the Mamluk forces, which required a large number of new managers as a support. In order to train Egypt's much-needed administrators, Muhammad Ali founded the School of Administration, and his students entered the executive branch at all levels after graduation, becoming advocates and promoters of political reform in Egypt. In addition to cultivating administrative talents independently, Muhammad Ali also actively sent international students from Western countries to learn advanced political ideas, political systems, and management experience. After returning home, international students actively participated in political practice and used the advanced knowledge they learned to promote political reform in Egypt. Whether it is students of administrative schools or international students who have returned to China after completing their studies, they are an important guarantee for the smooth implementation of various measures of political reform. Muhammad Ali's economic reforms involved land and taxation, agriculture, industry, etc., and the new talents cultivated by the educational reforms played a significant role in this. The implementation and improvement of the new land system and the taxation system, as well as agricultural development and industrial progress, are inseparable from the practice and efforts of graduates of professional schools such as finance and accounting schools, agricultural schools, and technical schools, as well as the study and reference of returned students to the advanced experience of the West. The various types of new military talents cultivated by military colleges have provided Egypt with indispensable high-quality talents for building a new type of army. Therefore, the various practical talents cultivated by Muhammad Ali's educational reform provide a talent guarantee for the smooth implementation of reform measures.
In addition, some of the ideas of Muhammad Ali's educational reforms have been passed down to this day. First, elites study overseas. Muhammad Ali chose elites to study in the West, pioneering the path of overseas education for Egypt's elites. Since then, Egypt's elite has gone overseas to study and receive education. Egypt's elite mostly chooses to travel to Western countries for education. In 2008, 2009 and 2010, the number of Egyptian students studying abroad was 8,709, 10,257 and 11,627, respectively, of which the main places of study were the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. A number of representative figures have emerged among Egyptian students studying abroad, such as the 1999 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Ahmed Xavier who studied in the United States, and former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Gurry studied in France. Egyptian presidents also have most of them have studied abroad, such as Mubarak who went to the Soviet Union three times for further study, Morsi who has many years of study and teaching experience in the United States, and Sisi who has traveled to the United Kingdom and the United States to study military.
The second is to develop foreign education in the country. In order to break through traditional education, the various military schools and professional schools founded by Muhammad Ali employed Europeans to teach, which can be regarded as the prototype of the development of foreign education in Egypt. In 2002, Egypt promulgated the Private Universities Law No. 101, and private foreign universities were established in Egypt. The American University in Cairo was the first to be founded, and its educational strength and education level are among the highest in Egypt. In the 21st century, université Française d'Egypte, German University in Cairo, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Egyptian Chinese University, and University of Canada in Egypt Egypt) and others were also established. These foreign schools became an important complement to Egyptian public education and Al-Azhar education.
Third, the development of technical education. The professional schools established by Muhammad Ali can be seen as the embryo of the development of technical education in Egypt. This concept of cultivating talents has also been followed to this day. The 2014 Constitution, the Industrial and Trade Development Strategy for 2016-2020, and the Egyptian Vision 2030 all contain tasks and goals for the development of technical education. In 2016/2017, there were 1.793 million students in technical education in Egypt, including 241 agricultural schools with 5,050 classes and 210,000 students; 841 commercial schools with 17,697 classes with 705,000 students; and 1,122 industrial schools with 25,014 classes and 878,000 students.
In summary, educational reform is an organic part of The modernization reform of Muhammad Ali, although it did not subvert the traditional Islamic education system, nor did it completely free Egyptian education from religious constraints, but it led to the formation of a situation in Which Egypt developed in parallel with secular education and religious education, broke the confinement of Traditional Islamic religious education in Egypt, opened the door to the development of secular education, promoted the dissemination of Advanced Western scientific thought and cultural knowledge in Egypt, promoted the modernization and transformation of Egyptian education, and conformed to the trend of Egyptian modernization. But it should also be noted that, as with reforms in other areas, the fundamental starting point of Muhammad Ali's educational reform is to maintain his own rule, lack of long-term planning, and more of a pragmatic move. In addition, Muhammad Ali's educational reforms were promoted from the top down and did not really gain the inner approval of the Egyptian people. Although professional schools and secular primary and secondary schools provided free education, egyptians at that time were reluctant to attend these schools, fearing that they would be assigned to the army after graduation, and many students would be forcibly brought in. Regrettably, after Muhammad Ali, as with other reforms, his educational reforms were largely not inherited by his successors, many secular and professional schools were closed, and Egyptian education was in a state of regression. However, in the process of Muhammad Ali's educational reform, the Western works translated by the Egyptian elite and the established cultural institutions continued to exist, still played a role in ideological enlightenment and cultural education, and the various new talents cultivated continued to play an important role in various fields in Egypt, which laid the foundation for the future progress and development of Egyptian education, and also had important enlightenment for the modernization of education in developing countries.
First, grasp the development trend of the times and actively seek educational reform. It is precisely because Muhammad Ali saw the great changes in the emerging Western capitalist countries and the necessity and urgency of educational reform in Egypt, realized the imperative of modernization reform, and actively promoted educational reform and achieved good results. After entering the 21st century, the Fourth Industrial Revolution flourished, while most developing countries were lagging behind due to insufficient advanced technology. If developing countries want to seize the historical opportunity of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they must recognize the importance of education for advanced technology, actively promote the modernization of education, and thus conform to the trend of world development.
Second, respect the law of educational development and adhere to the correct direction of educational development. Some of the measures of Muhammad Ali's educational reform violate the basic laws of educational development, such as giving priority to the development of higher education and ignoring primary and secondary education, focusing on elite education and opposing mass education, which restricts the process of egypt's educational modernization and is not conducive to the long-term development of Egyptian education. Developing countries should see the shortcomings of Muhammad Ali's educational reforms and learn the lessons of his reforms.
Third, attach importance to drawing on and absorbing foreign experience and introducing advanced educational achievements. Muhammad Ali's educational reforms were a product of much borrowing from Western education at the time, especially with the introduction of secular education models. It was based on the imitation of the advanced education of the West at that time that Muhammad Ali's educational reform was able to take advantage of the beneficial results of long-term exploration in Western countries to quickly and effectively achieve the desired goals. Nowadays, the development of education in developing countries generally lags behind that of developed countries, and there are many drawbacks and problems, which should be learned from the successful experience of other countries, such as Israel's elite education, The United States' heuristic education, and Germany's vocational and technical education.
Fourth, the modernization of education should pay attention to inheriting and developing traditional education. Although the separation of religion and education is the basic path of educational modernization, the development of the Egyptian Islamic education system shows that traditional education and modern education are not completely opposites, and the two can complement and promote each other. Therefore, when realizing the modern transformation of education, developing countries should pay attention to criticizing the inheritance and development of their own traditional education, absorbing the beneficial factors in traditional education, and guiding the transformation of traditional education to modern education. In short, the modernization of education in the vast number of developing countries should not only learn from the experience of education development in developed countries, but also combine their national conditions to find a point of convergence between modern education and traditional education.
(The views in this article are only the personal views of the author and do not represent the position of the Shanghai Foreign Middle East Research Institute and this WeChat subscription account.) ）
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