REASSESSING EGYPTʾS DUAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION UNDER ISMA ʿIL: GROWING ʿILMAND SHIFTING GROUND IN EGYPTʾS FIRST EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL,RAWDAT AL-MADARIS1870–77

Abstract

As a true litterateur of his time, Shaykh Husayn al-Marsafi composed his 1881 treatiseThe Eight Wordsas an elucidation of “the words that are constantly on the tongues of the people.” After commenting on the weighty political concepts of nation, community, government, justice, injustice, politics, and freedom, al-Marsafi ends his work with a lengthy discussion ontarbiya(education). Just months before the ʿUrabi Revolt, education occupied a vital place alongside concerns about government, authority, and politics. Marsafi's choice of “words” simply articulated a long-standing belief that roughly a decade and a half of educational reforms brought to the fore: “Oncetarbiyais made perfect, everything else is also made perfect.”