Plain Talk
By
Mursi Saad El-Din
It is not often that I write about a book in this column, but a recent publication by Tharwat Okasha so impressed me I feel bound to introduce readers to it.
Egypt in the Eyes of Foreigners is an anthology of how writers and travellers recorded their impressions, in words and images, of Egypt in the 19th century.
The book starts with French visitors, writers, archaeologists and diplomats, since they pioneered the exploration of Egypt. We are introduced to the writings of Savory, Volney, Denon -- there are also over 60 of his drawings -- before moving on to selected texts and drawings from the Déscription d'Égypte, and from Pris d'Avennes' books on ancient Egyptian and Arab Art.
We read what Gerard de Nerval wrote about Cairo, his descriptions of the city's streets, cafés, public baths, markets, weddings and moulids -- indeed all that constituted life in Cairo. Okasha mentions de Nerval's sympathy towards Islam and his efforts to repudiate what some 18th century authors had written about it. De Nerval also defended the high status of women in Islam.
Then we come to Gustave Flaubert and his letters about his stay in Egypt with his friend Maxime du Camp. Flaubert arrived in Egypt in 1849 at the age of 28 and tried to enjoy life in the country. As an artist Flaubert was first attracted to nature in Egypt and only later did he begin to be interested in the people and their daily life.
After more French visitors Okasha begins to introduce us to the English travellers, starting with W R Hamilton, who published his book Aegyptiaia in 1809. It became a kind of proto-guide book for visitors who came after him, and inspired Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandias". We get to know about Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians (1837), which was the result of 12 years of research.
Wilkinson's title was adopted by Edward Lane for his book Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, the most detailed account of Egyptian life in the 1830's. Okasha pays homage to Lane -- a serious historian who loved Egypt and devoted his life to producing his great book.
Okasha criticises Alexander Kinglake, whose book Eothen he dismisses as unfair and prejudiced, but praises Lucy Duff Gordon who arrived in Egypt when she was 40 and lived here until she died. Her Letters from Egypt reflected her love for the country and the poor, with whom she lived. She loved simple people and they loved her. She mixed with them and shared their lives.
She lived most of the time on a boat, moving from one town in Upper Egypt to another.
Okasha describes her insight into the real problems of the country. She was a shrewd observer and one of the first writers to reveal the mistakes made by the British and Khedive Ismail. Okasha quotes several pieces of her writing, including a passage in which she compares Christian and Muslim morality. She was puzzled not to discover "the slightest difference between the two" and she comes to the conclusion that "the real difference consists in all the class of notions and feelings that we derive not from the gospel at all but from Greece and Rome and which, of course, are altogether wanting here."
Going through the two volumes one feels there is a certain sympathy, indeed camaraderie between Okasha and his characters. The book ends with Okasha bidding farewell to the writers he has anthologised. They are "dear friends with whom ...[he] lived for years since beginning to prepare for this book."
"I say goodbye to them as I would a group of friends. I lived with them and became all the more attached to them, and now they are departing, leaving their ghosts to console me."
