Rifa'a el-Tahtawi

Rifa'a el-Tahtawi (also spelled Tahtawy; Arabic: رفاعة الطهطاوي; born in Tahta, Egypt 1801; died in 1873) was an Egyptian writer, teacher, translator, Egyptologist and renaissance intellectual. Tahtawi was among the first Egyptian scholars to write about Western cultures in an attempt to bring about a reconciliation and an understanding between Islamic and Western civilizations. He founded the School of Languages in 1835 and was influential in the development of science, law, literature and Egyptology in 19th-century Egypt. His work influenced that of many later scholars including Muhammad Abduh.

Background

Tahtawi was born in 1801 in the village of Tahta south of Asyut, the same year the French troops evacuated Egypt. He was an Azharite recommended by his teacher and mentor Hassan el-Attar to be the chaplain of a group of students Mohammed Ali was sending to Paris in 1826. Many student missions from Egypt went to Europe in the early 19th century to study arts and sciences at European universities and acquire technical skills such as printing, shipbuilding and modern military techniques. According to his memoir "Rihla" ("Journey to Paris"), Tahtawi studied ethics, social and political philosophy, and mathematics and geometry. He read works by Condillac, Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu and Bezout among others during his sojourn in France. [Vatikiotis, p. 113]

In 1831, Tahtawi returned home to be part of the statewide effort to modernize the Egyptian infrastructure and education. He undertook a career in writing and translation, and founded the School of Languages in 1835. The School of Languages graduated the earliest modern Egyptian intellectual milieu, which formed the basis of the emerging grassroots mobilization against British colonialism in Egypt. Three of his published volumes were works of political and moral philosophy. They introduced his Egyptian audience to Enlightenment ideas such as secular authority and political rights and liberty; his ideas regarding how a modern civilized society ought to be and what constituted by extension a civilized or "good Egyptian"; and his ideas on public interest and public good. [Vatikiotis, p. 115-16] Tahtawi's work was the first effort in what became an Egyptian renaissance ("nahda") that flourished in the years between 1860–1940. [Vatikiotis, p. 116]

Egyptology

Tahtawi was instrumental in sparking indigenous interest in Egypt's ancient heritage. In 1868, he published a volume on the history of ancient Egypt, composed a number of poems in praise of Egypt and wrote two other general histories of the country. His work on ancient Egypt led Jean-François Champollion to run a progress report on his work during Tahtawi's tenure in Paris. [Reid, p. 53] Tahtawi co-founded with his contemporary Ali Mubarak, the architect of the modern Egyptian school system, a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars who studied ancient Egyptian history, language and antiquities. Tahtawi encouraged his compatriots to learn the modern sciences, from Europeans if necessary, drawing on the example of Pharaoh Psamtek I who had enlisted the Greeks' help in organizing the Egyptian army. In his writings, he conceived of modern Egyptians as heirs of Egypt's ancient civilization, and urged his compatriots to demonstrate "love of country". [Reid, p. 54]

Work

A selection of his works are :

Tahtawi's writings

• "A Paris Profile," written during Tahtawi's stay in France.

• "The methodology of Egyptians minds with regard to the marvels of modern literature," published in 1869 crystallizing Tahtawi's opinions on modernization.

• "The honest guide for education of girls and boys," published in 1873 and reflecting the main precepts of Tahtawi's educational thoughts.

• "Tawfik Al-Galil insights into Egypt's and Ismail descendants' history," the first part of the History Encyclopedia published in 1868 and tracing the history of ancient Egypt till the dawn of Islam.

• "A thorough summary of the biography of Mohammed" published after Tahtawi's death, recording a comprehensive account of the life of Prophet Mohammed and the political, legal and administrative foundations of the first Islamic state.

• "Towards a simpler Arabic grammar," published in 1869.

• "Grammatical sentences," published in 1863.

• "Egyptian patriotic lyrics," written in praise of Khedive Said and published in 1855.

• "The luminous stars in the moonlit nights of Al-Aziz," a collection of congratulatory writings to some princes, published in 1872.

Tahtawi's translations

• " The history of ancient Egyptians," published in 1838.

• "The Arabization of trade law," published in 1868.

• "The Arabization of the French civil law," published in 1866.

• "The unequivocal Arabization approach to geography," published in 1835.

• "Small-scale geography," published in 1830.

• "Metals and their use," published in 1867.

• "Ancient philosophers," published in 1836.

• "Principals of engineering," published in 1854.

• "Useful metals," published in 1832.

• "Logic," published in 1838.

• "Sasure's engineering," published in 1874.

• "General geography."

• "The French constitution."

• "On health policies."

• "On Greek mythology."

Source: Egyptian State Information Service

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Notes

References

*cite book | last=Reid | first=Donald Malcolm | title=Whose Pharaohs? Archaeology, Museums, and Egyptian National Identity from Napoleon to World War I | location=Berkeley | publisher=University of California Press | year=2002
*cite book | last=Vatikiotis | first=P.J. | title=The History of Modern Egypt | eddition=4th ed. | location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | year=1991

External links

*Gran, Peter. [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/568/cu1.htm Tahtawi in Paris] . Ahram Weekly. 10 - 16 January 2002.