Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol IV. No. XX. January, 1852.Various
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol IV. No. XX. January, 1852.
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Cairo contained three hundred thousand inhabitants. Its population was
brutal and ferocious in the extreme. The capital was in a state of
terrible agitation, for the path of Oriental conquerors is ever marked
with brutality, flames, and blood. Napoleon immediately dispatched a
detachment of his army into the city to restore tranquillity, and to
protect persons and property from the fury of the populace. The next day
but one, with great pomp and splendor, at the head of his victorious
army, he entered Cairo, and took possession of the palace of Mourad Bey.
With the most extraordinary intelligence and activity he immediately
consecrated all his energies to promote the highest interest of the
country he had conquered. Nothing escaped his observation. He directed
his attention to the mosques, the harems, the condition of the women,
the civil and religious institutions, the state of agriculture, the
arts, and sciences--to every thing which could influence the elevation
and prosperity of the country. He visited the most influential of the
Arab inhabitants, assured them of his friendship, of his respect for
their religion, of his determination to protect their rights, and of his
earnest desire to restore to Egypt its pristine glory. He disclaimed all
sovereignty over Egypt, but organized a government to be administered by
the people themselves. He succeeded perfectly in winning their
confidence and admiration. He immediately established a congress,
composed of the most distinguished citizens of Cairo, for the creation
of laws and the administration of justice, and established similar
assemblies in all the provinces, which were to send deputies to the
general congress at Cairo. He organized the celebrated Institute of
Egypt, to diffuse among the people the light and the sciences of Europe.
Some of the members were employed in making an accurate description and
a perfect map of Egypt; others were to study the productions of the
country, that its resources might be energetically and economically
developed; others were to explore the ruins, thus to shed new light upon
history; others were to study the social condition of the inhabitants,
and proper plans for the promotion of their welfare, by the means of
manufactures, canals, roads, mills, works upon the Nile, and
improvements in agriculture. Among the various questions proposed to the
Institute by Napoleon, the following may be mentioned as illustrative of
his enlarged designs: Ascertain the best construction for wind and water
mills; find a substitute for the hop, which does not grow in Egypt, for
the making of beer; select sites adapted to the cultivation of the vine;
seek the best means of procuring water for the citadel of Cairo; select
spots for wells in different parts of the desert; inquire into the means
of clarifying and cooling the waters of the Nile; devise some useful
application of the rubbish with which the city of Cairo, and all the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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