The tragedy of the pyramids
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| The tragedy of the pyramids |
From Introduction:
The fact that I have written a novel on the coming revolution in Egypt, simultaneously with Mr. Hall Caine, is not due to an accident. I had before he began the serial publication of the " White Prophet," written about half a novel inspired by the humour of travel in Egypt. But when I had read the first two instalments of the " White Prophet " I felt constrained to put aside what I had written, and write a counterblast to Mr Hall Caine. I read no more of his book until I had finished mine. " The Tragedy of the Pyramids " is, therefore, a counterblast, not an answer, to his.
It is my idea of the form of a revolution in Egypt will assume if the Egyptian Nationalist ever takes his courage in both hands. He will not do so unless the British Government and its Representative in Egypt are incredibly foolish, because, since the success of the Young Turk, there is no present chance of the agitation against the British in Egypt being Pan-Islamic
The dangerous element in the Egyptian Nationalist movement during the past few years has been Mohammedan fanaticism. While the old Sultan and the Reactionary Party were in power in Turkey, the Nationalists hoped to put all the forces of Islam in North Africa in motion against Great Britain. But when the chief religious and chief political authorities at Constantinople proclaimed that Great Britain was the friend of liberty and the friend of Islam and that the British rule in Egypt had given Young Turkey its ideals, the chief motive force of the Egyptian Nationalist conspiracy was gone.
However, the great Senoussi Confederation in the Sahara, which only acknowledges the supremacy of the Sultan in a shadowy way, continues firm in its intention of, whenever it is strong enough, expelling the Christians from North Africa by a Holy War; while the corruption-mongers, the city mobs and the schoolboys of Egypt will continue Nationahst; and the two latter can always engineer a demonstration. To produce a bonafide revolution the fellahin, or peasants, estimated by Dr Budge at about seven-eighths of the population, have to be thrown into the scale against the British.
Author: Douglas
Sladen Publication Date:1909
Download 18 MB
It is my idea of the form of a revolution in Egypt will assume if the Egyptian Nationalist ever takes his courage in both hands. He will not do so unless the British Government and its Representative in Egypt are incredibly foolish, because, since the success of the Young Turk, there is no present chance of the agitation against the British in Egypt being Pan-Islamic
The dangerous element in the Egyptian Nationalist movement during the past few years has been Mohammedan fanaticism. While the old Sultan and the Reactionary Party were in power in Turkey, the Nationalists hoped to put all the forces of Islam in North Africa in motion against Great Britain. But when the chief religious and chief political authorities at Constantinople proclaimed that Great Britain was the friend of liberty and the friend of Islam and that the British rule in Egypt had given Young Turkey its ideals, the chief motive force of the Egyptian Nationalist conspiracy was gone.
However, the great Senoussi Confederation in the Sahara, which only acknowledges the supremacy of the Sultan in a shadowy way, continues firm in its intention of, whenever it is strong enough, expelling the Christians from North Africa by a Holy War; while the corruption-mongers, the city mobs and the schoolboys of Egypt will continue Nationahst; and the two latter can always engineer a demonstration. To produce a bonafide revolution the fellahin, or peasants, estimated by Dr Budge at about seven-eighths of the population, have to be thrown into the scale against the British.
They cannot be made to understand what a Parhament means; they know that the British gave them water; freed them from the slavery of kourbash and corvee — the lash and forced labour — and protected their women from the lusts and their property from the avarice of the pashas.
Author: Douglas
Sladen Publication Date:1909
Download 18 MB