Reform projects Flashcards
When did napoleon invade egypt
1798
What did napoleon bring
The invasion and colonisation of Egypt by Napoleon started the process of Westernisation[2], a process which initiated the decline of the power of ulama. Napoleon began to modernise Egypt in terms of the education system, technology and science. He created secular schools for the first time. This was a process continued by Muhammad Ali upon French withdrawal. Print press.
Who had the monopoly on education
ulama
Reforms of Ali
military and schools…
When reforming the military, Ali took partial control of the education system, again following the French model by creating secularised schools; military, medical and veterinary schools, enabling them to turn out men with skills which would benefit his military.[5] This resulted in the ulama losing their total monopoly of the education system.
Ali and the ulama
‘Ali…confiscated much religious endowed property, systematically marginalized the ulama, and divested them of any shred of power. As a result, the ulama, who had experienced modernity as a shocking assault, became even more insular, and closed their minds against the new world that was coming into being in this country’.[6]
how did ali fund the army reform
Moreover, Ali needed to fund the army reform. He introduced a taxation system that took control of the wafq (a charitable trust the ulama controlled and benefitted from financially) under the state. By doing this, the ulama lost a huge amount of wealth and confidence. Karen Armstrong states:
why did ali see the reform of the army as vital
Ali knew he needed to reform the army to keep Egypt safe from ‘the predations of the Europeans’[3] and therefore built his military strength based on the ‘model of the Napoleonic Army’[4]. This is significant as he knew he needed to match their strength to remain free from colonisation.
what resulted in britain colonising
Ali’s successors continued his reform project but, however, bankrupted the country and were in debt to European countries resulting in the occupation of Britain in Egypt from 1882 until 1952. It was this occupation which drove reformers like al-Afghani and his student Abduh to further reform Egypt as one of a return to Islam.
afghani and abduh
Israr Haan, whose work focuses on History and Civilization states:
‘al-Afghani and Abduh believed that the only way for the muslim world to throw off the yoke of colonialism and push back against Western cultural hegemony was through a revival of islam… [they] blamed the clerical establishment – the ulama -for the sorry state of muslim society’.[7]
However, I argue that Western society was not entirely rejected by Abduh. Abduh believed that Western influences should be included in reforms such as including the teachings of the sciences in addition to teaching a purer form of Islam dervived from the first umma (community) led by the Prophet Muhammad.[8] This directly contradicted the ulama and, although opposition was created by them, Lord Cromer (the British Consul-General of Egypt) supported Abduh in his reforms and made him Grand Mufti of Egypt, the most senior religious role in office. This depicts how the wishes of the majority of the ulama were disregarded. The relationship between Lord Cromer and Abduh shows Abduh did not reject the West entirely.
mb and ulama
The Muslim Brotherhood was created in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. As young as thirteen years old, he became involved in the fight against British colonial rule and participated in the Egyptian revolution in 1919. He saw the British reforms in the Egyptian culture as an assault against Islam.[9] Al-Banna detested the secularisation he witnessed within Egypt and he blamed the West for the ‘religious and moral decay in Egyptian society’.[10] Al-Banna was inspired by Abduh and argued for a return to early Islam, however the Muslim Brotherhood discounted the role of the ulama blaming not ‘resisting the occupiers’.[11] The Muslim Brotherhood gained a large following from it’s outset which arguably shows the general public had lost faith in the ulama.
nasser and mb
With the accession of Nasser to power in 1952, the Muslim Brotherhood were clamped down on because Nasser wanted Egypt to be a secular country. The Muslim Brotherhood posed as a threat as they were an increasingly popular political force. At first, Nasser appeared to accommodate the ulama in order to show that he was not resistant to Islam. However, it was Nasser who unleashed the final assault on the ulama. He nationalized the al-Azhar, regarded as Egypt’s highest religious institution, removing any financial control the ulama had left. Moreover, he ‘abolished the sharia courts in order to unify judicial system’.[12] This resulted in excluding the ulama from control of the legal system, education system and wafq all of which had been under control of the ulama before the colonisation of the West.
why did ottoman become more muslim?
Was christian but became more islamic with accession of middle east
tanzimat
Tanzimat reforms due to slow decline of Ottoman Empire? Qualify
1839 – Reform decree – regularly assess taxes, regular conscription and fixed service terms for military, perfect security for life property and honor.
1856 – Corporal punishment curbed and torture abolished / modern banking system
1908 Revolution (July 1908) of the Ottoman Empire was the restoration of the Ottoman constitution of 1876 and ushering a multi-party politics in two stage electoral system (electoral law) under the Ottoman parliament by the Young Turks movement. Sultan Abdul Hamid II more than 3 decades earlier in 1876 established the constitutional monarchy, First Constitutional Era, only to last for two years before it was suspended. On 24 July 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid II capitulated and announced the restoration, which established the Second Constitutional Era.
Iltizam
An Iltizam (Arabic التزام) was a form of tax farm that appeared in the 15th century in the Ottoman Empire. The system began under Mehmed the Conqueror and was abolished during the Tanzimat reforms in 1856.
Iltizams were sold off by the government to wealthy notables, who would then reap up to five times the amount they had paid by taxing the peasants and extracting agricultural production. It was a system that was very profitable and was of great benefit to the Egyptian aristocracy under the Mameluks, and helped create a large and powerful elite. In Egypt it was abolished by Muhammad Ali as part of his centralization efforts in the early nineteenth century.
The holder of an Iltizam was a multazim (Arabic ملتزم).
Iltizam was typically an annual agreement; malikâne, developed as a replacement for Iltizam, was for life.[1]
forced labour
work land as ag reform to raiuse productivity of land resulting in raising taxs.. Peasant not happy. - ali
