s upper
class, which until the English occupation monopolized all political
power, there are large European "colonies" with "extraterritorial"
rights, while a further complication is added by the persistence of a
considerable native Christian element, the "Copts," who refused to turn
Mohammedan at the Arab conquest and who to-day number fully one-tenth of
the total population.

With such a medley of races, creeds, and cultures, and with so prolonged
a tradition of foreign domination, Egypt might seem a most unlikely
_milieu_ for the growth of nationalism. On the other hand, Egypt has
been more exposed to Western influences than any other part of the Near
East. Bonaparte's invasion at the close of the eighteenth century
profoundly affected Egyptian life, and though the French were soon
expelled, European influences continued to permeate the valley of the
Nile. Mehemet Ali, the able Albanian adventurer who made himself master
of Egypt after the downfall of French rule, realized the superiority of
European methods and fostered a process of Europeanization which,
however superficial, resulted in a wide dissemination of Western ideas.
Mehemet Ali's policy was continued by his successors. That magnificent
spendthrift Khedive Ismail, whose reckless contraction of European loans
was the primary cause of European intervention, prided himself on his
"Europeanism" and surrounded himself with Europeans.

Indeed, the first stirrings of Egyptian nationalism took the form of a
protest against the noxious, parasitical "Europeanism" of Khedive Ismail
and his courtiers. Sober-minded Egyptians became increasingly alarmed at
the way Ismail was mortgaging Egypt's independence by huge European
loans and sucking its life-blood by merciless taxation. Inspired
consciously or unconsciously by the Western concepts of "nation" and
"patriotism," these men desired to stay Ismail's destructive course and
to safeguard Egypt's future. In fact, their efforts were directed not
merely against the motley crew of European adventurers and
concessionaires who were luring the Khedive into fresh extravagances,
but also against the complaisant Turkish and Circassian pashas, and the
Armenian and Syrian usurers, who were the instruments of Ismail's will.
The nascent movement was thus basically a "patriotic" protest against
all those, both foreigners and native-born, who were endangering the
country. This showed clearly in the motto adopted by the agitators--the