y the
treaty required to set up the new council, of courts having competence
to deal with such matters, various safeguards being introduced to
prevent injustice in criminal cases. As to civil cases the proposal was
to make permanent the Mixed Tribunals, hitherto appointed for
quinquennial periods (so that if not reappointed consular jurisdiction
in civil cases would revive).

The pan-Islamic movement.

While the removal of ancient jealousies among the European powers
interested in Egypt helped to smooth the path pursued by the Egyptian
administration under the guiding hand of Great Britain, the intrigues of
the Turks and the danger of a revival of Moslem fanaticism threatened
during 1905-1906 to disturb the peace of the country. A party had also
arisen, whose best-known leader was Mustafa Kamel Pasha (1874-1908),
which held that Egypt was ready for self-government and which saw in the
presence of the British a hindrance to the attainment of their ideal.
This "national" party lent what weight it had to the pan-Islamic
agitation which arose in the summer and autumn of 1905, regardless of
the fact that a pan-Islamic triumph meant the re-assertion of direct
Turkish rule in Egypt and the end of the liberty the Egyptians enjoyed.
The pan-Islamic press, allowed full licence by the Cairo authorities,
spread abroad rumours that the Egyptian government intended to construct
fortifications in the Sinai peninsula with the design of menacing the
railway, under construction by Turkey, from Damascus to Mecca. This
baseless report led to what is known as the Taba incident (see below).
This incident inflamed the minds of many Egyptians, and almost all the
opposition elements in the country were united by the appeal to
religious fanaticism, of which the incident was partly the effect and
partly the cause. The inflammatory writing of the newspapers indicated,
encouraged by many persons holding high positions both inside and
outside Egypt, created, by every process of misrepresentation, an
anti-Christian and anti-European feeling among the mass of the people.
After more than a quarter of a century of just rule, i.e. since the
accession of Tewfik, the tyranny of the Turkish system was apt to be
forgotten, while the appeal to rally in support of their khalif found a
response in the hearts of many Egyptians. The feeling entertained by
large numbers even of the educated class of Egyptians was strikingly
illustrated by the terms of an ano