Islam. 151larize the country, Muhammad Ali simply confiscated much
religiously endowed property and systematically marginal-
ized the ulama, divesting them of any shred of power. As a re-
sult, 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 their
country. Muhammad All's grandson Ismail Pasha (1803-95)
was even more successful: he paid for the construction of the
Suez Canal, built nine hundred miles of railways, irrigated
some 1,373,000 acres of hitherto uncultivable land, set up
modern schools for boys and girls and transformed Cairo into
a modern city. Unfortunately, the cost of this ambitious pro-
gramme made Egypt bankrupt, forced the country into debt
and gave Britain a pretext for establishing its military occupa-
tion in 1882 to safeguard the interests of the European share-
holders. Muhammad Ali and Ismail had wanted to make
Egypt a modern independent state; instead, as a result of
modernization, it simply became a virtual British colony.
None of these early reformers fully appreciated the ideas
behind the transformation of Europe. Their reforms were,
therefore, superficial. But later reformers up to and including
Saddam Hussein have also simply tried to acquire the mili-
tary technology and outer trappings of the modern West,
without bothering overmuch about its effects upon the rest of
society. From an early date, however, some reformers were
acutely aware of these dangers. One of the first to sound the
alarm was the Iranian activist Jamal al-Din (1839-97), who
styled himself "al-Afghani" ("the Afghan"), probably hoping
that he would attract a wider audience in the Muslim world
as an Afghan Sunni than as an Iranian Shii. He had been in
India at the time of the great mutiny of Hindus and Muslims
against British rule in 1857; wherever he travelled in Arabia,
Egypt, Turkey, Russia or Europe he was aware of the ubiqui-
tous power of the West, and was convinced that it would soon