190 • 12 THE RISE OF NATIONALISMwho came to teach at al-Azhar. Afghani would pop up in almost every polit¬
ical movement that stirred in the late nineteenth-century Middle East. He
soon clashed with the ulama and quit al-Azhar to form a sort of indepen¬
dent academy that attracted many young Egyptians who would later be¬
come political leaders or Islamic reformers. Two of them were Muhammad
Abduh, the greatest Muslim thinker of the late nineteenth century, and Sa'd
Zaghlul, leader of Egypt's independence struggle after World War I. Af¬
ghani, like Isma'il, encouraged journalists; but his protégés were bolder
ones, often Jews or Christians who turned more readily to secular national¬
ism than did most Muslims of the late 1870s.
Isma'il's financial crisis, which tied Egypt to Western creditors and to
their governments, shamed Egyptians, especially members of his represen¬
tative assembly. Once a subservient group of frightened rural landlords, it
had now turned into a vociferous body of antigovernment critics. But the
key breeding ground for nationalism was the army. Sa'id had started ad¬
mitting Egyptian farmers' sons into the officer corps and had promoted
some of them rapidly, whereas Isma'il held back their promotions and pay
raises in favor of the traditional elite, the Turks and Circassians. Frus¬
trated, the Egyptian officers formed a secret society to plot against their
oppressors. It later would become the nucleus of the first National Party.
Isma'il's deposition set back the nascent nationalists. During his last
months in power, the Egyptian officers had joined with government work¬
ers, assembly representatives, journalists, and ulama to back the drafters of
a constitution that would give to Egyptians some of the rights and free¬
doms enjoyed by Europeans in their own countries. But Tawfiq, the new
khédive, thought it safer to back the European creditors than the Egyptian
nationalists. He dismissed the liberal cabinet, restored the Dual Control,
banned the newspapers, and exiled Afghani and other agitators.
AHMAD URABI,
The nationalists seemed to be in eclipse, but we suspect that Khedive Taw¬
fiq secretly encouraged them. Sa'd Zaghlul and Muhammad Abduh were
still able to demand constitutional rule in the official journal they edited.
The disgruntled Egyptian officers continued to meet. In February 1881
these men, led by Colonel Ahmad Urabi, mutinied and "forced" Tawfiq to
replace his Circassian war minister with a nationalist, Mahmud Sami al-
Barudi. Seven months later, 2,500 Egyptian officers and soldiers sur¬
rounded the khedive's palace and "made" him appoint a liberal cabinet.
Moreover, they demanded a constitution, parliamentary government, and