Cairo and Alexandria at the Beginning of the 20th Century An Analysis Based on Population and Education Censuses for 1907/8 Hiroshi KATO and Erina IWASAKI Contents １. Year of 1907, the starting point for the historical statistics in modern Egypt ２. Demographic structure of Cairo and Alexandria in the 1907 population census ３. Education census for 1907/8 ４. Education situations of Egypt in 1907/8 ５. Education situations of Cairo and Alexandria in 1907/8 The aim of this paper is to review the education census for 1907/81 and to point out some characteristics of the twin cities of modern Egypt, Alexandria and Cairo, at the beginning of the 20th century. This paper is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 gives the introductory remarks on the historical background of the education census for 1907/8. Chapter 2 describes brief ly the demographic structure of Cairo and Alexandria, referring to the 1907 population census. The last three chapters review the education situations of Cairo and Alexandria, being based on the education census for 1907/8; Chapter 3 presents the census concerned; Chapter 4 makes a general survey of the education situations of Egypt in 1907/8; and finally Chapter 5 examines the education situations of Cairo and Alexandria in 1907/8. 1. Year of 1907, the starting point for the historical statistics in modern Egypt The beginning of the 20th century is a turning point in the history of modern Egypt. In 1 - - - - - - - - - Niz4 arat al-Malīya, Idara ‘Umum al-Ih4 sa’, Kashf ih4 s4 a’ al-talamidh al-mawjudīn bi’l-madaris - - al-‘umumīya wa’l-khus4 us4 īya bi’l-qut4 r al-mis4 rī 1907-1908, al-Mat4 ba‘a al-Amīrīya bi-Mis4 r, 1908. We appreciate Mr. Nobuyasu Inuzuka, researcher on the education system in modern Egypt, for his kind collaboration in the data base works. 324 H. KATO and E. IWASAKI 1906, the Dinshaway Incident happened and the trial of Egyptian villagers involved provoked again the anti-British feeling in Egypt. In the next year, Lord Cromer, Britain’s agent and de facto governor of Egypt from 1883 after the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, resigned Britain’s consul general in Cairo. Egypt was colonized by the European Great Powers under the long rule by Cromer. However, paradoxically, this was the period when the Nation-State of Egypt was rapidly formed. The modernization of the national administration and the growing concern for statistics as a tool of rule were not suddenly generated by the Western presence but arose from the maturation of the Egyptian state and, within the Egyptian bureaucracy, from administrative necessity under the reigns of Muhammad Ali (ruled 1805-48) and his successors. However, this process assumed a more drastic form in 1876 when the state went bankrupt and was placed under the international supervision and especially after 1882 when the British army occupied Egypt in the suppression of Urabi Revolution. Those events represented the imperialist interference of the European powers in Egyptian affairs, but they also brought the rationalization of national finances, which had not previously differentiated between resources of the Royal family and those of the state. The road to establishing a national economy was open. Government agencies established Statistics Bureaus to provide the information for the administration. Ministry of Finance was the center to which the statistical information was sent. The Statistical Department of the Ministry of Finance conducted the first census in 1882. The 1882 effort was really a preparatory step; the first true population census was conducted in 1897. Thereafter, censuses were conducted at ten-year intervals in 1907, 1917, 1927, 1937, and 1947. The surveys conducted by British officials were, as they boasted, by far the most detailed and thorough ever conducted in Egypt. Japan, itself a late developer which undertook colonial ventures in the early 20th century, regarded Egypt as a ‘bad example’ from which to learn, but considered its colonial administration to be a positive model. The British administration in Egypt served as a model for the administrators who controlled Taiwan and Korea. For example, Japanese administrators assiduously studied the ‘scientific’ land survey conducted at the end of the 19th century in Egypt as well as the land tax revision which accompanied it in order to conduct an even more comprehensive survey in Korea from 1911 and revise land taxes2. From the beginning, the emphasis in accumulating statistical data centered on population statistics gathered through censuses. Needless to say, however, population statistics are the basic data which make possible the compilation of economic, social, and other statistics. 2 Hiroshi Miyajima, “The Korean Land Survey in Comparative Historical Perspective”, in Tetsu Nakamura et al. eds., The Modern Economic Structure of Korea, Nihon Hyoron-sha, Tokyo, 1990 (in Japanese). CAIRO AND ALEXANDRIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY 325 Therefore, attention has been devoted to gathering statistics in areas other than population when the opportunities exist. One such case was 1897, when the general population census was accompanied by other statistics gathering. One of the results of the latter is A. Boinet, Géographie économique et administrative de l'Egypte, Basse-Egypte I (Cairo, 1902)3. The volume was compiled at the village level and includes various data on the lives of villagers. However, it covers only three governorate in Lower Egypt. Although further volumes were announced, no similar works covering other prefectures were ever published. Statistics on social and economic aspects of village life were also collected at the time of - - - - - - the 1907 census. One result was Niz4 arat al-Malīya, Ih4 sa’īya ‘umumīya ‘an al-muh4 afaz4 at wa - al-mudīrīyat li-l-qut4 r al-mis4 rī [The general statistics of Egypt by administration units] (Cairo, 1909), published by the Ministry of Finance. In addition, detailed statistics on education were gathered and published as the education census for 1907/8. They served as a basis for time series analyses of educational statistics. 2. Demographic structure of Cairo and Alexandria in the 1907 population census This chapter will explain some characteristics on the demographic structure of Cairo and Alexandria at the beginning of the 20th century, based on the 1907 population census. The census contains information on the subjects concerned, such as number of population by sex, literacy, religion and birthplace. Unfortunately, information on the population by nationality is not available. However, the data on the birthplace of the population born outside Egypt by country are found in the census. These data are agglomerated to the regional level in Section 2-1 to 2-3, and to the qism level in Section 2-4 and 2-54. 3 The paper by Hiroshi Kato, titled “The Data on Periodical (Weekly) Market at the End of the 19th Century in Egypt － The Cases of Qaliubiya, Sharqiya, and Daqahliya Provinces”, Mediterranean World XIII, the Mediterranean Studies Research Group, Hitotsubashi University, 1992 is based on this literature. 4 Egypt is administratively composed of two regions: Lower Egypt is the northern part of the country from Cairo to the Mediterranean, and Upper Egypt is the southern part from Cairo to the border between Egypt and Sudan. Each region is divided into three hierarchical divisions: governorate, qism, and shiyakha for urban area and governorate (mudīrīya), markaz, and qarya (village) for rural area. The large cities such as Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez are counted as individual governorates. 326 H. KATO and E. IWASAKI 2-1 Population by region of birthplace and residence Table 2-1-1 Population by region of birthplace and residence (%) Region of residence Other Urban Cairo Alexandria Lower Egypt Upper Egypt Total Birthplace Governorates Cairo 62.8 1.9 1.0 0.4 0.3 4.0 Alexandria 1.5 66.2 1.1 0.4 0.0 2.3 Other Urban 0.2 0.3 53.3 0.1 0.0 0.5 Governorates Lower Egypt 9.7 6.1 18.6 97.3 0.4 48.6 Upper Egypt 14.3 7.3 9.1 1.2 98.9 42.8 Foreign country 11.5 18.2 16.7 0.7 0.4 1.8 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 (Number) (654476) (332246) (86640) (5443766) (4635391) (11152519) Note: Other Urban Governorates include Port Said, Ismailiya, Arish, Suez and Sinai. In the Urban governorates, the population of those born in rural Egypt (Lower and Upper Egypt) occupies higher percentage than it may be expected: Cairo (24.0%), Alexandria (13.4%) and Other Urban Governorates (27.9%). The percentage of population born in the rural Egypt in Cairo (24.0%) is higher than in Alexandria (13.4%), while the percentage of the population born in the foreign countries in Alexandria (18.2%) is higher than in Cairo (11.5%). Table 2-1-2 Population born outside Egypt by country of birthplace (%) Cairo Alexandria Other Urban Governorates Lower Egypt Upper Egypt Total US 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.4 0.2 Armenia 2.0 2.1 0.1 0.7 1.1 1.6 Austria 2.4 3.1 4.2 0.7 0.4 2.2 Belgium 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 British Isles 7.6 5.4 3.3 0.8 2.1 5.0 Bulgaria 0.1 0.2 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.3 Canada 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Denmark 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 France 3.5 2.9 7.1 1.9 1.0 3.1 Germany 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.4 0.2 0.7 Greece 19.4 27.6 40.5 22.3 8.7 22.9 India 0.3 0.1 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.2 Italy 8.8 15.4 13.2 2.2 2.5 9.3 Malta 0.7 2.0 4.1 0.8 0.3 1.3 Montenegro 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Morocco 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 Persia 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.2 Portugal 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Roumania 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 Russia 1.1 1.2 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.8 Soudan 17.8 7.0 6.6 42.9 72.3 23.1 Spain 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 Switzerland 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 Syria 17.7 14.7 9.9 15.4 3.9 14.6 Tunis 1.9 2.4 0.4 3.1 1.3 2.1 Turkey 12.9 13.8 7.8 6.3 4.5 10.9 Yemen 0.9 0.2 0.1 0.5 0.5 0.5 Other Countries 0.9 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.4 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 (Number) (75221) (60496) (14490) (37260) (17833) (205300) Note: The data on the population born outside Egypt are not that of nationality.