What 'Isa ibn Hisham Told Us. Muhammad al-Muwaylihi

fortunes suffered a severe setback. He had been attracted to the newly founded Stock Exchange, and in the course of speculation lost the 80,000 pounds which had been bequeathed to him by his father.³ Leaving ʿAbd al-Salām to manage the business as best he could, Ibrāhīm retired to his house for three months. We learn from various sources that when the Khedive Ismāʿīl heard about this, he summoned both brothers to the palace, gave each the title of Bey and 3,000 pounds, and ordered his entourage and harem to dress themselves exclusively in al-Muwayliḥī silks.⁴

      Following the financial crisis of 1879, the Khedive Ismāʿīl was forced to abdicate and went into exile in Naples. He invited Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī to join him as his private secretary and tutor to Prince Aḥmad Fuʾād (later King Fuʾād the First).⁵ Putting Muḥammad in the care of his uncle, ʿAbd al-Salām, Ibrāhīm left Egypt for Italy. Through his uncle, Muḥammad met Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī, a barrister and writer who was also a friend of Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī. Al-Laqqānī introduced Muḥammad to some of his own friends, amongst whom were ʿAbdallāh Nadīm and Ḥasan Mūsā al-ʿAqqād. These three men were the protagonists of the “Egypt for the Egyptians” movement, and Muḥammad wrote regularly to his father in Italy describing the discussions he heard and the general political situation in Egypt.⁶ On April 5, 1882, Muḥammad became a clerk in the Ministry of Justice, but he did not remain in the post for long. In June, ʿAbd al-Salām al-Muwayliḥī left for Syria to convalesce from an illness, and Muḥammad was left on his own during the turmoil which led up to the revolt of Aḥmad ʿUrābī, the riots in Alexandria, and the subsequent British landing and occupation. Ibrāhīm had sent his son a leaflet he had written in support of the Nationalists, entitled Al-Jannah taḥta ẓilāl al-suyūf (Paradise Under the Shadow of Swords), and Muḥammad was arrested distributing copies of this document. Put on trial before a military court on the orders of ʿUthmān Pāshā, the Minister of the Interior, he was condemned to death. However, Buṭrus Ghālī Pāshā, a friend of the Muwayliḥīs who was Permanent Under-Secretary to the Minister of Justice (Wakīl al-ḥaqqāniyyah), interceded on Muḥammad’s behalf with the Khedive Tawfīq, claiming that Muḥammad had been encouraged by his father, that his uncle—who was his official guardian—was convalescing in Syria, and that he was not old enough to be considered politically troublesome. The sentence was commuted to exile.

      Muḥammad now joined his father in Italy, where he learned Italian and some Latin, and continued his studies of French with a lawyer friend of his father. He also helped his father to produce the newspaper Al-Ittiḥād. But the Ottoman Sultan wrote in 1880 expressing his displeasure at the views published by the newspaper, so the Khedive Ismāʿīl was compelled to order Ibrāhīm to stop printing. In 1884, Ismāʿīl sent Ibrāhīm to Paris from Italy, and Muḥammad accompanied his father. In the French capital both Ibrāhīm and Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī helped Jamāl al-dīn al-Afghānī and Muḥammad ʿAbduh with the publication of Al-ʿUrwah al-Wuthqā. This newspaper was to have a tremendous influence in the Arab Middle East, not only because of its outspoken attacks on the British presence in Egypt and the evils of excessive Westernization, but also because of its advocacy of the idea of Pan-Islam based on the Ottoman Caliphate. The Muwayliḥīs were later to support all of these points of view with vigor in their own newspaper following their return to Egypt.

      The fourth issue of Al-Ittihād was circulated in Europe, Turkey and Egypt, and its criticism of the Ottoman Sultan caused a considerable stir. The Ottoman court contacted its ambassador in Paris, and, despite protests in Le Figaro, Ibrāhīm was expelled from the country and traveled to Brussels.⁷ Al-Afghānī wrote from London at that time, and suggested Ibrāhīm and Muḥammad come to England. Father and son accepted the invitation. Once there, they assisted al-Afghānī in the publication of further issues of Al-ʿUrwah al-Wuthqā. Ibrāhīm himself produced further issues of Al-Ittiḥād and Al-Anbāʾ as well as a new newspaper called ʿAyn Zubaydah. During their stay in London, the Muwayliḥīs were introduced to Lord Randolph Churchill and Lord Salisbury, but any further entrées into British political society were cut short by another turn of events.

      Ibrāhīm had been changing his tack somewhat by supporting the Ottoman government in his newspapers through fierce attacks on the policies of Gladstone’s government, and this seems to have pleased the Sultan. Hagopian Pāshā, the “Nāẓir al-Khaṣṣah al-Sulṭāniyyah” (Supervisor of the Sultan’s Entourage) was sent to London in January 1885. We learn that he, together with Qastākī Pāshā, the Ottoman ambassador in London, tried to persuade Ibrāhīm to go to Istanbul where, they asserted, he would discover that the Sultan had forgiven him for the unfavorable comments he had made in his newspapers in the past. But, with the memory of his recent expulsion from France still fresh in his mind, Ibrāhīm was (not unnaturally) dubious about the Sultan’s intentions, and sent Muḥammad to Istanbul to find out the real terms of the invitation. When Muḥammad confirmed that the Sultan’s offer was sincere, Ibrāhīm came to Istanbul and was appointed a member of the Education Council. Ibrāhīm soon made the acquaintance of Munīf Pāshā, the Minister of Education, who allowed Muḥammad to use the Fātiḥ Library with its large collection of manuscripts. Among the works which Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī transcribed were Risālat al-ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) by the famous poet, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, several treatises by al-Jāḥiẓ (including one on magnanimity, al-Nubl, and another on envy, al-Ḥasad), and the Dīwān of Ibn al-Rūmī. Another friend of Ibrāhīm whom Muḥammad met at this time was al-Shinqīṭī who is one of the dedicatees of Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām.⁸ In addition to all this, Muḥammad found time to write some articles for the newspaper, Al-Munabbih, at the invitation of ʿAbdallāh al-Mughīrah.

      In 1887, Muḥammad left his father in Istanbul and returned to Cairo where he helped ʿĀrif Bey al-Mardīnī (the private secretary of Mukhtār Pāshā, the Ottoman Commissioner in Cairo) to edit Al-Qāhirah al-Jadīdah, a daily newspaper which had first appeared in 1885 but ceased publication when al-Mardīnī was invited back to Istanbul by the Sultan a few months after Muḥammad’s return to Egypt.⁹ Muḥammad continued to write articles for other newspapers in Egypt; Al-Muqaṭṭam, for example, he wrote under a variety of pseudonyms such as “an Egyptian who knows his country” and “al-Badīʿ.” At the head of these articles he was described as “a distinguished man of letters in Egypt whose eloquence will fascinate all those who are fond of literature.” In them he broached a variety of topics including the Nationalist Party, slavery, and the Legislative Council and its schemes.¹⁰ On his return from Istanbul, Muḥammad had renewed his acquaintance with Ibrāhīm al-Laqqānī and Buṭrus Ghālī. These two men were among the circle of friends who would meet regularly at the house of Princess Nāzlī Fāḍil, the niece of the ex-Khedive Ismāʿīl and wife of Salīm Abū Ḥajib, the Mufti of Tunis. This circle served as the meeting place for a remarkable collection of figures from Egyptian political and intellectual life, and of some non-Egyptian ones as well; we are told that Lord Cromer attended occasionally.¹¹ In addition to those already mentioned, the members included Muḥammad ʿAbduh, Saʿd and Aḥmad Fatḥī Zaghlūl, Qāsim Amīn, Muṣṭafā Fahmī, ʿAlī Yūsuf, and Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm, a list which includes some of the leading spirits in the movement to reform Egyptian society. There seems little room for doubt that much of the discussion which must have taken place at the meetings of this circle is directly reflected in the series of articles that al-Muwayliḥī was to publish under the title Fatrah min al-Zaman. Another interesting figure with whom Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī was acquainted at this time was the Englishman, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, who had been very closely involved in the defense of ʿUrābī after the collapse of the 1882 revolt. Blunt mentions the “Moelhis” many times in his Diaries, and from this source we can obtain some interesting pieces of information about Muḥammad’s activities during this period. Blunt tells us for instance that Muḥammad was a close friend of Mukhtār Pāshā: “To these Arabist visitors from Cairo were gradually added other sources of native information, the most important of whom were my old friends Aarif Bey and Mohammed el Moelhi, nephew [sic] of my old friend