Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/465

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EGYPT 457 was exported to the value of $6,548,000. The export of beans, peas, lentils, barley, and dates is also increasing. The export of sugar prom- ises to become of great importance; it rose from $200,000 in 1867 to $855,000 in 1868, and has considerably increased since. The im- ports amounted to $26,800,000 in 1865, and to $29,000,000 in 1867. The principal articles are timber, copper, coal, woollen, cotton, and silk goods, ivory, amber, gums, drugs, tin- ware, paper, oil, jewelry, sugar, glass, tobacco, spices, and coffee. The foreign commerce is chiefly with Great Britain, which receives about 75 per cent, of the Egyptian exports, and with France, Germany, and Austria. An extensive trade by means of caravans is main- tained with the interior of Africa. The man- ufacture of firearms, and of cotton, silk, and woollen goods, is carried on extensively in es- tablishments founded and directed by the gov- ernment. The length of the state railways in Egypt in January, 1872, amounted to 649 m., 286 m. of which had double tracks. The only private railway, that from Alexandria to Ram- leh, is 5 m. long. The railway from Cairo to Suez was abandoned in 1868. The telegraphic lines in operation in 1872 were 3,900 m. (560 m. being private), and had 8,300 m. of wire. Nu- merous sailing vessels and smaller craft ply on the Nile and the navigable canals, especially in Lower Egypt, where the principal towns are beginning to maintain regular steamboat communication. The movement of shipping in the Suez canal in 1871 was 765 vessels, of an aggregate burden of 761,410 tons. The num- ber of arrivals at the port of Alexandria was 2,921 vessels, and at Port 'Said 1,275 vessels, exclusive of 87 men-of-war. There were for- warded in 1871 by the Egyptian mail 1,490,- 000 letters, by the Austrian 124,000, by the Italian 135,000, by the Greek 30,000. At the head of the government stands the khedive, a Vassal of the sultan of Turkey, whose office is hereditary from father to son. According to the hatti-sherif and firman of investiture of 1841, Egypt must maintain the fundamental laws of the Ottoman empire, raise taxes in the name of the sultan, issue coin with his name, and pay an annual tribute. The parliament consists of dep- uties elected for a period of three years. The central government is vested in the ministries of foreign affairs, finance, war, navy, public works, and the interior. The cabinet of the khedive comprises a councillor, a secretary, a seal-bearer, a treasurer, and a chief of interpret- ers. There are also councils of agriculture, of commerce, and for the preservation of antiqui- ties. There are four principal courts of justice, whose seat is at Cairo : that of the chief of po- lice, which summarily decides petty cases ; that of the cadi, or chief judge ; that of the mufti, or chief doctor of the law ; and that of the pasha's divan. There is also a cadi in each town and village, who dispenses justice on religious trans- gressions, inheritance, right of succession, &c. ; and each province and subdivision of the coun- try has a mudir or governor who administers the criminal law. The revenue increased from 4,813,970 in 1864 to 10,571,048 in 1873, de- rived from taxes on land, tithes, tolls, &c., and from railways and customs duties. The total revenue in the 10 years ending Sept. 10, 1873. was 98,102,720, and the expenditure 112 - 561,784, of which about 6,000,000 were trib- ute to the sultan, 10,000,000 the cost of rail- ways, and 16,000,000 that of the Suez canal. A new loan of 11,700,000 was contracted in 1873, making the total debt 49,000,000. The army was formerly limited to 18,000 men, but in consideration of the increase of the annual tribute from 80,000 purses to 150,000, under Said Pasha, permission was given to raise the army to 30,000. The navy in 1870 consisted of 12 steamers (3 yachts, 2 frigates, 2 corvettes, 4 screw gunboats, and 1 aviso). Schools for pri- mary instruction are connected with the mosques. The number of pupils is rapidly in- creasing, and in 1871 was estimated at 60,000. The university of Cairo, called el-AsJiar (the Blossom), has students from all parts of Africa, from Turkey, and even from the Sunda islands. Education has made great progress during the reign of Ismail Pasha, especially since the es- tablishment in 1868 of government schools in the large towns. These schools were attended in 1870 by about 4,000 pupils who received sup- port from the government. The schools em- brace both elementary and secondary education. In the secondary department the students take a three years' preparatory course, after which they are transferred to one of the special schools. These special schools are : a polytech- nic school (which prepares the way for either the school of administration or the military academy), a law school, a philological and arithmetical school, a school of arts and indus- try, a medical school, and a naval school. In 1871 Prof. Brugsch, of the university of Got- tingen, was called by the Egyptian govern- ment to Cairo, to establish there an academy for archaeology, and in particular for Egyptolo- gical studies. The periodical press is still in its infancy, and almost entirely in the hands of foreigners. There were published in 1872, in the Arabic language, an official paper and a weekly journal called Madi el-Nil ("Valley of the Nile "), in Cairo, and a number of French, Italian, and Greek papers in Alexandria, two of which, L'figypte and Manifesto Oior- naliero, were dailies. A press bureau is con- nected with the department of foreign affairs. The history of Egypt divides itself into six great periods, each characterized by a different race of rulers : 1, that of the Pharaohs, or na- tive kings ; 2, of the Persians ; 3, of the Ptole- mies (Greeks) ; 4, of the Romans ; 5, of the Arabs ; 6, of the Turks. The main sources of its history under the Pharaohs are the Scriptures, the Greek writers Herodotus, Diodorus, and Eratosthenes, some fragments of the writings of Manetho, an Egyptian priest of the 3d century B. C., and the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the