The Birth of Modern Egypt 31
They claimed credit for having overthrown those old
enemies of Islam, the Pope of Rome and the Knights of
Malta. They also presented themselves as missionaries
of European civilisation. The egyptologists and experts
were set to work. An Institute of Egypt was founded
on the model of the Institute of France. Plans
for a canal across the isthmus were drawn up. The
administration was reorganised, and the old Islamic fiscal
system was soon functioning under French supervision
with an efficiency that was more profitable than popular.
But pro-Islamic propaganda did not long prevent, and
French fiscal efficiency very soon provoked, the inevitable
revolt. Egyptian national consciousness as yet only
existed in the negative form of antipathy to an un-
accustomed foreign and infidel administration. A rising
in Cairo (October 21, 1798) showed that the French had
not conquered Egypt by crushing its oppressors. It was
suppressed by Junot with such severity as to discourage
further armed risings. " Every day I have five or six
heads cut off in the streets of Cairo," wrote Napoleon to
Menou (July 31, 1798). But it was the fiercest fight
that the French had had to face. And in the siege of
El Azhar, the university culture centre of Islam, the
Egyptians lost as heavily as had the Mamelukes in the
Battle of the Pyramids. Thus did "Egyptians0 first
appear, fighting for a national cause, in what has ever
since been the citadel of their nationalism.
Egypt was thereafter subjugated, but Napoleon had
still to deal with the British and Ottoman Empires.
Though probably he could have dealt With either singly,
together they proved too much for him. For British
diplomacy, ever partial to coalitions and not over par-
ticular as to its allies, had little difficulty in rousing the
Turks for* the recovery of their most profitable province