Financial Reconstruction 147
mental ideas and institutions of Islam could not only be
reconciled with the modern reconstruction of Moslem
society, but could be made the inspiration of a spon-
taneous revolution. It may be so. But, so far, Moslem
communities have, without exception, been modernised
by adopting and adapting Western models. Curiously
enough, when this process has been carried out by alien
authority, whether British, French, Italian, or German,
it has been much less radical and rapid than when carried
out by native reformers. The British have been especially
conservative, and have made it a principle of their policy
in the East that Islamic ideas and institutions must be
respected and retained wherever possible. The English
empire-builder in Egypt was prepared to enter the service
of the Khedive and to uphold the authority of the Khalif ;
to put on slippers when he entered a mosque and to wear
a fez at the risk of sunstroke; to make the best of the
anomalies of Sheri Courts and of the absurdities of Cus-
tomary Law ; to maintain the subjection of women, and
even to tolerate domestic slavery. Whereas the Turkish
reformer swept all these obstacles to progress away with
a sweep of the sword and a stroke of the pen. He reduced
Islam from a regime to a religion, and he could undertake
this spring-cleaning because he was working with the
new broom of a nationalist movement. The Englishman
could not do it because he was working against that
movement with Mrs. Partington's mop.
The British people honestly believed that Arabi-ism
and Mahdi-ism were much of a muchness, and that
Wolseley restored civilisation in Egypt as Kitchener un-
doubtedly did in the Sudan. But Anglo-Egyptian official
observers were too clear-sighted and candid to delude
themselves so grossly. They appear to have recognised
at once that we had been in collision with a nationalist