i8o Egypt
already in 1898 nearly two hundred were being published
in Egypt. Previous nationalist movements had been Pan-
Islarnistic, future nationalist movements were socialistic;
this one was purely journalistic.
The new movement was from the first divided into
moderates of the '' popular '' party (hasb-el-oumm) and
extremists of the 'f patrioticJ' party (hasb-el-watan). The
former accepted co-operation with the British as a means
to independence, and were the survivors and successors
of the old Constitutionalists. They were many of them
members of the old ruling class like Mustapha Fehmy,
and owed some of them a limited enjoyment of power and
some political experience to their association with the
British. To this party belonged most of the Egyptian
Ministers under Cromerism. With them were associated
the older leaders of the Moslem movement at el Azhar,
who carried on the tradition of el Afghani and Sheikh
Mohammed Abdu. Their principal publicist was Sheikh
Ali Yusef, editor of the Moayyah. They represented the
political stage that should have been normally reached
in the transition from dependence to independence. Had
they been given real responsibility and allowed to recruit
their ranks from the younger men by admitting them to
junior posts, this party might have imposed its policy of
co-operation on the whole movement. But the pressure
for the employment of British and the prejudice of
Cromerism against extensions of self-government heavily
handicapped these co-operators in their competition with
the extremists.
The extreme party of non-co-operators had a simple
task. They had found a suitable leader in a young
gallicised Egyptian, Mustapha Kamil, " a man of super-
fine manners and charming address " (Nevinson, More
Changes, p. 178). But neither in his portraits nor in his