The escalating violence and seemingly endless clashes between the revolutionaries and the authorities, the latest episode of which took place last week near in the People’s Assembly and left nine dead, more than 300 injured, and the 18th century Egyptian Scientific Compound (l’Institut d’Égypte) burnt.
Injy Samy
The escalating violence and seemingly endless clashes between the revolutionaries and the authorities, the latest episode of which took place last week near in the People’s Assembly and left nine dead, more than 300 injured, and the 18th century Egyptian Scientific Compound (l’Institut d’Égypte) burnt.
Description de l’Égypte
The fire damaged, totally or partially, more than 200,000 rare books housed in the building. Destroyed in the fire were the original manuscripts of the Description de l’Égypte and irreplaceable maps and historical manuscripts preserved by many generations since it was established in 1798. The Description de l’Égypte was the outcome of the collaboration of more than 2,000 scientists, scholars, technicians and artists who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his military campaign in Egypt from 1798 to 1801. The work, in 20 volumes, was a valuable record and included illustrations of Egyptian antiquities and national history, as well as a documentation of all aspects of life in Egypt and its historical, artistic and religious treasures. Dozens of engravers compiled the research into a full work, which first appeared in 1809 -1810 and was completed in 1829.
By order of Napoleon
In August 1798, by order of Napoleon, the Institute of Egypt (l’Institut d’Égypte) was founded in the palace of Hassan al-Kashif on the outskirts of Cairo, based on the Institut de France, with Gaspard Monge as president. The institute housed a library, laboratories, workshops, and the savants’ various Egyptian collections. The workshop was particularly important, supplying both the army as well as the servants with necessary equipment. Many new instruments were constructed as well, to replace those lost during the sinking of the French fleet in August 1798 at Abu-Qir Bay (Battle of the Nile) and the Cairo riot of October 1798.
As soon as the French were evacuated in 1801, L’Institut d’Egypte’s academic activities ceased, only to be resumed in 1836 by French, German and English scholars under the name of The Egyptian Society. In 1859, it was transferred to Alexandria assuming a new name, Institut Égyptien, underthe auspices of the ruler of Egypt at that time, Muhamed Said Pasha. It was also supported by a number of scholars such as Jornard, Mariette, and Koeing. Some of its members were widely known, including George Schweinfurth—a famous explorer who specialized in physical sciences, Mahmoud al-Falaki Pasha—a well known astronomer, Auguste Mariette and Gaston Maspero—who specialised in the ancient history of Egypt and helped establish the Egyptian Museum.
In acknowledgement of their effort in turning out invaluable studies about Egypt, Mariette’s and Maspero’s names were given to some streets in Cairo.
Venerable scholars
The Institute was restored to Cairo in 1880 and, in 1918, its previous name was restored by a royal decree.
Henceforward, it was under the direct auspices of the royal Palace. Later members included Ahmed Kamal, Egypt’s first native Egyptologist, as well as Ahmad Zaki Pasha, a pioneering philologist. Relatively recent scholars, such as Soliman Huzayen and Taha Hussein, were among the famous members of the Institute.
The spheres of activities of the Institute included research, studies, lectures and seminars on fine arts, archaeology, human and social studies, as well as mathematical, physical, and biological sciences. It exchanged information with counterparts across the world.
A tour of Dar al-Kutub
Fady Labib
Together with all Egyptians, I watched in pain as fire devoured the Egyptian Scientific Compound. My only comfort was the sight of young people rushing to salvage whatever could be rescued of the books. When I learned that the Military Council and the Culture Ministry were helping to move the salvaged books to Egypt’s national library Dar al-Kutub (The House of Books) I decided to go there and see for myself what was going on.
Volunteers and experts
It was not the first time I visit Dar al-Kutub; I have been a regular frequenter of the library and knew every nook and cranny in the grounds.
But this time, the scene which greeted me was unusual. I arrived to find a large number of volunteer young men and women, including expert researchers in white coats and masks, gathered near a side gate where a small truck was unloading of half-burnt or wet books and torn documents jam-packed in boxes. Other trucks came in; the process of bringing in the remains of the books was ongoing almost non-stop.
I entered the building. The smell of burnt papers was everywhere; the floors of the corridors were covered with the salvaged books wet from being soaked with the water used to put out the fire. Other books and documents were neatly spread out under the sun outside to dry.
An offence to heritage
I talked to Haytham Othman, one of the young volunteers. Othman was a student who studied restoration; he told me of the preliminary steps needed to restore the books. The pages, he said, should be unglued, dried, sterilised, then restored.
“The fire is an offence to our heritage,” Othman told Watani. But at the same time, he noted, there is commendable effort being done by the American University in Cairo, the State, and individual volunteers.
Another volunteer restoration specialist, Dalia Nabil, said that: “After the fire, the salvaging process was at first rather chaotic owing to poor crisis management. But there are now among us Egyptian and international experts, including persons from UNESCO.
“A major part of the problem,” according to Nabil,” lies in the absence of cultural awareness. No-one among those who put the building on fire realised the value of the place and the cultural heritage it housed; no-one appreciated what a priceless heritage it is.”
Digitising rare books
Nasser al-Killawy, manager of technical support at the Supreme Council for Antiquities, was standing among the volunteers. He expressed his deep sorrow at what happened, describing it as a “crisis”. “Countries,” he said, “only advance through science and hard work, not by ruining scientific heritage.”
“Here we can see the importance and necessity of digitising rare heritage, whether it scientific, artistic or in any human field.”
The Description de l’Égypte was among the rare, precious books burnt. It gives cause to comfort that, today, through the efforts of Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s International School Information Science (ISIS), the preservation of a valuable copy of this collection has been made possible. Eleven plate volumes in possession of the BA and nine text volumes owned by the l’Institut d’Égypte, have been full digitized, integrated on a virtual browser and made accessible to the public through this pioneering endeavour.
“In such buildings,” Killawy said, “it is essential to install state-of-the-art fire fighting systems.”
Another restoration researcher, Kamel Abdullah, stood aside with grief and sorrow on his face. Abdullah invited me to tour the full shelves of burnt books. Among the scraps of papers I saw was one which belonged to the Description de l’Égypte.
The whole place, where the experts and volunteers were processing the steps of restoration, looked like a surgery room where the patient awaits operation.
Restoration, Abdullah explained, would allow us to know the book titles and index them according to topic.
When I asked him about the financial cost of the restoration, Abdullah said that it was very costly. “But is any amount of money,” he said, “to saving such treasure”.
Looking up its history
Finally, I decided to go up into library to look up the history of the l’Institut d’Égypte .
I was met by an unpleasant surprise when, neither among the books, periodicals, or digital library, was I able to find any information.
When a bystander discovered I was searching for information on the institute, he approached me with some advice. It turned out the gentleman was Hossam Abdul-Zaher, a researcher at the heritage centre of Dar-Kutub, and he advised me to go to the French Institute in Cairo or the Dominican Library for information.
These were probably the only two sources of the written and documented history on the l’Institut d’Égypte, he said.
A restoration offer
Robeir al-Faris
Last Sunday, Sharjah ruler, Sultan al-Qassemi, announced his wish to restore and rebuild the Egypt Scientific Compound at his own expense. He said he would present Egypt with new copies of the burnt manuscripts, since he possessed some copies of these in his own collection. Sultan Qassemi said that in doing so he would be paying back a debt he owed to Egypt in whose universities he had studied.