Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1464

 1108 TURKEY AND TRIBUTARY STATES: — EGYPT

Religion and Instruction.

In 1897 the population consisted of 8,978,775 Moslems; 730,162 Chris- tians (608,446 Copts, 53,479 Orthodox, 56,343 Roman Catholics, and 11,894 Protestants); 25,200 Jews; and 268 others. Thus Moslems formed 92-23 per cent, of the population ; Christians, 7 '50 per cent. ; Jews, 0*26 per cent. ; others, O'Ol percent. The highest religious and judicial authorities among the Moslems are the Sheikh ul Islam appointed by the Khedive and chosen from among the learned class of Oolemas, and the Grand Cadee nominated by the Sultan, and chosen from amongst the learned Oolemas of Stamboul. The principal seat of Koranic learning is the Mosque and University of El Azhar at Cairo, founded alwut a thousand years ago, but the sciences taught and the modes oi' teaching them have not changed since its foundation.

There are in Egypt lai'ge numbers of native Christians connected with the various Oriental churches ; of these, the largest and most influential are the Copts, the descendants of the ancient Egyptians ; their creed is Orthodox (Jacobite), and was adopted in the first century of the Christian era. Its head is the Patriarch of Alexandria as the successor of St. Mark. There are three metropolitans and twelve bishops in Egypt, one metropolitan and two bishops in Abyssinia, and one bishoj) for Khartoum ; there are also arch-priests, priests, deacons, and monks. Priests must be married before ordination, but celibacy is imposed on monks and high dignitaries. In a.d. 328 the Copts christianised Abyssinia, and pushed Christianity almost to the Ecpiator. The Abyssinian Church is ruled by a metropolitan and bisho})S chosen from amongst the Egyptian Coptic ecclesiastics, nor can the coronation of the King of Abyssinia take place until he has been anointed by the metropolitan, and this only after authorisa- tion by the Patriarch of Alexandria. The Copts use the Diocletian (or Martyrs') calendar, which diflers by 284 years from the Gregorian calendar.

In 1897, of the entire population 467,886, or 4*8 per cent., could read and Avrite, while 9,266,519, or 95 '2 per cent., were illiterate.

In 1898 there were in all about 10,000 schools with 17,000 teachers and 228,000 pupils. Seven-eighths of these schools are elementary, the education being confined to reading, writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic. The Government has, under its immediate direction, 55 primary schools of the lowest grade ('kuttabs'), and 36 of the higher grade, 3 secondary,. 2 girls' schools, and 10 schools for higher or jirofessional education — the School of Law, School of Medicine (including the Pharmaceutical School and the training school for nurses and midwives. Polytechnic (Civil Engineering) School, 3 training colleges for schoolmasters. School of Agriculture, 2 technical schools, and the military school. In addition to the schools belonging to the Ministry of Public Instruction there are, under the inspection of that Department (1898), 11 })rimary schools of the higher grade, with an attend- ance of 1,492, and 301 primary schools of the lowest grade ('kuttabs'), with 499 teachers and an attendance of 5,734 pupils. There are 108 schools attached to various Protestant and Catholic missions, and 43 European private schools. The Mosque of El Azhar has 198 teachers and 7,676 students.

The Coptic community sup}>ort 1,000 schools for elementary education, 22 primary — boys and girls, and one college. The teaching of the Coptic language in the .schools is now comi)ulsory ; the subjects taught, and the methods of teaching them, are the same as those in vogue in other countries ; 50 per cent, of the Coptic male community can read and write.

The following statistics of schools in Egypt have been mainly comi)iled from returns corrected, so far as practicable, up to December 31, 1898 : —