European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

258 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYThe first of these schools, which placed the Islamic dimension on theperiphery, was more concerned about the adoption of Europeanmodels and political institutions that integrated the geopoliticalconcept of Nation-State; this was the liberal school of thought.The second school, which was more concerned about the culturalaspects of Islam, posed the problem in terms of civilization andattempted to achieve a reformation of the Arab-Islamic world byrenovating Islam, through the initiation of the “iytihad” or the use ofreason, to interpret its origins. This was the Muslim reformist politicalschool of thought of the “salifiya” (which literally means “ancestors”or “origins”).Both schools found their origins in Egypt, and both benefited fromthe modernising measures implemented by the Egyptian GovernorMuhammad ‘Ali (1805-1848).The desire to modernize the country, then a “wilaya” (province) ofthe Ottoman Empire, led Muhammad ‘Ali to initiate a process ofmodernizing the educational system. His objectives of sendingacademic missions to Europe were two-fold: 1) to modernize thebureaucracy and the military hierarchy in favour of an army for itsfuture independent state 6 , and 2) to count on experts to establish amore specialised national educational system through the creation ofmedical, polytechnic and administrative schools with a subsequentreduction in teachings connected to the mesquites.Linked to these academic missions and crucial to the Egyptiancultural process was the initiative to translate and publish technicalworks and Western thought into Arabic. In 1835, the School of Translationof French into Arab and the School of History and Geography,which later became the Faculty of Law and Humanities under theleadership of Rifa’a Rafi’I al-Tahtawi, were created.In addition, a Saint-Simonian movement was implemented, a signof one the first collaborations between Europeans and Arabs 7 , throughthe arrival of French Utopian Socialists, between 1833 y 1840, the aimof which was to organize an industrial state based on the advances ofmodern science.Europe and this new educational system would become thetraining centres for the future nationalist elite who, influenced by theEuropean system, were inclined to implement the constitutionalparliamentary system as a way of progress.6Tomiche, N. (1976) L’egypte moderne. Paris, PUF.7López García, B. (1997) The Contemporary Arab-Islamic World. Madrid, Síntesis,p. 53-54.