Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-13
The Childhood of Arabi Bey.
Why he is Likened to Oreb the NIidian Rte or to the Son Of HaGar.
 From the Sunday School Times


 fte or to the Son Of Haxar.
 From the Sunday School Times
 A strange interest attaches, just now, to the name of Arabi Bey While all the world is watching his every movement with fear or anxiety, does 1t occur to our Bible students that by his very name and race he is another Oreb the Midianite, against whom Gideon's band with lamps and trumpets and pitchers went out to battle at the call of God? We give sketch of this Ishmaelitish or Midiani tish prince in Egypt, as showing the popular Arab superstitions with reference to his birth and mission. The sketch is from a gentle man of Cairo peculiarly well qualified to speak of the Egyptian people and their ways of thinking and acting For obvious req sons his name is withheld at such crisis as this, but we can speak confidently of the correctness of all his statements ''Husnah was in high glee and told us all about the early history of el UraBF, as she had heard it that night from the Fikis--the men learned in the ceremonial law and who harangue the crowd. Upon hearing the name Uraby, prlcked up my ears; for not this the famous Arabi Bey who play ing such part in modern Egy ptian politics Husnah's graphic narration ran substantially as follows: About fifty years ago there lived in the Delta of Egypt, near D small hamlet called el-Wijh, a worshiping farmer of some means whose wife was barren. His friend had often told him that the cause of his wifes barrenness was, of course, known to the Omniscient only; but that as she was an Egyptian of the low lands, and he was descended from the stock of Abraham and his eldest son 1shmael, God would be much more likely to bless him with offspring were he to take unto himself a wife from among the children of the desert. He accordingly sent eastward to certain wandering tribes, and in due course of time had brought 10 him a true Bedouin girl This girl, knowing that she had been taken to wife by her hus- band only with view to offspring, had on her way to el-Wijh, passed by the resting place of the remains of Our Lady Nefeessah, to there pray that she might be blessed soon with male child, that she might find favor with her lord. The shrine of Our Lady Nafeessah Is held in high honor, both by Moslems and Christians. During the night that this true Arabian girl, who was on the eve of marriage, spent nt the tomb of the soul giving Nafeessah, she had dream. A man clothed ill the robes of the religious or der of law doctors appeared to her saying ''Go in peace to thy intended husband, for thou shalt find favor in his eyes
 Tn the fullness of time she gave birth to a male child, and when the midwife bore the glad tidings to the father he exclaimed, 'Ah- mad Aha v which means, I praise God v Wherefore all the women friends, when they heard what the father had said declaI ed that the boy should be called Ahmad Ahmad grew up to be a stalwart youth and was knoWL among nls 1ello~S Dy the appellat1ve ''ei Urabi, because of his descent from the Arabs in contrads;inction with the Egyptians. And, indeed, Arabi Bey, or Pasha, speaks dialect which betrays his Bedouin origin from the Eastern desert Urabi's mother had not forgotten the vision of the man in flowing robes, and she had destined her boy - her little hope, she called the tall youth for the study of the law, both civil and religious. Accordingly, after having been taught reading and writing, Ahmad, sur named ell Urabi, was taken by his father to the great mosque university of elAzhar, at Cairo, and entered student.
 Fl Urabi was taught, first of all, the theol- ogy of the Mahometans, in all its subtleties, as divine and revealed religion, as the only true religion taught by the greatest of all