The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-09-15
Queer Studies III College, Where
Professors Work Without
Pay.
What the Government is Doing
to Encourage Village
Schools.

CAIRO.
- HAVE Just returned from a visit
to the biggest university OF the Mo-
hammcdan world. Tt has more stu
u dents than any or our colleges, ana
twice ms many as either Harvard,
Yale or Cornell. 1t has. all told, over,
9.oO0 and It's professors number 2fo.
its students come from every country
whore Mohammedans flourish. There
arc hundreds from India. and some
from Malaysia and Java. There IS
large number from Morocco and also
from Algeria Tunisla and Tripol.
There are Nubiahs ns black as your
hat. Syrians and Turks as yellow as
rich Jersey cream, and boys from
Southeastern Europe with faces as
fair as our own. There are long gown
cd, turbaned Persans. flerce-eyed Al
ghanistans and brown-skinncd men
from the Sudan and from about kuka,
Bornu and Timbuktu. The students
are OF all ages from flftecn TO seventy
five, and some have spent their lives
In the college.
Mighty Nloinmmcdan Force,
This university has been in existence
for almost thousand years. 1t was
founded A. D. 9SS and from that time
to this 1t has been educating the FOL
lowers OF the Prophet. 1t Is to-day
perhaps the strongest force among
these people in Egypt. Ninety-two per
cent. OF the inhabitants of tho Ntle
Valley are Mohammedans and the most
OF the native officials have been edit
Gated here There are at least a5,ooo
men in the public service among It's
graduates. and the judges OF the WI
lagos, the teachers In the mosque
schools and the Imans or priests who
Yerve Throughout Egypt are connected
with IL. They hold the university In
tho highest regard and an order from
It's professors would be az much,
not more, respected than one from the
khedviai government.
The education in this university IS
almost altogether Mohammedah. us
curriculum is about the same as IL
was "A thousand years ago, and the
chief studies are the Koran and ko-
ranIc law, together with the sacred
traditions Of the religion and per-
haps little grammar. prosody and
rhetoric. within the past Few years
there have been attempts 10 extend
fts sphere, and II now has thirteen
government professors. but their
teaching is done outside the univer-
sitv Itself A number of the professors
are also teaching in the government
schools connected with tho mosques
of the Egyptian villages. but even
there the Koran takes UP half the
time. and religion is far more i'npor-
tant than science.
How the Egyptians study Their Bible.
Indeed 1t is wonderful how much
time these Egyptians spend on their
bible. Tho Koran Is their primer. their
first and second reader and also their
college text hook. AS soon AS a baby
ia born, the call 10 prayer is shouted
in it's ear, and when 1t begins to speak
lis father teaches 1T to say the creed.
which runs somewhat as follows:
..,rhere Is no God but God; Moham-
med liz the Apostle of God" and also
.Whorefore exalted be God. the King.
tho Truth! There is no God but He!
rhe Lord OF tho glorious Throne"
When the boy reaches five or six
years of age he starts to the mosque
school. and there squats down, cross
legged, and sways to and fro as he
wells aloud the texts of the Koran. He
studies the alphabet by writing With
black brush texts on slate of
wood or tin. and he pounds away from
year to year committing the Koran to
memory. There are now more than two
hundred thousand pupils in the Egyp-
tian schools. of whom majority are
under thirteen years of age. BY re-
cent census 1t was found that over
fifty thousand of these boys could
recite a good part of the Mohammedan
bible. and that forty-five hundred had
memorized the whole from beginning
to end Another forty-five hundred
were able to recite one-half Of 1t
from memory while tllirty-eight hun