![CairoInstitutDEgypte](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/CairoInstitutDEgypte.jpg)
The Institut d'Égypte or Egyptian Scientific Institute is a learned society in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
specializing in
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
. It was established in 1798 by
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
to carry out research during his
Egyptian campaign
The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, proclaimed to defend French trade interests, to establish scientific enterprise in the region. It was the pr ...
and is the oldest scientific institute in Egypt. The building in which it was housed was burnt down, with the loss of many documents, during the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
unrest of 2011. It reopened in December 2012.
Early work
The Institut d'Égypte was founded on 22 August 1798 by
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
for the
Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
, their mission was "progress and the propagation of the Enlightenment in Egypt."
The institute was organised into sections that cover all the topics of interest and study in mathematics, physics, political economy, literature and arts by the
Commission des Sciences et des Arts
The Commission des Sciences et des Arts (''Commission of the Sciences and Arts'') was a French scientific and artistic institute. Established on 16 March 1798, it consisted of 167 members, of which all but 16 joined Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest ...
.
The society first met on 24 August 1798, with
Gaspard Monge
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Durin ...
as president, Bonaparte himself as vice-president and
Joseph Fourier
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (; ; 21 March 1768 – 16 May 1830) was a French people, French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre and best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series, which eventually developed into Fourier an ...
and
Costaz as secretaries. It had 48 scholars and as with the
Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
these were organised into sections, divided up as follows:
* 12 members – mathematics section, including Bonaparte himself, Costaz, Fourier,
Malus
''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries.
The genus is native to the temperate zone of th ...
, Monge.
* 10 members – physics and natural history section, including
Berthollet
Claude Louis Berthollet (, 9 December 1748 – 6 November 1822) was a Savoyard-French chemist who became vice president of the French Senate in 1804. He is known for his scientific contributions to theory of chemical equilibria via the mech ...
,
Desgenettes,
Dolomieu,
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
* 6 members – political economy section, including
Cafarelli,
Tallien
Jean-Lambert Tallien (, 23 January 1767 – 16 November 1820) was a French politician of the revolutionary period. Though initially an active agent of the Reign of Terror, he eventually clashed with its leader, Maximilien Robespierre, and is be ...
.
* 8 members – literature and arts section, including
Denon
is a Japanese electronics company started in 1910 by Frederick Whitney Horn, an American entrepreneur. Denon produced the first cylinder audio media in Japan and players to play them. Decades later, Denon was involved in the early stages of de ...
.
The Institut capitalised on the work of scholars and technical experts of the
Commission des Sciences et des Arts
The Commission des Sciences et des Arts (''Commission of the Sciences and Arts'') was a French scientific and artistic institute. Established on 16 March 1798, it consisted of 167 members, of which all but 16 joined Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest ...
and fostered the development of
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
so as to support the French expeditionary force. This was further supported by the publication of the ''
Courrier de l'Égypte
Courrier may refer to:
*''Courrier International'', a Paris-based French weekly newspaper
*'' Courrier des États-Unis'', a French language newspaper published by French immigrants in New York
*'' Courrier d'Ethiopie'', a French language weekly new ...
'', first issued 29 August 1798, a propaganda newspaper used to keep the moral of troops high. Research was also presented in ''
Mémoires sur l'Égypte
''Mémoires sur l'Égypte'' (''Memoirs Relative to Egypt''), long title ''Mémoires sur l'Égypte, publiés pendant les campagnes du Général Bonaparte dans les années 1798 and 1799'' (''Memoirs Relative to Egypt Published during the Campaign of ...
'', which was published in four volumes between 1798–1801. On 22 November 1799, the Institut took the decision to collect and publish its scholarly work as the ''
Description de l'Égypte
The ''Description de l'Égypte'' ( en, Description of Egypt) was a series of publications, appearing first in 1809 and continuing until the final volume appeared in 1829, which aimed to comprehensively catalog all known aspects of ancient and m ...
''. The Institut lasted until its 47th and final meeting on 21 March 1801.
The Egyptian Society
The Institut d'Égypte's activities resumed in 1836 under the name of The Egyptian Society. The work was carried out by French, German and English scholars. It was transferred to
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
in 1859, and its name was again changed, this time to Institut Égyptien. The new Institut functioned under the auspices of Egypt's viceroy
Sa'id Pasha
Mehmed Said Pasha ( ota, محمد سعيد پاشا ; 1838–1914), also known as Küçük Said Pasha ("Said Pasha the Younger") or Şapur Çelebi or in his youth as Mabeyn Başkatibi Said Bey, was an Ottoman monarchist, senator, statesman ...
, and had several prominent members, notably the German botanist
Georg August Schweinfurth
Georg August Schweinfurth (29 December 1836 – 19 September 1925) was a Baltic German botanist and ethnologist who explored East Central Africa.
Life and explorations
He was born at Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire. He was edu ...
, as well as Egyptologists
Auguste Mariette
François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette (11 February 182118 January 1881) was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, and the founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, the forerunner of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Early ...
and
Gaston Maspero
Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper.
Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia.
...
. Later members included
Ahmed Kamal, Egypt's first native Egyptologist, as well as
Ahmad Zaki Pasha
Ahmad Zaki Pasha (, ; 26 May 1867 – 5 July 1934) was an Egyptians, Egyptian Philology, philologist, sometimes called the '' "Dean of Arabism" '' () or "''Shaikh al-Orouba "'', and longtime secretary of the Cabinet of Egypt, Egyptian Cabinet.
...
, a pioneering philologist.
The Institut returned to Cairo in 1880. Its previous name was made official by a royal decree in 1918. Henceforth, it was directly under the Royal Palace's auspices. Some of the Institut's more recent members include famed scholar
Taha Hussein
Taha Hussein (, ar, طه حسين; November 15, 1889 – October 28, 1973) was one of the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a figurehead for the Nahda, Egyptian Renaissance and the modernism, modernist movem ...
.
Destruction
The Institute was burnt down on 17 December 2011, as a consequence of continued street clashes in the aftermath of the
Egyptian revolution that had erupted on 25 January 2011.
Opposing groups of protesters were engaged in street clashes, hurling flammable materials at each other adjacent to the
Shura Council
In Arab culture, a Majlis-ash-Shura ( ar, مجلس الشورى; Shura Council in English) is an advisory council or consultative council. In Islamic context, the Majlis-ash-Shura is one of two ways that a Caliph, khalifa (Islamic leader) may be s ...
building when a
Molotov cocktail
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flamma ...
, either thrown accidentally or deliberately, penetrated one of the windows of the Institute causing a massive fire. Fire brigade units were unable to promptly reach the scene of the blaze because of continued chaotic conditions on the streets. Volunteers, protesters from opposing factions, rushed into the burning building and were able to save many items and bring them to safety.
Before the blaze, the repository had held over 200,000 rare and antiquarian books and texts, many dating from the Napoleonic era. A first estimate says that only 30,000 volumes have been saved. Lost, however, were the ''Atlas of Lower and Upper Egypt'' (1752), the ''Atlas Handler'' (1842), the ''Atlas of the Old Indian Arts'' and many other important works. It was incorrectly reported in the press that the original 20-volume manuscript ''
Description de l'Égypte
The ''Description de l'Égypte'' ( en, Description of Egypt) was a series of publications, appearing first in 1809 and continuing until the final volume appeared in 1829, which aimed to comprehensively catalog all known aspects of ancient and m ...
'' (1809–29) was destroyed during these events. The majority of these volumes reside at the
National Archives and the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
, in Paris, France. Professor Mahmoud l-Shernoby, the general secretary of the institute, told that the damage is a "great loss" to Egypt and that those "who caused this disaster should be punished".
A black day for heritage: burning the Egyptian Scientific Institute
)
Renovations
Sheikh Sultan al Qassimi, ruler of the emirate of Sharjah
The Emirate of Sharjah (; ar, إِمَارَة ٱلشَّارِقَة ') is one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates, which covers and has a population of over 1,400,000 (2015). It comprises the capital city of Sharjah, after which it ...
in the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
, had indicated his willingness to bear the cost of reconstruction of the building and to donate some of his own rare possessions to it Other works that might be made available include various copies of the ''Description'' available in other countries.
See also
*Library fires
300px, The urn containing ashes of the most precious Polish incunabula and manuscripts, deliberately burnt in the Krasiński Library by a Nazi Germany">Nazi German ''Brandkommando'' following the fall of the Warsaw Uprising
Libraries have been ...
* List of destroyed libraries, archives and museums
References
;General
article
by Francine Masson, director of the library of the École des mines, ''ABC Mines'' review (December 1997).
* Jean et Nicole Dhombres, ''Naissance d'un nouveau pouvoir: science et savants en France, 1793-1824'' (Payot 1989)
;Specific
Further reading
*
External links
Zahi Hawass' opinion on ESI's burning down
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institut d'Egypte
Egyptology
French campaign in Egypt and Syria
Learned societies of Egypt
1798 in Egypt
2011 disestablishments in Egypt
Organizations established in 1798
Organizations disestablished in 2011
Research institutes in Egypt
Libraries in Egypt
Library fires
Organisations based in Cairo