Institut d'Égypte

The building during restoration work

The Institut d’Égypte was a learned academy formed by Napoleon Bonaparte to carry out research during his Egyptian campaign.

Early work

It first met on 24 August 1798, with Gaspard Monge as president, Bonaparte himself as vice-president and Joseph Fourier and Costaz as secretaries. It had 48 scholars and as with the Institut de France these were organised into sections, divided up as follows:

The Institut capitalised on the work of scholars and technical experts of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts and fostered the development of Egypt so as to support the French expeditionary force. On 22 November 1799 the Institut took the decision to collect and publish its scholarly work as the Description de l'Égypte. The Institut lasted until its 47th and final meeting on 21 March 1801.

Resumption of activities

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 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, and had several prominent members, notably the German botanist Georg August Schweinfurth, as well as Egyptologists Auguste Mariette and Gaston Maspero. Later members included Ahmed Kamal, Egypt's first native Egyptologist, as well as Ahmad Zaki Pasha, a pioneering philologist.[1]

The Institut returned to Cairo in 1880. Its previous name was restored 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.[1]

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 the 25th January 2011.[2][3] Opposing groups of protesters were engaged in street clashes, hurling flammable materials at each other adjacent to the Shura Council building when a Molotov cocktail, 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 30-40 thousand items and bring them to safety. 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. Before the blaze, the repository had held over 200,000 rare and antiquarian books and texts, many dating from the Napoleonic era. It was incorrectly reported in the press that the original 20-volume manuscript Description de l'Égypte (1809–29) was destroyed during these events. The majority of these volumes reside at the National Archives and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in Paris, France.

Restoration

Sheikh Sultan al Qassimi, ruler of the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, 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.

References

General
Specific
  1. 1 2 "Historical Background". L'Institut d'Égypte. Archived from the original on 2004-04-10. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
  2. ↑ "Amid army crackdown, Egypt’s richest library set on fire". Egypt Independent. 17 December 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  3. ↑ Jonathan Downs (March 2012). "Calamity in Cairo". History Today 62: 5–6. Retrieved 11 March 2012.

External links

Coordinates: 30°02′32″N 31°14′09″E / 30.042164°N 31.235928°E / 30.042164; 31.235928

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