Edward William Lane, British Orientalist
On Modern Egyptians and 19th-Century Egyptian Society
Mar 12, 2009
Edward William Lane’s fascination with Egypt must be seen in the context of the Egyptomania of his day, an obsession with all things Egyptian. It was fuelled by Belzoni, a circus strongman turned archaeologist, who published a book about his travels in Egypt and discovered tombs, temples and pyramids removing valuable artefacts in the process and transporting them to museums. Lane submerged himself into the study of the Arabic language and 19th century Egyptian society. Eventually he travelled to Egypt for the first time in 1825.
First trip to Egypt and “Description of Egypt”
Keen to observe Egyptian society closely, Lane was determined to blend in and live as a native. He settled in Cairo, dressed as a Turk, spoke the language, conformed to the Muslim customs and manners and changed his name to Mansur Effendi. The British Orientalist travelled widely within Egypt, filled hundreds of notebooks with his observations about Egypt and Egyptian society and took pictures with a camera Lucida. Upon his return to England in 1828, Edward Lane started writing his first book entitled Description of Egypt.
Description of Egypt was a monumental work of 300,000 words and 160 illustrations that was never published – a “serious loss to scholarship” (Thompson, 1996). Although the publishing house of John Murray had accepted it for publication, it was never printed. But Lane secured an offer to publish a section of the original book, the section about the modern Egyptians.
Modern Egyptians
Returning to Cairo in 1833, Edward Lane started working on Modern Egyptians adding new material to the old text. The finished book, “An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians”, was a hefty volume of some 600 pages and 128 illustrations. In 28 chapters, the British Orientalist describes the 19th century Egyptian society, especially that of Cairo, focusing on material culture.
Modern Egyptians is a comprehensive account of all aspects of 19th century Egyptian society. There are chapters on infancy and early education, religion and laws, government, domestic life, language, industry and science, superstitions, magic, astrology and alchemy use of tobacco, coffee, hemp and opium, bath, games, music, public dancers, storytellers, festivals public and private, death and funeral rites.
Modern Egyptians was a big success and sold out in a week. In fact, since December 1836 it never went out of print. The book is so vivid in its descriptions and use of fine detail that it appeals to lay readers and academics alike. In Modern Egyptians Edward Lane provides such a wealth of information about 19th-century Egyptian society that the reader can actually experience what it felt to live in Cairo at the time, down to the most minute detail.
The book was revised in 1842 and 1860. It was complemented by Sophia Poole’s (Lane’s sister) book An Englishwoman in Egypt which looked into more depth into Egyptian women’s lives. Modern Egyptians has been described as “the most perfect picture of a people’s life that has ever been written” (Stanley Poole-Lane, in Lane 2003).
Sources
Edward William Lane, An Account of the Manners and of the Customs of the Modern Egyptians, reprint of 1860 ed., American University in Cairo Press, 2003
Jill Matus, "Collaboration and Collusion. Two Victorian Writing Couples and Their Orientalist Texts" in M. Stone, J. Thompson (eds.) Literary Couplings, University of Winconsin Press, 2007.
Jason Thompson, "Edward William Lane's Description of Egypt", International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, no. 28 (1996), pp. 565-583.
Derek Gregory, "Performing Cairo: Orientalism and the City of the Arabian Nights", in Nezar Al-Sayyad, Irene Bierman and Nasser Rabat (eds):Making Cairo Medieval, Lanham MD: Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield) (2005) pp. 69-93
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