In this pioneering account of Egyptian educational history, Paul Sedra describes how the Egyptian state under Muhammad Ali Pasha sought to forge a new relationship with children during the nineteenth century. Through the introduction of modern forms of education, brought to Egypt by evangelical missions, the state aimed to ensure children's loyal service to the state, whether through conscription or forced labor. However, these schemes of educational reform, most prominently Joseph Lancaster's monitorial system, led to unforeseen consequences as students in Egypt's new modern schools resisted efforts to control their behavior in creative and complex ways, and these acts of resistance themselves led to new forms of political identity. Tracing the development of a distinctly Egyptian "modernity," From Mission to Modernity is indispensable for all those interested in Egyptian history and the history of modern education and reform.

Paul Sedra's profile page

Paul Sedra is Assistant Professor of History at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, and Middle East editor of the journal History Compass. He has taught at Dalhousie University and the University of Toronto, and has published articles in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Comparative Studies in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, T he Journal of Religious History, as well as the Middle East working paper series of Yale and Columbia Universities. The principal focus of his research is the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East. He has a Master's degree from St. Antony's, Oxford University and a PhD in History and Middle Eastern studies from New York University.