John Ward (1832 – 1912) was another English Egyptologist who supported the Coptic demands for justice during the Consul-Generalship of Eldon Gorst (1907 – 1911), and wrote a chapter in Kyriakos Mikhail’s book, Copts Under British Rule (1911), titled The Native Christians of Egypt. Ward has published a few books, including Pyramids and Progress: Sketches from Egypt (1900), The Sacred Beetle: a popular treatise on Egyptian scarabs in art and history (1902), and Our Sudan: Its Pyramids and Progress (1905).
Ward has the highest regards for the Copts. As if addressing those anti-Copts, such as Lord Cromer, who had never showed interest in the Copts or mixed with them, and who had had no good word for them, he says:
When people who know them well, such as Professor Sayce[1] and Mrs. Butcher[2] (who have spent much of their lives in, or working for, Egypt), vouch for the domestic virtues and honest, peaceful lives of the Copts, we can fully trust their confidence in this remnant of the ancient Christianity of the country.
But Ward does not rely on others for his views on the character of the Copts: he has mixed with the Copts of Asyut in Upper Egypt, visited them at their homes and known them very well from firsthand experience:
Few of the annual tourists visit Asyut. It is almost a Coptic (i.e. Christian) town. There the influential folk are Copts, and by their industry, honesty, and their intelligence and cleverness, they flourish, and many become rich in houses and lands and are able to educate their sons, sending them recently to English schools and universities. It is an interesting thing to visit the Copts in their own homes. The Christian virtues are all practised. The man a husband of one wife. The lady of the house sits beside her husband at the family meals. The daughters, equally educated and equally valued with the sons. This sort of life is a sharp contrast to the Moslem system, where the poor women are despised or hidden away as something to be ashamed of. In the society of Christian families at Asyut I have spent most happy hours indeed, having been introduced to them by my friend, Professor Sayce, who had long known them.
Ward’s report on the Copts, their moral and mental character, their family values and respect for their wives and love for their children, undermines such reports by anti-Copts like Edward William Lane and Lord Cromer. But let’s read what he had to say in its entirety:
THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS OF EGYPT BY JOHN WARD[3]
I am glad to see that the Copts are at length coming forward to plead their claim that justice be done them. A people who have undergone persecution for 1500 years may bear traces of a down-trodden state of existence of many centuries in their demeanour of to-day. Still, they earn our Christian sympathies. Their cause, those who know them believe, is well worth their efforts, and should have full support and sympathy from Christians of every phase of faith. When people who know them well, such as Professor Sayce and Mrs. Butcher (who have spent much of their lives in, or working for, Egypt), vouch for the domestic virtues and honest, peaceful lives of the Copts, we can fully trust their confidence in this remnant of the ancient Christianity of the country.
The Copts suffer from certain disabilities under the British rule in Egypt which ought to be remedied, or our good name for justice and fair play will suffer. The survival of the Egyptian Christians under the tyranny of Moslem bigotry of over a thousand years is a wonderful fact. There are barely a million of them now — there must have been twenty millions at one time — ere they were crushed by Moslem persecution.
Now that a Christian Power has brought the ancient land back to prosperity, it is the duty of that Power to give even-handed justice to this remnant of the ancient Christianity which once pervaded the whole land from the Mediterranean to Khartoum. The ruins of ancient Christian churches are found all along the Nile, and I have seen, at Soba, on the Blue Nile, the remains of an important church bearing the cross upon its capitals. When Kitchener subdued the Mahdi hordes there were no Christians to be seen, any few left beyond the First Cataract were in hiding from Dervish cruelty between Assuan and Omdurman.
Few of the annual tourists visit Asyut. It is almost a Coptic (i.e. Christian) town. There the influential folk are Copts, and by their industry, honesty, and their intelligence and cleverness, they flourish, and many become rich in houses and lands and are able to educate their sons, sending them recently to English schools and universities. It is an interesting thing to visit the Copts in their own homes. The Christian virtues are all practised. The man a husband of one wife. The lady of the house sits beside her husband at the family meals. The daughters, equally educated and equally valued with the sons. This sort of life is a sharp contrast to the Moslem system, where the poor women are despised or hidden away as something to be ashamed of. In the society of Christian families at Asyut I have spent most happy hours indeed, having been introduced to them by my friend, Professor Sayce, who had long known them.
Acting on the advice of English friends, the Copts have formed a Coptic Society, with a branch in London, for giving general information about their brethren in Egypt. They have purchased the rights of Mrs. Butcher’s admirable ‘Story of the Church in Egypt,’ and hope to introduce these volumes to the notice of Christian visitors to the Nile. They have secured the powerful aid of Professor Sayce, who has been an annual visitor to Egypt for thirty years. They hope to get their modest demands, viz. equal consideration with the Moslems, granted by the British rulers of Egypt by advocating their claims firmly but modestly, as ’tis their nature to. At present their children are compelled, in many districts, to learn the Koran in the schools which they are taxed to support.
The British education authorities seem anxious to Moslemise these Christian children, and they should have our sympathy, being their fellow Christians.
I have visited the excellent schools of the American Mission at Asyut. No such system is followed there — but then they want to promote Christianity, while the British education authorities seem to desire to stamp it out. This must be remedied, and no doubt will be. Then there are other (unwritten) laws which prevent Copts of high character and brilliant parts from filling the higher offices such as Mudir (Governor of a Province) or Mamour (Governor of a District) — all these restrictions ought to be removed. Recently a Copt of high position and universally esteemed was elected as Prime Minister of Egypt. The Mohammedan bigots had him assassinated, and some of their newspapers went so far as to extol his murderer into a hero. This conduct should show our educational authorities in Egypt what their system of teaching Moslem tenets to Christian children may lead to.
I wish these interesting fellow Christians every success in their most estimable efforts to obtain fair play for their countrymen.
POSTSCRIPT
Since the above was written important events have occurred. Sir Eldon Gorst, a good, honest gentleman, who tried to please all parties and satisfied none, is dead, worn out with his ungrateful task. It was difficult to succeed Lord Cromer, the regenerator of Egypt.
The Copts are now likely to be treated with the consideration they deserve. Lord Kitchener has become the British Agent,[4] in this capacity practically ruling the whole Nile Valley, from the Mediterranean to the Equator. One of the bravest and most upright of men, utterly free from bigotry and partisanship, there is little doubt but when he has time to study the Coptic question that what these poor folk — the survivors of the earliest converts to Christianity — demand, only fair play, will reach them at last.
They have shown themselves to be loyal subjects and grateful for all the blessings which the Anglo-Egyptian Administration have brought to their native land, and certainly deserve equality with their Moslem fellow-countrymen.
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[1] Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce (1845 – 1933), the famous English Assyriologist and Egyptologist.
[2] Edith Louisa Butcher (1854 – 1933), the author of The Story of the Church of Egypt (London, 1897).
[3] Kyriakos Mikhail, Copts Under British Rule (London, 1911), pp. 14-18.
[4] Herbert Kitchener, the Conqueror of Sudan, succeeded Eldon Gorst, after the latter’s death in 1911, and remained in his position until 1914.