An Address before the National University in Cairo, March 28, 1910

It is to me a peculiar pleasure to speak to-day under such
distinguished auspices as yours, Prince Fouad,[4] before this National
University, and it is of good augury for the great cause of higher
education in Egypt that it should have enlisted the special interest
of so distinguished and eminent a man. The Arabic-speaking world
produced the great University of Cordova, which flourished a thousand
years ago, and was a source of light and learning when the rest of
Europe was either in twilight or darkness; in the centuries following
the creation of that Spanish Moslem university, Arabic men of science,
travellers, and geographers--such as the noteworthy African traveller
Ibn Batutu, a copy of whose book, by the way, I saw yesterday in the
library of the Alhazar[5]--were teachers whose works are still to be
eagerly studied; and I trust that here we shall see the revival, and
more than the revival, of the conditions that made possible such
contributions to the growth of civilization.

[4] Prince Fouad is the uncle of the Khedive, a Mohammedan
gentleman of education and enlightened views.--L.F.A.

[5] The great Moslem University of Cairo, in which 9000 students
study chiefly the Koran in mediæval fashion.--L.F.A.

This scheme of a National University is fraught with literally untold
possibilities for good to your country. You have many rocks ahead of
which you must steer clear; and because I am your earnest friend and
well-wisher, I desire to point out one or two of these which it is
necessary especially to avoid. In the first place, there is one point