Turkish Ambassador Shares İlber Ortaylı’s Reflections on Egypt: “The Mother of the World”

Turkish Ambassador to Egypt Salih Mutlu Şen shared, in a Facebook post, some observations and thoughts about Egypt by Ilber Ortaylı, the great Turkish historian:

I haven’t been to Egypt for five years. Tiredness, irritation and sadness that I experience every time I leave, a longing will be replaced by the day I leave. No doubt Egypt is "Ummu'l-Dunya". Modernity is the mother of the world.

Before the heavenly religions, the ancient Egyptians developed their mythologies and death rituals. They were doing four operations and geometry with easier and more practical methods than the Greeks. Chemistry science takes its name from "Shemya", that is, after Egypt's own name.

Egypt is the father of health rules. From manicure and pedicure for hygiene to grocery lists, everything was found there. To know anatomy on the corpse is the job of Egyptian monks not the universities of Padua and Bologna at the end of the Middle Ages. According to their beliefs, they examined the human body while making the mummy. After the Romans conquered Egypt, they got the real finance and the descent of becoming a state. They learned land measurement and taxation from the Egyptians.

Civilization does not begin with Greece, it begins with Mesopotamia, but I guess in terms of continuity and consistency, the richness of the Nile and the Nile delta created such a glorious civilization like Egypt.

Whether you like it or not, we are all Egyptians, whether you know it or not. Because it's a civilization issue.

Egypt knows how to resurrect and never dies.

Revival is happening in Egypt's least expected places.

Old buildings in Cairo's old quarters are not being restored; the restoration of the 750-year-old Ibn Tulun Mosque is an example for this. But when we look around, another restoration seems to be on the horizon. Muizüddinlah is the most picturesque street in Cairo, which starts at Bab-i Zuveyle (Jin's Gate); it is long and surrounded by artifacts belonging to Memluks and Ottomans. Here is one of the best examples of sebilkuttabs (sebil and the neighborhood school inside) which had 700 numbers at the beginning of 19th century when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. Mehmed Ali Paşa's brother built on a casket is like the example of the last Renaissance at the end of Ottomanism. Beside these kind of brothers, there are small schools where children learn Quran and a little math, and can work in the cool summer.

It is not an exaggeration if we say that Muhammad Ali Sebili is the greatest and the Renaissance of Egypt has also started here. Children learned Arabic, Turkish, math, history, geography and interesting English.