New light is thrown on a famous Turk by Professor
Henry Dodwell, in The Founder of Modern Egypt : A Study of Muhammad Ali (Cambridge University Press : 15s.). Pro- fessor Dodwell, well known as an historian of India, views his subject from the Eastern rather than the Western standpoint, and thus perhaps does Muhammad Ali fuller justice than has usually been accorded to him by English writers. His argument is that Muhammad Ali was not wholly wrong in claiming that he had only done for Egypt what the English had done for India. He brings out clearly the importance and solidity of the reforms that Muhammad All carried out in Egypt when, by unscrupulous intrigue and the treacherous slaughter of the Mamelukes in 1811, he had made himself master of the country. Professor Dodwell is inclined to blame Palmerston for not making terms with Muhammad Ali instead of backing the Sublime Porte, never more corrupt or inefficient than it was at that time. With British 'support in the 'thirties of the last century Muhammad All might have made himself Sultan and anticipated Mustapha Kemal's re-organization of Turkey. As it was, even in face of an unfriendly West, he almost marched to Constantinople and he made Egypt virtually independent. If he had had a capable successor the whole tangled history of modern Egypt would have been very different. Professor Dodwell's able and attractive biography deserves attention.
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