ABSTRACT
Following the death of Muhammad Ali just before mid-century, reform limped on in Egypt without any defining purpose. His adopted son Ibrahim Pasha had died the year before, and with him went much of the will to reform. Muhammad Ali had never invested enough in the schools to make the difference he wanted, but they were nonetheless a start that could have been pushed forward. Muhammad Ali's stern methods of controlling modernization as a state monopoly effectively muted all open criticism and opposition to government and its policies. Khedive Ismail resumed the student missions to Europe, to France mainly, but for reasons other than those that Muhammad Ali had sent them there. Muhammad Ali had also taken al-Azhar students for his secular schools and used its shaykhs as teachers, but without any thought regarding intellectual cohesion. Muhammad Abduh would be the principal exception.
