The torpor phase (1882–1892)

01The torpor phase (1882–1892)

• For ten years the national spirit lay dormant because of:
  • Egypt's fall under British occupation, the exile of some Urabi leaders and the arrest of others — the real power passing to the British Agent;
  • the beginning of the policy of subordinating the administration to English elements in every department — army, police, finance, public works and justice (al-haqqaniyya). This met no objection in the first years of Tawfiq's rule, especially since it was the English who had protected him from the Urabi Revolution;
  • the scattering of the prominent figures, who put off the garb of resistance: some took up government posts, others turned to private work in law, agriculture and trade — and some even became makers for the English.
• Even so, resistance did not vanish entirely. Its manifestations were:
  • the secret society "The League of Vengeance" (Jam'iyat al-Intiqam), aiming to free the country by assassinating Englishmen — its members were destroyed within a short time (June 1883);
  • the founding of the newspaper "Al-Urwa al-Uthqa" (The Surest Bond) by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Sheikh Muhammad Abduh to attack the occupation;
  • the founding of the newspaper "Al-Mu'ayyad" (1889) within the framework of the Islamic League (al-jami'a al-Islamiyya).