The cultural and intellectual climate

04The cultural and intellectual climate

• Although the national movement was stalled politically, the cultural and intellectual climate helped the national spirit to grow:

The salons and the press

• The press of opinion spread, filled with articles and studies.
• The mission policy begun under Isma'il began to bear fruit: the returnees imposed their presence on the intellectual and cultural scene, influenced by freedom of opinion in constitutional parliamentary life.
• They found their way into the intellectual salons and literary forums that spread in Egypt.
• Salons of the last quarter of the nineteenth century: the salon of Latif Selim Pasha (1883), which carried Urabist ideas; the Afghani forum; the salon of Sayed al-Bakri; the salon of Ahmed Teymur Pasha for literature, culture and art; and the salons of famous women such as Aisha al-Taymuriya and Nazli Hanem Fadel.