Egypt
Ellen arrived in Cairo in late 1871 to join the rest of the Khedive's educational staff, Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Freedland.
Mitchell, an Oxford University graduate was teaching the Khedive Ismael's eldest son Greek and Latin to prepare him for entry to Oxford. Freedland, who had come to Egypt with his wife and family taught the young Prince Ibrahim (1860-1927). Ellen was to teach Ibrahim's sister, Princess Zeynab (1859-1875).
Ibrahim and Zeynab, ca. 1870
Ellen also taught Zeynab's companion, a girl of the same age, a Circassian slave called Kopsès Hanem. Kopsès had been raised by Zeynab's mother, Princess Jananyar.
Kopsès as a young woman, ca. 1870s
Kopsès was to become a remarkable young woman, fluent in several languages and a capable organiser, as well as extremely beautiful. She was to become a great friend of Ellen's - indeed, I suspect, actually her favourite pupil.
Ellen was in fact Zeynab's second Governess. The first had been a Miss Maclean, the eldest daughter of a General Maclean, who had been Ibrahim's previous tutor (taking over in turn, it seems, from Emmeline Lott).
However, whilst Emmeline had been obliged to live in the palace harem, by the 1870s the teaching staff had their own house, in the fashionable Choubrah Road, Cairo, to where Zeynab and Ibrahim were brought each day in closed carriages. One of the positive things about the Khedive Ismael was that he was a great educational reformer, and besides accepted that the very enclosed, restricted world of the harem was not the best place for a young child to spend all her time.
Ibrahim and Zeynab were the only surviving children, out of six, of Ismael's second wife, Princess Jananyar (or Janazir) Berenici Khanum Effendimiz (1827-1912), who was known as the "Princess Epousée", or (at that time) the "Second Princess".
The harem was by this time situated in the huge new Abdeen Palace, one of several new palaces that had been built by Ismael. It would have been, in fact, still partly under construction when Ellen arrived in Egypt, not being fully complete until the mid 1870s.
Khedive Ismael
It is rather outside the scope of this short biography to go into much detail about Ismael. Besides, there is plenty written about him elsewhere. However, as he was an important - if somewhat behind the scenes - character in Ellen's story, he needs to be introduced.Ismael succeeded as Walī of Egypt in 1863, subsequently becoming Khedive. He had been educated in Paris, and was to remain heavily westernised in his opinions. This was, too, a time when European powers, especially France, were becoming involved with Eygpt; Ismael's successor, Said I, for instance having given approval for the Suez Canal to be built. It was a project that Ismael was to also become heavily - and perhaps disastrously - involved with in turn.
Ismael gained considerable independence from the Ottoman Sultan, although remaining nominally subject to him. Ellen was to describe a state visit by the Khedival family to the Sultan in Constantinople (now Istanbul).
Ismael succeded to the throne at a time when Egypt had unusual prosperity, due to its cotton crop being in great demand as a result of American cotton becoming unavailable during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Egypt was flush with money, and Ismael wanted to spend.
He built factories, railways, a large new suburb of Cairo based on Parisian architecture, an opera-house, and several new palaces, including the Abdeen Palace. He wanted to create an Egyptian empire, and attempted to invade Ethiopia, although his army was humiliatingly defeated. And there was also, of course, the continuing and increasing expenditure on the Suez Canal.
The Abdeen Palace is a good example of the kind of building that Ismael was to become notorious for. The structure alone cost LE 700,000, with a further LE 2 million being spent on its furnishings. Used by subsequent kings and presidents of Egypt, the Palace has now been restored, and parts of it are open as a museum.
However, the extra revenue that Egypt received for cotton ended after the American Civil War. Ismael tried to raise money from international loans, and this resulted in Egypt falling into huge debt to western banks. By the time Ellen left Egypt the national debt was the equivalent of a hundred million pounds sterling. It is hard to calculate this as a modern amount, but it effectively meant national ruin for Egypt.
This of course had a calamitous effect. Lady Lucie Duff-Gordon, who lived in Egypt at the time described the desperate poverty and crippling taxes that resulted.
Ellen did not criticise Ismael in her book, no doubt out of loyalty to Zeynab. However, it did seriously affect her too; she had put all he savings in to Egyptian Bonds, which collapsed in value in 1875 after the Khedive was refused any further credit. "All I possessed was invested in Egyptian bonds", she wrote. "And they kept falling! falling! falling! They actually went down to £25!" (The purchasing equivalent of a mere £1,600 today, based on average prices).
Fortunately for Ellen, if not for Egypt, the British and French governments took over Egypt's finances (and eventually government) after 1875. Her bonds were saved, although the interest from them was reduced. Indeed, they may have been the "annuities" that she was living off at the time of her death.
In fact it was at this scary time that Ellen first considered publishing her memoirs: "My Anglo-Egyptian friends strongly advised me to publish my journal, and I revised it for that purpose." However, it was strongly against Egyptian culture at the time to write and publish an account of someone, and Ellen most certainly had no wish to offend her Egyptian friends. Only twenty years later, when the Khedive and Ibrahim were in exile, and both Zeynab and Kopsès were dead, and there was "no-one left to feel aggrieved at my publication" did she finally (and thankfully) write her book.
Eventually Egypt could stand no more of Ismael. It was not only the finances and tax, but Europeans and Turkish Circassians were favoured above Egyptians in the civil service and military. A separate - and resented - legal system for Europeans had also been established. And so, in 1882, the Urabi Revolution, named for its leader, Colonel Ahmed Urabi, broke out, with considerable violence taking place in Alexandria.
Britain, which had previously had little interest in Egypt, now felt that it had to protect the Suez Canal, which had become the vital link to India. And so a British military invasion followed, resulting in an occupation that was to last until 1954. Ismael was forced out of office, being replaced by his son, Tewfik. Ismael went into exile, first in Naples but later in a palace at Emirgan, in Turkey, where he was kept as a virtual prisoner by the Sulan until his death in 1895. Ellen likened Ismael's enforced stay at Emirgan to his being a fly, caught in a spider's web.
It would not be fair, however, to cast Ismael as a villain. Much of his spending was aimed at modernising Egypt. He completed the Suez Canal, which although a mixed blessing to Egypt at the time has considerably benefited the country since. He also created a network of railways, as well as an efficient postal-service.
And as I have mentioned, he was a great educational reformer, with one of his greatest achievements being in massively improving female education. And this was to serve future generations of Egyptians well. He also increased democracy in Egypt, setting up an Assembly which - for the first time - gave local, rural areas a voice in government. He also opposed slavery, eventually making it illegal in Egypt (although somewhat ironically making a great deal of use of corvée (conscript) labour for the Suez Canal, and his other schemes.
In the next post, I shall look at Ellen's adventures in Egypt.
To be continued...
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