Figure 1.--This albumen cabinet card shows a street scene in Alexandria, we think in the 1890s. Noitice the almisr total absence of any midern technology. Actuallyn the man in the center carries some kind of modern metal pot. Absent this this photograph could habevbeen taken centuries eralirt showing the Arab world had made virtutually no technilogical advances. You have to ask in an era of enormous techmical and scientific change, why was the Arab world still living essenial in the medival era? No foreign power was preventing the Arabs from developing science and technology. In fact until the 14th century, the Arabs were more advanced than the Europeans.
With the spread of photography from Europe into the Middle East we begin to learn more about Egypt invliding fashion trends (late-19th century). The basic styles worn seem to be essentially the same as those worn since the Arab conquest (7th century) with some added Turkish influences. Photographs taken in the 19th century or even the early-20th century often could represent scenes centuries if not a millennia earlier. All the changes noving Europe into modern times were largely unknown in Egypt and Egypt was the most arguably the most modern of the Arab states. This is an observation of enormous potent. Fashion is a reflection of a much more importaht trend. At a time that the Western world was experiencing enormous social change and technological advances vastly improving economic productivity, Egypt and the Arab world languished in a cultural and economic stupor. The West was not preventing modern learnung and advances. It was Egyptian culture. Many Egyptians today are prone to blame the West and conlonialism for their predicament. The simple fact is that Egyot's backwardness dates not from the British colonial era, but from decline of the Caliphate when Islam began to supress rather than promote learning (13th century). In fact much of the country's modern infrastructure began to be put in place only after the British instituted a protectorate (1880s). There is a total unwillingness in Arab countrtries, not just Efgypr, lack of progress in the modern world as a result of their own culture and Islam.
