Figure 1.--This is a scene after World War II. The Egyptian boy here attends a British school. There is clearly an interest in aviation. Egypt had, however, no aviation industry of any size. The country was building a small air force with British aircraft.

Most of the Middle East at the time of World War II was colonized by the Europeans (after cebturies of Ottoman control, or under varying degrees of European control. None of these countries had sizeable industrial establishments, althouh oil was beginning to bring money into the area (Iran and Iraq) for the first time in centuries. Not only was industry lacking, but there was virtually no technological capability at all. It was a technological black hole after coming close to basically inventing science in the Islamic Golden Age. There were notable educational institutions, but they gradually evolved into exclusively religious (Islamic) studies. At the time of the War, there were no universities in the Middle East with with advanced technological programs. The region was entirely dependent on Europe and America for all modern technology. This included Egypt, the most advanced of the Arab states. Strangely, the idea of the university was invented in the Islamic world and was not limited to religious studies. But even today with the vast influx of oil money, there is not one single world-class univerity (producing Nobel awards) in the Arab and wider Muslim world.

Created: 9:15 PM 9/5/20199
Last updated: 9:15 PM 9/5/2019