Literary and cultural life in the Period of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805-1848)

The beginning of the modern Arabic literature is considered to be the year of 1798 when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Egypt. However, it was Muhammad Ali Pasha, viceroy of Egypt, who observed the reforms brought by the French occupation, established the modern foundations and carried to future years. The effects of Pasha's modernization of Egypt reflected also on the literary and cultural life, conduced to growing of new generation and spreading of the new literary genres quickly. In this thesis, starting from the history of Egypt and aforementioned period, subjects like developments which affected the literary and cultural life in the period of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805-1848), the opening of modern schools, cultural student missions abroad that started the Egyptian renaissance which is called "al-nahda", translation activities, printing and press were discussed and it is aimed to shed light on dark aspects of this period by giving information about the lives and works of the writers, men of letters, poets and historians which were the intelligentsia of the period.