The University of Edinburgh’s engagement with the Middle East extended beyond it being a field of study. As a Western institution of higher education, it attracted students from the region who brought not only their intellectual potential and aspirations for learning but also political, social and cultural views that  they expressed and disseminated during their studies in ways that would raise some challenging social and political questions both for the institution and themselves. At times their language abilities were called on to assist Edinburgh academics.

The Middle Eastern Student Body

Records indicate that students from Turkey and Persia attended the University as early as 1846, with several Egyptian students matriculating during the 1850s. This was part of a growing internationalisation of the student body that in time saw the establishment of a number of foreign student associations. The Indian Association was formed in 1883 but others soon followed. Over time their presence at the University, as student societies and individuals, would raise some challenging social and political questions.

Edinburgh Islamic Society (EIS)

In 1908 the Edinburgh Islamic Society (EIS) was constituted by twenty-four Arab, Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Syrian, Turkish and Afghan students ‘to promote the religious, social, moral, intellectual and commercial advancement of the Muslim world’. This broad programme soon took on a political character. One of the earliest EIS events hosted a dinner at the Caledonian Station Hotel for the Egyptian nationalist Leader, Muhammad Farid, who spoke critically of the British occupation of Egypt. In the following years the anticolonial stance of the Society manifested itself in resolutions condemning the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911, criticism of the immigration laws in Natal, and protests against French ‘outrages’ in Syria during the 1920s. Fundraising efforts were also organised, for the Ottoman Navy (1911) and the Red Crescent Society in Istanbul (1912). There was also occasions to protest on religious issues, such as the great exception taken to comments made on Islam during the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh (1910).

Edinburgh Egyptian Society

In 1916 the number of Egyptian students was sufficient to support the establishment of a separate society, the Edinburgh Egyptian Society (EES), which was open to all Egyptians and met fortnightly on Saturday afternoons during the academic year. Pledged ‘to promote social and literary intercourse among its members, to render every assistance to Egyptians wishing to study in this country, and to do everything possible to further the interests and welfare of Egypt’, the EES became a prominent political voice in the years immediately after World War I, when the matter of Egyptian and British relations was heavily under public discussion. Following the 1919 Revolution in Egypt, the Society issued a number of statements in the British national press supporting the nationalist Wafd of Sa’d Zaghlul that called for Egyptian independence and an end to British occupation. In this effort, the EES hosted visiting Egyptian politicians and activists, and worked with other student societies, such the Egyptian Indian Association, in campaigning against imperialism. Later in the 1930s, the issue of Palestine would receive attention in the pages of student publications and in the local press to which both University staff and students contributed.