TAHTAWI, RIFA'AH RAFI' AT-

born 1801, Tahta, Egypt died 1873, Egypt teacher and scholar who was one of the first Egyptians to grapple with the question of adjusting to the West and to provide answers in Islamic terms. Tahtawi's first important contact with the West occurred in 1826, when he went to Paris as a religious teacher to a group of Egyptian students there. After five years he returned to Egypt, and in 1836 he became head of the new School of Languages in Cairo. In 1841 he was placed in charge of a translation bureau, where he translated or supervised the translation of many books on history, geography, and military science. Under the khedive 'Abbas I, who ascended the throne in 1848, Western influences were suspect, and Tahtawi was sent to Khartoum, where he taught school. On the succession of Sa'id (1854), Tahtawi returned to Cairo, where, among other activities, he continued his own scholarly work. Tahtawi saw the social order as being established by God and the ruler as God's representative. He believed that the only limitations on the ruler's authority were the dictates of his conscience. Although the people had no rights, the ruler should rule with justice and strive to foster their material well-being. The people in turn should conscientiously fulfill their duties as citizens, and the state should educate them to that end. Tahtawi's modernism lay in his conception of the material progress that could be possible within the framework of a harmoniously functioning government and society, achieved with the aid of Western technology.