Reviving classical learning failed as a strategy for securing Egyptian political authority

Evidence

Marsafi’s own intellectual career was part of an attempt, on the part of himself and other Azhar-trained scholars drawn into the educational politics, to extend and make secure political authority in Egypt by means of the revival of learning. He wished to draw on Ibn Khaldun’s discussion of scholarship, in an effort to revive on the basis of existing notions of authorship and the power of writing a political authority that worked through literature. The attempt failed, but the failure can throw light on the change in the nature of writing and politics that was to take place. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 427

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the reader’s interest in failed institutional strategies — elites turning to tradition as a failed consolidation gambit.