The Teaching of Descriptive Geometry in Egypt

In the period between 1837 with the translation of Emile Duchesne’sDuchesneÉléments de géométrie descriptive into Arabic, and the 1890s with the takeover of secondary and higher education by the British, the teaching of descriptive geometry enjoyed sustained development in Egyptian engineering schools and military academies. This paper will highlight the defining moments of French influence in education in Egypt. The protagonists’ lives and the discipline’s position in the curricula will be detailed, as well as the development of textbooks, from the translation of those by OlivierOlivier, LeroyLeroy and GeronoGerono to the composition of original treatises by Aḥmad Naǧı̄bNaǧı̄b, Ṣābir Ṣabrı̄Ṣabrı̄, etc.