Ottoman rule of Arab land lasted 400 years. During this long period, no noteworthy progress was achieved for the states and their people. The rule was a military, despotic one and the people had no opinion on how their country was run. Ignorance and injustice were rampant. During centuries when Europe lived through a scientific, industrial and intellectual awakening, the Ottoman sultans kept their states away from all awakenings, until Napoleon took over Egypt in the early 19th century, followed by Muhammad Ali Pasha’s control over Egypt and the Levant, which allowed for establishing contact with the European awakening through scholarships and schools in Egypt and Lebanon. This represented a new awakening through work and education.