As a true litterateur of his time, Shaykh Husayn al-Marsafi composed his 1881 treatise The Eight Words as an elucidation of “the words that are constantly on the tongues of the people.” After commenting on the weighty political concepts of nation, community, government, justice, injustice, politics, and freedom, al-Marsafi ends his work with a lengthy discussion on tarbiya (education). Just months before the ʿUrabi Revolt, education occupied a vital place alongside concerns about government, authority, and politics. Marsafi's choice of “words” simply articulated a long-standing belief that roughly a decade and a half of educational reforms brought to the fore: “Once tarbiya is made perfect, everything else is also made perfect.”