The educational missions from Egypt to France in 1830s-1840s have been the focus of a number of well known studies ( cf. the research published by James Heyworth-Dunne, Shaden Tageldin, Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid Marsot, Ian Coller, and many others). The consensus among scholars is that these missions played a vital role in triggering the nahda (Arab renaissance) by ushering in the Middle East to the modern age. For this reason, the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha (r. 1805-1848), the Ottoman Viceroy in Egypt, commensurate with Arab revival and rebirth, whereas the reign of Abbas I Pasha (r. 1849-1854), his grandson and successor, invokes images of relapse in which the jubilant march towards modernity was disrupted. One of the reasons that cast a long shadow over Abbas' brief rule was that he put an end to the educational missions to France. But as Ehud Toledano points out, the pasha did not completely halt those missions; rather, he sponsored smaller missions to Austria and Germany, that is to say, to countries other than France. Al-Shami's account survives as a hand-written manuscript. Although the manuscript is unfinished (it ends abruptly), the notes provide us with a rare view of the way the students were selected to be sent to Europe in 1850, the reaction of their families, their long sea voyage from Alexandria to Trieste (now in Italy), and their journey by land to Vienna to commence their studies. Another interesting quality of al-Shami's account is that it does not appear to have been edited or revised. It retains the author's crude style, unlike the celebrated travel account written by Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi, published in 1835. Subsequently, al-Shami's account depicts a more accourate picture of what the students actually learned and their honest impressions about Europe. My analysis of al-Shami's account will shed a different light on Abbas Pasha and role the educational missions played in triggering the nahda in the first half of the nineteenth century.