Sanüa was born into a well-educated Jewish family in 1839. As a child he was edu- cated in both Hebrew and Arabic. Reportedly very precocious, he impressed a member of the royal family with his intelligence and his gift for languages and was sent to Italy to study. Soon after his return to Egypt, his father died, and he was compelled to take a job as a tutor to children of the relatives of Viceroy Muhammad Alï. In 1863, the same year that Ismaïl became ruler of Egypt, Sanüa began teaching at the Polytechnic School, one of Muhammad `Alï’s original schools, which was organized on a European curriculum to educate soldiers and officers of the Egyptian army.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 314