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The Cairo Archives for the Study of Èlites in Modern Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

F. Robert Hunter
F. Robert Hunter
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Western scholarship is today at work ‘rediscovering’ the Egyptian archives. After a decade of relative absence, scholars have in the past few years converged on Cairo in ever growing numbers to mine the archival treasures hidden away in mosques, palaces, and old public buildings. Between 1968 and 1970 American scholars researched eight archive projects, Europeans several more; and in 1971–2 The American Research Center in Egypt administered 29 projects (a near threefold increase from the immediately preceding years), of which 18 proposed to use archival material1.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 476 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

page 476 note 1 Information on the current state of the archives and on the number and types of projects being researched in 1971–2 under the auspices of The American Research Center in Egypt was kindly provided by its Director, Mr John Dorman.Google Scholar

page 476 note 2 Research was interrupted for only a few weeks when the National Archives was moved to the Citadel. According to Dr Shineti, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Culture in charge of libraries and the National Archives, the latter remains open to researchers. Permission to use the National Library now takes but a few days.Google Scholar

page 476 note 3 For the first generation, see the works of Douin, G., Deny, J., Sammarco, A., Heyworth-Dunne, J., and the various publications of the Egyptian Geographical Society and the French Institute in Cairo. S. Shaw's works should be well known to the readership. The research for his book on the administrative organization of Ottoman Egypt was done in Cairo in 1955–6. Helen Rivlin also researched in the National Archives between 1962 and 1964.Google Scholar

page 477 note 1 For an idea of the kinds of projects now being researched in Cairo by Western scholars, in 1968–70 there were three on the ‘Urâbî Revolt, two on the Egyptian ‘ulamâ’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, one on the socio-economic origins of the 1919 Revolt, and another on the development of health facilities and the medical profession in Muhammad ‘Alî’s Egypt; and in 1971–1972, to name just a few, are on the legal profession, another on the engineering corps, and a third on the intellectual contribution of ‘Alî Mubârak.Google Scholar

page 477 note 2 Deny, Jean, Sommaire des Archives Turques du Caire (Cairo, 1930);Google ScholarWilliams, John, ‘Research Facilities in the U.A.R.’, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, vol. 4, no. 2 (15 05 1970);CrossRefGoogle ScholarRivlin, H., The Dâr al-Wathâ'iq ‘Abdîn Palace at Cairo As a Source for the Study of the Modernization of Egypt in the Nineteenth Century (Leiden, 1970);Google ScholarCrecelius, Daniel, ‘The Organization of WAQF Documents in Cairo’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 2, no. 3 (06 1971), pp. 266–77;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Shaw's, S. two articles, ‘Turkish Source-materials for Egyptian History’, in Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt, Holt, P. M., ed. (London, 1968), pp. 28–48;Google Scholar and ‘Cairo's Archives and the History of Ottoman Egypt’, Report on Current Research, Spring 1956 (Middle East Institute), pp. 59–72.Google Scholar

page 478 note 1 I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the financial assistance provided by the American Research Center in Egypt, which enabled me to spend two years in Cairo, and the assistance of the following persons, without which my project could never have been completed: Dr ‘Abd al-‘Azîz Kâmil, Minister of Awqâf; Ms. Sousan ‘Abd al-Ghanî, archivist at the National Archives; Mr Kâmil Abû al-Khayr, Chief Photographer at the Ministry of Awqâf; and Mr Zuhayr al-Shâyib, archivist at the Dâr al-Mahfûzât, whose infinite patience and unflagging support enabled me to expand the project.Google Scholar

page 478 note 2 Rivlin, op. cit., appendixes VII and VIII, pp. 69–128.Google Scholar

page 479 note 1 Two years of research in the Cairo archives have convinced this researcher that, helpful as the newly discovered numerical data may be for quantifying some processes of administrative change, the smallness of the sample, the randomness of the selection, and the weighting of the material in ways unknown to the historian render an exclusively statistical approach to modem Egypt pre-1882 sterile and doomed to failure. Not only is much of the data incomplete, namely the land registers, but some is downright misleading, namely the budgets published before 1882.Google Scholar

page 479 note 2 The Rûznâma Department in Ottoman Egypt was the principal administrative bureau of the Treasury, but Muhammad ‘Alî reduced its importance until it became, by mid-nineteenth century, the office in the Ministry of Finance that had charge of the pensions.Google ScholarShaw, S. J., The Financial and Administrative Organization of Ottoman Egypt 1517–1798 (Princeton, 1962), pp. 338–43;Google Scholar and Deny, op. cit. p. 138. The Rûznâma Archives, located at the Dâr al-Mahfûzât, include the land tax and pension registers.Google Scholar

page 480 note 1 The reader should note that before 1882, though private landownership existed in theory, it did not yet exist in practice, as the rulers continued to exercise their prescriptive right of confiscation and reallocation.Google Scholar

page 480 note 2 As used in Egypt, the term (also al-Bâshâwât) denoted an officially recognized elite of high-ranking civil and military officials, and may have included members of the royal family. The Dhawât were privileged by law (they could not be lashed, for example) and thus were distinguished from the muwazzifîn, the lower officials, though both were efendîs — that is, government employees.Google Scholar

page 480 note 3 Cf. the estates of Ibrâhîm Pâshâ Yakin, 33,438 feddâns; Muhammad Sharîf, 21,928; and Mubammad Sa'îd, 46,615. That the figures entered in this register understate by omission the total amount of land held by many entrants is perhaps due to Isma'il's reliance upon Rûznâma records and upon the veracity of the shaykhs al-balad, who conducted his survey and concealed much land from the government. According to our own checks, the entries themselves, though, are accurate.Google Scholar

page 481 note 1 The National Library apparently has lost the issues for 1250/1834–1835 to 1255/1839–1840, and has misplaced those for the years 1265/1848–1849 to 1281/1864–1865.Google Scholar

page 481 note 2 Boxes under other topics also contain material on these subjects.Google Scholar

page 481 note 3 This Collection may have been one casualty of the recent reorganization. When the National Archives was moved to the Citadel, the summary cards were mixed up, and I was informed by an archivist that they were no longer in use. A truly persistent scholar, however, will never take ‘no’ for an answer.Google Scholar

page 482 note 1 Long delays seem to be the rule in obtaining permission to use this Archives, whichis administered by the Ministry of Finance. In 1968–70 permission took no less than six months, when it was granted. According to Dr Shineti, this Archives receives so few applications for admittance that the Ministry has not set up the bureaucratic machinery to handle those that are submitted. Any scholar wishing to use the Mahfûzât is advised to spend at least 15 months in Egypt.Google Scholar

page 483 note 1 The ‘official’ reason for dismissal offers a fine illustration of the deception of public documents: the given reason often may have very little to do with the real cause of dismissal, especially for the period before 1882.Google Scholar

page 483 note 2 These empty dossiers often give the date that the contents were transferred and their current location, usually in one of the ministries.Google Scholar

page 484 note 1 On this survey and the tawâri' registers, see Hunayn, Jirjis, al-Atyân wa al-Darâ'ib fi al-Qutr al-Mişrî (Cairo, 1904), p. 114.Google Scholar

page 484 note 2 The Register of Incidents of Villages and Ezbehs is another useful Collection, which belongs to the period of the British occupation and after. Designed to record the misdeeds of villagers, these registers give for each village the total land area, number of inhabitants, and number of hamlets. I wish to thank Ms Judith Gran of the University of Chicago for calling my attention to this Register.Google Scholar

page 486 note 1 These recently received some well-deserved publicity in the earlier cited report of Daniel Crecelius. I wish to thank Dr Crecelius for introducing me to this source.Google Scholar

page 486 note 2 For example, the Munâstarlî family. Its founder was the chief steward of ‘Abbâs Pâshâ, and one of the most powerful men in Egypt during the 1850s. For an account of the family's land, see vol. 1, no. 1374; and vol. 2, no. 2380.Google Scholar

page 486 note 3 Pp. 121–30.Google Scholar

page 486 note 4 Pp. 1–39.Google Scholar

page 487 note 1 Qalam al-sijillât, Sultân Pâshâ, no. 36, reg. 12, ahlî, alîf.Google Scholar

page 487 note 2 For endowments by members of the royal family, see Daftarkhana, Sijill waqfiyyat, vol. 1: 851, 857, 861, 865–9; and vol.2: 2803 2805, 3037. For those members of the Turco-Egyptian elite who did likewise, vol. 1: 955, 1374, 1375; and vol. 2: 2179, 2380, 2429, 2756, 2803, 3260.Google Scholar

page 488 note 1 Hourani, Albert, ‘Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables’, in The Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East, Polk, and Chambers, , eds. (Chicago, 1968), p. 43.Google Scholar

page 488 note 2 British Museum, Add. MSS. 37448–71.Google Scholar

page 488 note 3 Gibb, H. A. R., ‘Problems of Middle Eastern History’, in H. A. R. Gibb, Studies on the Civilization of Islam, Shaw, S. and Polk, W., eds. (Boston, 1962), p. 338.Google Scholar