State and Islam in Egypt: Competing Models of Organized Modernity

Abstract

The beginning of the history of the modern Egyptian state might best be dated with the massacre of the remaining Mamluk princes in the Cairo Citadel in 1811. From this time onward, Muhammad Ali consolidated his power, built up a set of state institutions, and made Egypt factually independent from the Ottoman Sultan. The Viceroy of Egypt¹ embarked on a top-down reform program that focused on the centralization of state power, transforming the Ottoman province into a kind of absolutist state. In modernizing the military, state administration, education, and the economy, Muhammad Ali largely by-passed the Islamic establishment of the country and increasingly subordinated the ulama to his absolutist rule (Vatikiotis 1985, 58). In initiating modern state formation in Egypt, he did not, however, follow a clear vision of a modern order beyond his mere claim to power. Throughout the reign of Muhammad Ali (1805–1849), modernization was a means of consolidating the autonomy of the Egyptian state, which was represented by its despotic ruler alone. This situation changed under the rule of his grandson Ismail. During his regency (1863–1879), the Khedive Ismail tried to develop Egypt according to a model of modernity that could be labeled a European modern. While in principle remaining absolutist in its political institutions, Ismail’s European modern aimed at emulating European models in architecture, transportation, education, and appearance.