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State and Peasants in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Egypt: Some Archival Sources for the Study of Egyptian Rural History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2025

Maha Ghalwash
Maha Ghalwash*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, British University in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
*
Email: mghalwash@bue.edu.eg
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Abstract

This article identifies some of the sources that are helpful for the study of peasant society in mid-nineteenth-century Egypt. In describing each of these sources, which involves specifying the nature of the data documented by a source, it highlights the potential use of each source and its limitations. It concludes that the examination of a combination of archival sources, rather than just one, enables the researcher to address some of the limitations of a particular source, and moreover to avoid developing distorted interpretations.

Keywords

archivesEgyptlandholdingmid-nineteenth century

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Article
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Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , June 2025 , pp. 1 - 21
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Middle East Studies Association of North America

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References

1 For example, Baer, Gabriel, A History of Landownership in Modern Egypt, 1800–1950 (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1962)Google Scholar.

2 For example, Cuno, Kenneth M., The Pasha’s Peasants: Land, Society and Economy in Lower Egypt, 1740–1858 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Ener, Mine, Managing Egypt’s Poor and the Politics of Benevolence, 1800–1952 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003)10.1515/9781400844357CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For example, Cuno, Kenneth M. and Reimer, Michael J., “The Census Registers of Nineteenth-Century Egypt: A New Source for Social Historians,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 24, no. 2 (1997): 193–216 10.1080/13530199708705646CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mikhail, Alan, My Egypt Archive (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2023)Google Scholar; Adam Mestyan, “Dar al-Mahfuzat al-‘Umumiyya (Cairo),” HAZINE, 3 March 2014, https://hazine.info/tag/cairo-en/.

4 To gain entry to these archival houses, researchers must apply for research permits. For the Dar al-Mahfuzat permit, at the time of this writing (summer 2024), Mestyan’s information holds true except for one point, which is the location of the office where researchers are to submit their applications. This office—the Security Bureau of the Property Tax Office of the Finance Ministry—has been relocated to the New Administrative Capital (see Mestyan, “Dar al-Mahfuzat.”) For access to Dar al-Wathaʾiq, the researcher must prepare several documents: a letter from their university that identifies them as a scientific researcher and acknowledges their affiliation; two copies of the proposed research plan; two passport-size photos; and Egyptian citizens present two copies of their national ID, whereas foreigners present two copies of their passports. These documents are to be presented to an appointed member of the archive’s staff, who will then require the researcher to complete a form (summarizing their identity and research focus). The staff member will then submit these documents (constituting the researcher’s application) to the security authorities for approval. Researchers must be prepared to wait, as the granting of approval can take time—I was told from 1 month to 1 year.

5 To facilitate the citation of archival sources, I use these abbreviations: Dar al-Mahfuzat al-ʿUmumiyya (DMU); Dar al-Wathaʾiq al-Qawmiyya (DWQ); al-Maʿiyya al-Siniyya (MS); Diwan al-Dakhiliyya (DD); and Majlis al-Ahkam (MA).

6 Hunter, F. Robert, “State-Society Relations in Nineteenth-Century Egypt: The Years of Transition, 1848–79,” Middle Eastern Studies 36, no. 3 (2000): 145 10.1080/00263200008701321CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Hunter, F. Robert, Egypt under the Khedives, 1805–1879: From Household Government to Modern Bureaucracy (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984), 41 Google Scholar; Hunter, “State-Society Relations,” 146–47.

8 Hunter, “State-Society Relations,” 149. For provincial councils, see Zayn al-ʿAbidin Shams al-Din Nijm, Al-Dawla wa al-Mujtamaʿ fi Misr fi al-Qarn al-Tasiʿ ʿAshar [State and Society in Egypt during the Nineteenth Century] (Cairo, Egypt: Matbaʿat Dar al-Kutub wa-al-Wathaʾiq bi-al-Qahira, 2007), 63–74.

9 Hunter, Egypt, 18–20.

10 Ibid., 47.

11 Nijm, Al-Dawla, 63–64.

12 Imad Hillal, Al-Fallah wa al-Sulta wa al-Qanun, Misr fi al-Nisf al-Thani min al-Qarn al-Tasiʿ ʿAshar [The Peasant and Authority and Law: Egypt during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century] (Cairo, Egypt: Matbaʿat Dar al-Kutub wa-al-Wathaʾiq bi-al-Qahira, 2007), 29; Hunter, Egypt, 51.

13 Nijm, Al-Dawla, 68.

14 Hillal, Al-Fallah, 31, 34.

15 Ibid., 29; Nijm, Al-Dawla, 68.

16 Hunter, Egypt, 47–48.

17 For the last register that documented the petitions sent to this department from the rural areas, see DWQ, DD, L/19/15/8, 28 Rabiʿ II 1276 - 7 Ramadan 1276 / 24 November 1859 - 29 March 1860.

18 Hunter, “State-Society Relations,” 157.

19 Cuno, Pasha’s Peasants, 67, 69 (all quotations, 67).

20 Cuno and Reimer, “Census Registers,” 200.

21 One faddan is roughly equal to one acre; it is made up of 24 qirats. One qirat consists of one-twenty-fourth of a faddan; it is made up of 24 sahms. One sahm consists of one-twenty-fourth of a qirat.

22 40 para made up 1 piastre (or qirsh). DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, al-Jazira al-Khadra, 1268 [1851–52], 3980/135/22, fol. 2.

23 At the end of the description of each peasant’s landholding, the dum tax is specified; but the wirku al-atyan tax is specified in a separate list toward the end of the register. For the wirku al-atyan tax for the year 1268 [1851–52], see DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, al-Jazira al-Khadra, 1268 [1851–52], fols. 19–20.

24 DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, Ibyar, 1268 [1851–52], 2915/121/22; DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, Kafr al-Rajallat, 1268 [1851–52], 8205/110/20.

25 DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, Ibyar, 1268 [1851–52].

26 DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, al-Jazira al-Khadra, 1268 [1851–52]. For the two shaykhs (Yusif Marʽi and Muhammad ʿAbd al-Gawad Marʽi), see fol. 1.

27 DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, Ibyar, 1268 [1851–52], fol.9.

28 DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, al-Jazira al-Khadra, 1268 [1851–52]; DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, Jazirat al-Aʿjam, 1268 [1851–52], 4573/61/20.

29 Date-tree climbers: DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, al-Jazira al-Khadra, 1268 [1851–52], fols. 14–19; artisanal sectors: fols. 19–23.

30 Compare the land tax registers of al-Jazira al-Khadra for these years: 1268 [1851–52] (no. 3980/135/22); 1270 [1853-1854] (no. 3982/135/22); and 1272 [1855-1856] (no. 3984/135/22).

31 For use of these data, see Cuno, Pasha’s Peasants, ch. 5.

32 Jirjis Hunayn, Al-Atyan wa al-Daraʾib fi al-Qutr al-Misri [Land and Taxes in Egypt] (Bulaq, Cairo: Al-Matbaʿa al-Kubra al-Amiriya, 1904), 196.

33 Shalabi, Ali, Al-Rif al-Misri fi al-Nisf al-Thani min al-Qarn al-Tasiʿ ʿAshar, 1847–1891 [The Egyptian Countryside during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century, 1847-1891] (Cairo, Egypt: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1983), 82, 176Google Scholar. Also see Barakat, Ali, Al-Qarya wa al-Sulta fi Misr fi al-Qarn al-Tasiʿ ʿAshar [The Village and the State in Egypt during the Nineteenth Century] (Cairo, Egypt: al-Hay’ah al-Misriyya al-ʿAmah lil-Kitab, 2018), 25 Google Scholar.

34 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Jazirat al-Aʿjam, 1274 [1857-1858], 1/1/20, fol. 18; DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat, 1273 [1856-1857], 3/1/20, fol. 36.

35 This is apparent to anyone skimming the stacks of athurat registers. For example, see the shelves reserved for these registers in storage room 22 in the Ministry of Finance Archives.

36 This village was the ʿuhda of Mustafa Bey in 1857; see DMU, Daftar Takmil al-Dara’ib, Rawdat al-Bahrayn, 1274 [1857-1858], 2210/109/22, fol. 63.

37 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Ayjul, 1276 [1859-1860], 1/77/22; Daftar al-Athurat, Abstu, 1276 [1859-1860], 2/77/22; Daftar al-Athurat, Abtu, 1276 [1859-1860], 4/77/22; Daftar al-Athurat, Billa, 1276 [1859-1860], 106/77/22.

38 Shalabi, Al-Rif, 82 n. 23.

39 Hakim, Muhammad, Ayam Muhammad Ali: Al-Tamaiz al-Ijtimaʿi wa Tawziʿ Furas al-Hayah [The Days of Muhammad Ali: Social Inequality and the Distribution of Life Opportunities] (Cairo, Egypt: Al-Majlis al-Aʿla lil-Thakafa, 2007), 107 Google Scholar.

40 Athurat registers of villages located in Qalyubiyya province: DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Jazirat al-Aʿjam, 1274 [1857-1858], 1/1/20; DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat, 1273 [1856-1857], 3/1/20. I found these registers because the archival staff very kindly allowed me to examine some of the storage rooms where archival material is stored.

41 Shalabi, Al-Rif, 177–78.

42 In his recent book on state–peasant relations in nineteenth-century Egypt, Ali Barakat mentions this source but does not examine it. See Al-Qarya, 25.

43 Hakim, Ayam Muhammad, 107.

44 For example, see DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Ibyar, 1276 [1859-1860], 10/77/22, fol. 2.

45 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat.

46 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat, fol. 6.

47 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat, fol. 33.

48 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Jazirat al-Aʿjam, fols. 15–18.

49 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Ibyar, fol.2.

50 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Ibyar.

51 See, for example, Cuno, Pasha’s Peasants, 155–56; and Shalabi, Al-Rif, 175–76.

52 For example, DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Jazirat al-Aʿjam, fols. 5–14.

53 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Jazirat al-Aʿjam; DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, Jazirat al-Aʿjam, 1274 [1857-1858], 4576/61/20.

54 For evidence of this strategy, see Daftar Takmil al-Daraʾib, Rawdat al-Bahrayn, 1271 [1854-1855], 2209/109/22, introduction to part 1.

55 DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, Kafr al-Rajallat, 1266 [1849-1850], 8203/110/20–1278 [1861-1862], 8212/110/20.

56 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat, fols. 2, 4, 7–10, 19, 24, 27–29, 32–33.

57 This number pertains to the land transfers by which the smallholders of 1857 had acquired their lands, but does the not cover the transfers mentioned in the histories of various land plots. If I did include the latter set of transfers, the number of land transfers for this group would have exceeded by far the 600 instances mentioned above. However, in counting the women who acquired land during this period, I looked at both the smallholders of 1857 and the histories of the village land plots (see DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat.)

58 For example, DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat, fols. 7, 24, 29, 33.

59 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, al-Jazira al-Khadra, 1276 [1859-1860], 27/77/22, fol. 76.

60 DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, al-Jazira al-Khadra, fol. 1.

61 DMU, Daftar Takmil al-Daraʾib, Rawdat al-Bahrayn, 1271 [1854-1855], 2209/109/22, part 1, fols. 1–52; part 2, fols. 1–48.

62 DMU, Daftar Takmil al-Daraʾib, Rawdat al-Bahrayn, 1274 [1857-1858], 2210/109/22.

63 DWQ, MS, S/1/8/42, fol. 413 (no. 65), 26 Jumada I 1272 / 31 August 1856.

64 Singer, Amy, Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials: Rural Administration around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1994), 17–18, 2110.1017/CBO9780511563560CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 DMU, Daftar Takmil al-Daraʾib, Rawdat al-Bahrayn, 1271 [1854-1855], 2209/109/22, part 1, fols. 1–52.

66 Hanna, Nelly, Making Big Money in 1600: The Life and Times of Ismaʽil Abu Taqiyya, Egyptian Merchant (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998), xxi Google Scholar.

67 Cuno, Kenneth M., Modernizing Marriage: Family, Ideology and Law in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Egypt (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2015), 138–39Google Scholar.

68 For bureaucratic development, see Hunter, Egypt, ch. 4.

69 Tucker, Judith E., Women in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 12 10.1017/CBO9780511583506CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Fahmy, Khaled, “The Anatomy of Justice: Forensic Medicine and Criminal Law in Nineteenth-Century Egypt,” Islamic Law and Society 6, no. 2 (1999): 232 10.1163/1568519991208682CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 Ibid.

72 DWQ, MA, S/7/16/15, fol. 20 (no. 281), 16 Dhu al-Qaʿda 1273 / 8 July 1857.

73 DWQ, MA, S/7/16/11, fol. 85 (no. 55), 1 Rabiʿ II 1271 / 22 December 1854.

74 Drawn up in 1851, this map misspells or misstates some of the town names in which the courts were located. The map highlights the following town names: Tanta; Qalyub (written on the map as Kelioub); Al-Khanka (written as El Kankah); Mit Ghamir; Mansura (written as Mansurah); and Dumyat (written as Damietta).

75 Hunter, Egypt, 51.

76 Cuno and Reimer addressed these points in their description of the census registers. See “Census Registers,” 210–11.

77 Compare: DMU, Mukallafat Atyan, al-Jazira al-Khadra, 1272 [1855-1856], 3984/135/22, fols. 12–13 and DMU, Daftar Takmil al-Daraʾib, Rawdat al-Bahrayn, 1271 [1854-1855], 2209/109/22, part 2, fol. 36. (I point out that the tax-reassessment register specifies that the village also paid a surcharge tax, the wayriku al-atyan tax; this is not specified in the village land-tax register. Here we should recall that the provincial-level registers specified the entire range of taxes required of smallholders, whereas the village-level registers often specified the essential items only.)

78 For such gatherings of village officials, see DMU, Daftar Takmil al-Daraʾib, Rawdat al-Bahrayn, 1271 [1854-1855], 2209/109/22, part 2, fol. 48. For penalization of falsification of data, see DMU, Daftar al-Athurat, Kafr al-Rajallat, fol. 36.

79 Cuno and Reimer, “Census Registers,” 210.