If Rifaa Rafei Al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) forged the intellectual foundation of modern Egyptian nationalism, earning him the title “The Founder,” then it can be said that the movers and shakers behind the 1919 Revolution must be the leaders of Egyptian enlightenment. They participated in the discussions surrounding the 1923 constitution, commemorated two months ago, which crowned a century-long struggle from 1805 until 1922, to establish the pillars of the modern Egyptian state.

Any study of the 1923 constitution should start by emphasising its foundational significance as it aimed to represent the aspirations of the Egyptian people, through their intellectual elite, as to how the nation should be governed. Throughout history, Egyptians were excluded from governance under a succession of foreign rulers, from the Ptolemies, Romans and Byzantines to the Tulunids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mameluks, and Ottomans. These foreign rulers constituted a distinct ethnic and cultural caste, consistently working to marginalise ordinary Egyptians and deny them the right to participate in the affairs of the state. The situation changed somewhat under Mohamed Ali who, though a foreign ruler himself, realised that Egypt deserved to be its own central and independent rather than a subordinate territory. This marked the beginning of a new phase in Egyptian history, liberating the country from the dominance of foreign rulers, particularly the Mameluks and Ottomans, which had persisted for over five centuries and a half, from 1250 to 1805. Al-Tahtawi viewed Mohamed Ali’s attempt to distance Egypt from the Sublime Porte as a means to build a modern independent Egypt, rescuing it from the darkness of ignorance and the oppression of the Mameluks and Ottomans, and laying the foundations of a powerful modern state.

In this context, Mohamed Ali’s reforms kicked off the first independent Egyptian development in the modern state (1805-1848), aimed at breaking the dual subordination to both the central Ottoman authority and Mameluk feudalism. Mohamed Ali’s grandson Ismail (1863-1879) attempted to continue with Egypt’s modernisation in his own way, but his experiment ended with British occupation. However, the most important aspect of both these experiences, the developmental phase under Mohamed Ali and the modernisation phase under Ismail, was the active involvement of Egyptian citizens in various aspects of society: the military, the economy, politics, and culture. This was achieved by opening up opportunities to Egyptians to form the core of a national army, acquire agricultural land, participate in the emergence of the first parliament representing the people, with every previous parliament starting from the Alexandria Parliament in the Graeco-Roman period to the General Diwan established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 representing foreign rulers, and to work in modern state institutions in such areas as education, urban development, and civil affairs. Over time, the nationalist movement gathered momentum, particularly in defence of Egypt’s economic and political independence.

In the late 19th century, at the height of the struggle with creditors and dual control, the need arose for governing texts that would direct the movement and duties of the state and its authorities, as well as the rights and duties of citizens. Thus, the concept of “constitutional enlightenment” emerged, as the Egyptian bourgeoisie began to formulate constitutional projects that were as yet incomplete, as described by the late eminent historian Abdel-Azim Ramadan. These constitutional endeavours included: the National Charter or National Regulation proposed by a conference of scholars, notables, merchants, and officials in April 1879; the Constitutional Project or Basic Regulation presented by Prime Minister Sherif Pasha in May of the same year; the Khedivial Project issued during the Urabi Revolution in February 1882; the Ordinance Law of 1883 and the Ordinance Law of 1913; etc.

These successive initiatives reflected the escalating momentum of the Egyptian citizenry’s efforts to organise their relations with the government. However, collusion between the British colonial authority, European capitalism, the Sublime Porte, and the nominal Khedival authority hindered the burgeoning national citizenship movement, and so the “constitutional enlightenment,” which Egyptians were eager to embrace, lost its radiance. World War I further stifled the constitutional movement and the nascent system, confining authority within a narrow, internally controlled circle managed from abroad.

Egypt experienced decades of organised suppression, as described by the eminent historian Mohamed Sabri Al-Surboni, until the 1919 Revolution, which gathered together the Egyptian bourgeoisie supported by a broad social base of peasants, students, workers, and intellectuals. Under popular pressure, the English relinquished part of their authority through a declaration made on 28 February 1922. In April of the same year, the Egyptian elite started discussions to formulate a constitution for the relatively independent Egypt, representing the struggles and aspirations of the Egyptian nationalist movement, as well as establishing a constitutional framework for the modern Egyptian nation state.

The minutiae of the committees responsible for drafting the general principles of the constitution, which were recently published by the Contemporary History of Egypt Centre affiliated with the National Library and Archives, will require a separate article to delineate.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 July, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly