ABSTRACT
When he began writing his memoirs in 1932, Fathallah Barakat Pasha, a leading Egyptian nationalist and politician, paid a visit to the newly established royal archives at ʿAbdin Palace in Cairo. Among other things, the Pasha was searching for the minutes of a controversial debate he had led in the country’s Legislative Assembly just under two decades earlier. In 1913, marking the first debate in which elected representatives had a say in lawmaking, Barakat had broken a long silence over the Khedival decree of June 1899 and argued fiercely against it. Passed under great pressure from Lord Cromer, the British High Commissioner, the decree had forcibly removed the rebellious, yet elected, Rector of al-Azhar and Mufti of Egypt, Shaykh Hassuna al-Nawawi, from his post. He was replaced with a more timorous and obedient colleague, threatening the autonomy of the hitherto independent religious institution. The act set a dangerous precedent for the interference of politics into religion. Above all, it incensed those, like Barakat, who were deeply opposed to the British occupation of Egypt.
