Notes on the Introduction of Ministerial Responsibility in Egypt *

The last third of the nineteenth century was an era of unusual ferment in many parts of the Ottoman Empire. The impact ¹ of Western thought and technological development was felt in all strata of urban society in the Arabic-speaking countries but was most evident in Egypt. It was there that the numerically-restricted educated class soon became convulsed in an inner conflict between the old and the new. Before the latter became predominant, a small but highly important group of theologians, led by Muhammad 'Abduh, started a movement intended to strengthen Islam by reforming it from within. Their influence on modern Egyptian society can be gauged correctly only when one appreciates that they built a sort of bridge between the conservative orthodox and the modernist Western-influenced elements. This they succeeded in achieving by an intellectual tour de force which strove to prove that Islam and modernism had much in common, and by advocating at the same time the reform of some obsolete Muslim usages.