Rule: the executive and legislative authorities

03Rule: the executive and legislative authorities

The nature of rule

• Rule rested on absolute individual authority, a continuation of what existed under the Ottoman and Mamluk walis.
• He gave the government its system starting from the idea of the consultative diwans set up by the French Campaign.

The diwans and councils

• The High Diwan (1824): chaired by the deputy of the Pasha, charged with examining all the affairs of government.
• The Council of Shura (1829): of senior officials, ulema and notables; it met once a year to deliberate on administration, education and public works.
• The High Council (1834): the equivalent of a cabinet, made up of the heads of the diwans and the services, with two notables added from each mdiriyah and two for accounts.
• The Basic Law (1837): regulated relations between the government diwans and defined their competences — among them the diwans of revenue, jihad (war), schools, the sea (for the fleet), foreign affairs, Egyptian trade, the factories (fabriqat) and the Khedivial Diwan.
• The Private Council: examined the major affairs of government, legislated regulations and laws and issued instructions.
• The Public Council (1847): to consider the general affairs of government.
• Despite all of them, Muhammad Ali remained the source of supreme authority: the system rested on absolute individual rule.