State, Peasants, and Land in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Egypt

An alternative reading of the relationship between the state and smallholder peasants in mid-nineteenth-century Egypt

This book examines the rural history of Egypt during the middle years of the nineteenth century, a period that is often glossed over, or altogether forgotten. Drawing on a wide array of archival sources, some only rarely utilized by other scholars, it argues that state policy targeting the peasant land tenure regime was informed by the dual economic principles of the Ottoman,...