Intr oduction

Parliament in monarchical Egypt began in
was promulgated.

1924, a year after a new constitution

After three decades of military occupation of Egypt since 1882, theBritish declared a protectorate over Egypt in 1914, immediately after the Ottoman
Empire s entry into the First World War. Facing a large-scale anti-British popular
movement in 1919, however, the British declared the independence of Egypt
unilaterally in 1922, preserving four points of Britain s critical interest in Egypt.
was followed by the promulgation of the 1923 constitution.

ThisDespite the initialobjection to the constitution, Egyptian nationalists led by Sa d Zaghlul formed anationalist party called Wafd and achieved a landslide victory over the firstparliamentary elections.

Zaghlul was nominated the first prime minister under the newconstitution.
Egyptian parliamentary life during the monarchical period was never easy. For
instance, Zaghlul was forced to submit his resignation from premiership within a year,
under the pressure of the British ultimatum, following the assassination in Cairo of Sir
Lee Stack, commander in chief of the Egyptian army and governor-general of the Sudan.
The Chamber of Deputies was also dissolved at this time. The British intervention into
Egypt s internal politics, which prevented Egypt from experiencing a stable operation ofgovernment and parliament, continued throughout the Monarchical period. The
Egyptian government and parliament werealso disrupted frequently by the maneuverof the king, who was granted under the 1923 constitution extensive rights to appoint
prime minister, dissolve the cabinet and parliament, and confirm bills in legislature andso on.
Despite obstacles and frequent disruptions, parliament lasted until 1952.
Parliamentary records in this period (al-Madabit) were compiled into nearly
one-hundred fifty volumes, which included the minutes of the main sessions both in theSenate and the Chamber of Deputies. Supplementary information for each session and1

elaborated indexes were also attached to them. Compared to other contemporary
parliamentary records in the Middle East, such as those in Syria and Iran, thecompilation of parliamentary records in Egypt was far more detailed and sophisticated.

The Previous Consultative Assemblies
One of the reasons for publishing the remarkable parliamentary records during
the monarchical period would derive from a century-old experience of consultative
bodies in modern Egypt.

It started with a council set up during the brief French

occupation at the turn of the nineteenth century.

This was followed by the Advisory

Council (Majlis al-Mashwara, 1829-37) created by Muhammad Ali. His grandson,Ismail, developed a more modernized consultative body, called the Consultative
Assembly of Delegates (Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab,1866-79), and it later became theAssembly of Delegates (Majlis al-Nuwwab, 1879, 1881-82).

The Consultative

Assembly of Delegates began with seventy-five members chosen by indirect elections,and was conducted in accordance with the rules stipulated in the statutes ( La ihaal-Ta sis and Hudud wa-Nizamname ) and its proceedings were recorded.1 Under theBritish military occupation the British set up the Consultative Assembly of Legislation(Majlis Shura al-Qawanin, 1883-1913), and then a short-lived Legislative Council(al-Jama iyya al-Tashri iyya, 1914). In the former, fourteen members were nominatedand sixteen indirectly elected.

Although the assemblies in this period were granted

less important roles than before, the compilation of the proceedings became muchelaborated.2

Parliamentary Records (Madabit) in the next era benefited from the skill

and knowledge of compiling the proceedings in the previous periods and weredeveloped further.

Par liament in the Monarchical Period

The proceedings of the first Hay a (1866-69) and the second Hay a (1870-73) with analytical
introduction are compiled into the following books. Mahadir Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab, 2 vols.,
Cairo: Matba at Dar al-Kutub wa-l-Watha iq al-Qawmiyya bi-l-Qahira, 2001, 2006.
2The IOC holds the following proceedings. Al-Hukuma al-Misriyya, Mahadir Ijtima at Majlis
Shura al-Qawanin, Cairo: Matba at Fatah Allah al-Bas Nuri wa-Awladhu, 1883-1908.
2Parliament in the monarchical period was bicameral: the Senate (Majlisal-Shuyukh) and the Chamber of Deputies (Majlis al-Nuwwab). The terms of themembers were ten years and five years respectively, and two-fifths of the senators wereappointed by the king and the rest of them and all deputies were elected in universal
manhood suffrage. The Yearly Session of both chambers was called Dawr , which
consisted of Daily Sessions, Jalsa .

The Daily Session usually lasted one day, although

there were cases where it continued for a few days.

In the case of the Chamber ofDeputies, it also had the time units of Legislature (Hay a), which was the period of one
term of elected deputies.
In the history of parliament in modern Egypt, parliament during this period wasgranted the most extensive power.

It had full legislative power, including the right ofthe members to submit the bills, and the right to oversee the government. Although the
democratic system during the period was far from perfect and the exercise of power ofparliament was often disrupted by various political actors, parliament in themonarchical period enjoyed the power that no other legislative bodies in modern Egypt
could.
The functions of the parliament were not confined to the discussion and vote ofbills and the national budget. The members had the right to not only ask questions about
policies and acts of the government (As ila), but also demand responsibility for them(Istijwabat). Other functions were to receive and discuss proposals to the government
from the members (Iqtarahat bi-Raghba) and petitions from the citizens ( Ara id).

In

order to facilitate these functions, parliamentary committees were set up, which
examined agenda, prepared reports and led discussions in the main session.

The Outline of Par liamentary Records (al-Madabit)
Records of each Daily Session in both chambers were published in the weekly
Egyptian Official Gazette (al-Waqa i al-Misriyya), and at the end of each parliamentary
year, they were compiled into several volumes. Today, Parliamentary Records arecomprised of approximately sixty volumes of the Senate and eighty-five volumes of theChamber of Deputies. Each volume contains several hundred pages on average, but3

some have exceeded a thousand pages, and in both chambers Extraordinary Sessions
were compiled separately.
There are two distinct differences in compilation between the two chambers. In
the volumes of the Senate, supplementary information (Malahiq) containing committee
reports was put together yearly and compiled into a separate volume, except for that of
the extraordinary sessions and of the ordinary sessions during the 1950s, which isattached to the main volumes.

In the case of the Chamber of Deputies, supplementary

information is put at the end of the proceedings of each Daily Session.
The second difference lies in the method of compiling the indexes.

Whereas theindex of the Chamber of Deputies was unified into the alphabetized index, the Senate
has several different indexes. The details will be explained below. It also should be
noted that the method of compiling indexes had changed over the period of time inminor points. For example, for some years the indexes appeared only in the last volumeof Yearly Sessions, but for the other years it was repeated in each volume of Yearly
Sessions.
The Yearly Session, which usually began in November and lasted for at least sixmonths, began with a Speech from the Throne (Khitab al- Ursh) read by the prime
minister in the joint session of both chambers.

In the following separate sessions, thepresident, vice-presidents and other executive members were elected and various
committees were formed. Meanwhile, the Committee of Reply to the Speech from theThrone prepared its response and presented it in the main session.
At the beginning of each Daily Session in the volume, there is the summary of thecontents of the session. Along with the indexes, the daily summaries are a useful tool forresearchers. The summary is followed by information on attendance of the members, theapproval of the minutes of the previous session and then the session moves onto thediscussion of the agenda of the day. All discussions are cited word for word with thenames of speakers.
One of the most prominent features in Parliamentary Records is the elaborated
compilation of the indexes. As mentioned earlier, the compilation of the index isdifferent between the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate has six different4indexes: the Alphabetical Index (al-Fihris al-Hija i), the Index to Parliamentary
Functions (Fihris al-Mawadd), the Index to Petitions (Fihris al- Ara id), the Index toQuestions (Fihris al-As ila), the Index to Demands (Fihris al-Raghbat), and finally theIndex to Supplementary Information (Fihris al-Malahiq).

The method of compilingthe indexes in the Senate varied each year. In fact there are no volumes that included all
kinds of indexes, but all volumes with indexes contain at least an Alphabetical Index.
While the Senate had a variety of indexes, the Chamber of Deputies adopted only an
Alphabetical Index throughout the years.
In the Alphabetical Index (al-Fihris al-Hija i), a whole range of subject mattersthat were discussed in the Senate are arranged alphabetically. For example, the index for
the Senate s fifth Yearly Session contains about three hundred subjects, starting fromarchaeological sites (al-athar) to ministry (al-wizara), many of which have secondand third headings. The main subjects include road, bridge, mosque, cotton, canal, andschool. This index would be the most useful tool to start with for those who areresearching a specific subject.
As for the Index to Parliamentary Functions (Fihris al-Mawadd), the mainfunctions in parliament, such as bills, questions, interpellations, proposals, impeachment
and the budget, are alphabetically arranged as first headings.

Some of the firstheadings have second headings. For example, the heading of questions is classified into
ministries to which questions are directed. Since only a few volumes have this index,
the index of parliamentary functions is usually incorporated into the alphabetical index.
The third index, the Index to Petitions (Fihris al- Ara id), is a list of petitions
submitted from the Egyptian citizens to parliament. This index has two different formats
depending on the year. One kind of index, called the Alphabetical Index to Petitions(al-Fihris al-Hija i lil- Ara id), is arranged alphabetically by the subjects of petitions,such as village head, tax, and waqf. This index, for example in the volume of theSenate s fifth Yearly Session, has about one hundred-forty entries.

The other kind offormat, called the Index to Petition (Fihris al- Ara id), is divided into three sub-indexes:
the Index to Responses of Ministries to Petitions, the Index to Petitions Submitted in theLast Session, and the Index to Petitions Submitted in This Session.
5These threeindexes are arranged by the number assigned to each petition.
The Index to Questions (Fihris al-As ila) and the Index to Demands (Fihrisal-Raghbat) are arranged by the number assigned to each question and demand with abrief description of the content. The former index is found only in the volume of 1930.
The final index is the Index to Supplementary Information (Fihris al-Malahiq),
which is composed of committee reports. As mentioned earlier, supplementary
information of the Senate is compiled in the separate volumes, each of which includes
the index.

The index is arranged by the chronological order of supplementary

information with the assigned number, along with the date of the submission of acommittee report, the name of the committee, and a brief description of the report.
In the case of the Chamber of Deputies, all kinds of indexes in the Senate, except
for the index to supplementary information, 3 were combined into one index inalphabetical order (al-Fihris al-Hija i). That is, parliamentary functions, general subjects,petitions, questions and demands are put together into an alphabetical index. The size of
this index tends to be so large that some volumes have a summary of the index.

The Guide to Par liamentary Records in Monarchical Egypt
The following is a brief description of the contents of The Guide.

It was createdbased on the holdings of Parliamentary Records in the Monarchical Egypt at theInstitute of Oriental Culture (IOC), the University of Tokyo. The IOC currently holdsapproximately eighty percent of the entire collection of Parliamentary Records. Since its
first purchase of Parliamentary Records in 1995, the IOC has been making great efforts
to fill the missing volumes and has attained the level of the current collection.

As seenin the databases, missing volumes are indicated and information on these is left blank.
We hope to fill these blanks as new volumes are collected. The nearly complete
collection of Parliamentary Records is housed in the Parliamentary Library (Maktabat
Majlis al-Sha b) in Cairo. Partial collections are held in the National Archives (Dar3There is no index to supplementary information in the volumes of the Chamber of Deputies,
because the supplementary information is attached to each Daily Session. We, therefore, createdthe database of the Chronological Index to Supplementary Information for the Chamber of Deputies.
6al-Watha iq al-Qawmiyya), the library at the American University in Cairo and theEgyptian Association for Historical Studies (al-Jama iyya al-Misriyya lil-Dirasat
al-Ta rikhiyya) in Nasir City, a suburb of Cairo. In other parts of the world, we havelocated a limited holding at the Widener Library, Harvard University.
The first item (1) in The Guide is the Timeline of the Sessions in the Senate andthe Chamber of Deputies (table). The Yearly Session began in November and ended
usually in June or July of the following year. As indicated in the table, parliament held
the sessions often irregularly up to 1936, due to the frequent changes of government andthe suspension of parliament.

Parliament from 1930 to 1934 operated under the new

constitution of 1930, and then the constitution of 1923 was restored in late 1935.
Parliament in the second half of the period was held regularly compared to the earlier
period, despite occasional disruptions in the government.
The second item (2) is Information on the Volumes (database).

In the case of thevolumes of the Senate, information includes the first date and the last date in the volume,
the kind of volume (main volume or supplementary volume), the total amount of Daily
Sessions, the total number of supplementary information, the total pages, the index
pages, the status of holding in the IOC, and the IOC s registration and call numbers. The
information on the volumes of the Chamber of Deputies contains the same entries
similar to those of the Senate, except that supplementary information is not included.
The third item (3), The Daily Sessions (database), is the list of all Daily Sessions
in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

The list includes the number and date of

the Daily Session, weekday and the pages of each session.
The next item (4) is the Indexes. Indexes in the Volumes of the Senate (4-I,database) shows six different types of indexes with corresponding pages in each volumeof the Senate. The index list for the Chamber of Deputies is not included in thisdatabase, because there is only one type of index in the volumes of the Chamber ofDeputies. The pages of the index for the Chamber of Deputies are found in Informationon the Volumes (2). Following this list are the samples of indexes of both chambers (4-ii,photographs). Here, a sample of the summary of a Daily Session is also included.

The Whole Text of Indexes (4-iii) is the photographs of the whole text of the indexes of7both chambers.

The last item of (4) is The Chronological Index to Supplementary

Information for the Chamber of Deputies (4-iv) that we have created. As indicated inNote 3, the index of supplementary information for the Chamber of Deputies was notcompiled in the original volumes.
The fifth item (5) is examples of Supplementary Information (photographs).
Supplementary Information is comprised of the reports prepared by various
parliamentary committees which studied the subjects assigned to them, formed theirviews, prepared and presented reports, finally lead the discussion in the main sessions.
The Supplementary Information provides a great deal of useful information that could
not be found in the main volumes (sections). A large part of Supplementary Information
contains matters related to legislature and the national budget, but it also includes
subjects such as petitions ( ara id), suggestions (iqtirahat), government statements, andthe investigation of parliamentary members credentials. Here we show examples
related to the bills, petitions, suggestions and government statements, as well as thenames of parliamentary members and of committee members.
The last item (6), The Process of Making a Law (table), is a chart of thelegislating process of the law of industrial statistics of 1944. It shows from the firststage of the Ministry of Trade and Industry s presentation of the bill to the Council ofMinistries to the final stage of the announcement of the law in the Official Gazette.

IKEDA Misako
Professor
Nagoya University of Commerce and Business8