Formation and Changing Political Status of the Egyptian Religious Establishment

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the structural formation and political status of the official religious institutions in Egypt. Reconsidering the existing state-centred approaches, which have over-emphasised the state's ability to control the society in general and the religious establishment in particular, this study suggests a more balanced way to understand the religious institutions: understanding them in terms of state-society relations. Through a historical analysis of the interrelationship between the state and the religious institutions, this paper demonstrates that centralised state power was not the only factor determining the political status of the religious institutions. Rather, this article concludes that the structural formation and the consequent political importance of the religious establishment were affected mainly by two factors in the state-society relationship: the ideological strength of the state's leadership and the degree of challenge to it from opposition forces.