アブー・スィネータ村醜聞 : 19世紀中葉エジプト・村落有力者層の権力基盤

Briefly speaking, the socio-economic history of modern Egypt from the mid-nineteenth century is characterized by the usually implicit, but occasio-nally explicit conflict between the following two categories of landlords both of which emerged from the collapse of the so-called “landholding system of state ownership” in the reign of Muhammad (Ali (ruled 1805-1848); the first is the ruling class of Turkish origin, and the second is the village notables. The aim of this article is to analize the background of the latter's authority, based on an unpublished document classified in the Egyptian National Archives (Dar al-Watha) iq al-Qawmiya) as “Mahafiz Ma (iya Saniya Turki, carton no. 5, document no. 300”. This document is an investigation report from the Ministry of Treasury to the Legislative Committee (Majlis al-Ahkam), in respect to the three lawsuits against the chief ( (umda) of Village “Abu Sineta” in Menufiya Province on his illegal confiscation of the villagers'properties. Its description is so detailed that it is possible from it to reconstruct the social structure and human relations in the society of the above village, and to discuss the social, economic and political background of its (umda's authority, a typical village notable in the mid-nineteenth century Egypt, whose influence extended over the local and the central administration as well as the village administration