ИСТИНА

The religious elite of the Ottoman Egypt represented by ulama in general and sheikhs of al-Azhar in particular were considered the main local social power to be used as the backbone of the French occupation regime. They played the leading role in the local traditional government institutions – divans, preserved by the French not for retaining their usual broad powers but for legitimation of the colonial regime. The first and the last, fourth, central divans consisted only of ulama and they constituted the majority of deputies in the second and third Cairo divans, thereby sharing with the conquerors the responsibility for what was going on in the country. Alongside with that the Islamic religious leaders became a sole mouthpiece for the Egyptian people of that time. Interconnecting Egyptians and the French authorities, the high clerics made desperate efforts to protect and promote the interests of their compatriots and restrain French from committing violence and lawless actions. Only few high religious dignitaries were directly involved in the anti-French insurrections or backed rebels. The aim of this paper is to examine various reasons behind the decision of the representatives of the Muslim religious elite to collaborate with the French occupation authorities and to analyze the level of effectiveness of ulama’s activities as intermediaries between foreign power holders and Egyptians.