Historical Records Department – Abdeen Palace

Providing historical material for researchers and historians had never been one of the tasks of either the Egyptian House of Documentation or The Public Records Office. During the reign of King Fouad I (1917-1936), and after Egypt was declared a kingdom in 1922, with Fouad being made the first Egyptian king, the new ruler was eager to document the history of the royal family. In this process of documentation, special attention was given to the Ibrahimi branch of the family, especially the king’s father, Ismail and his grandfather Ibrahim Pasha, as well as, Mohammed Ali Pasha, the dynasty’s founder. In 1925, the king ordered the establishment of a special committee to handle the matter of historical records, headed by Dr. Hasan Nasha’t. The committee recommended the translation of Turkish documents into both Arabic and French as a way to render them accessible to researchers.

In 1926, King Fouad sent for a French orientalist Jean Dény and entrusted him with the inspection, organization, and indexing of the Turkish documents kept in the Public Records Office in the Citadel. After the completion of his thorough study, deny recommended the transfer of the Turkish records kept in the Public Records Office to Abdeen Palace. Hence, in 1932 an order was given to construct “the Historical Records Department” in Abdeen Palace. The assigned task of that department was collecting documents about Mohammed Ali Pasha’s family and making them available to a group of foreign historians, many whom were especially selected to document the history of the royal family.

The Historical Records Department accomplished many tasks, some of which were:

1. Collecting firmans (decrees) sent by the Ottoman sultans to Egyptian Walis (viceroys), which numbered 1,046 dating back to 1597 A.D. This collection of firmans were photocopied and bound in seven glossy volumes and published by the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA).



2. Collecting many Turkish language documents in one place and translating a huge number of Turkish writs issued by Egypt’s rulers spanning Mohammed Ali’s reign to Ismail’s. The writs’ texts were saved in records of Diwan Al-Ma'iyya (Royal Diwan), Khedive's Diwan, and Al-Majlis Al-Khousousy. The originals were preserved in a number of portfolios: Al-Ma’iyya Turkish Portfolios, overseas Portfolios…etc. Arabic summaries were made of a great number of these writs as well as card-made indexes that were classified by subject and date in tagged drawers. Translations and their drafts were saved in a number of portfolios according to the subject and given the name “Research Portfolios”.



3. Analyzing and organizing the 900,000 foreign documents of Khedive Ismail's reign, as well as, summarizing and translating some of them into Arabic.



4. Housing facsimiles of documents related to Egypt found in foreign archives in France, Great Britain, Austria, The United States, and elsewhere.