Int. J. Middle East Stud. 46 (2014), 239–257 doi:10.1017/S0020743814000099 Lisa Pollard EGYPTIAN BY ASSOCIATION: CHARITABLE STATES AND SERVICE SOCIETIES, CIRCA 1850–1945 Abstract In this article I argue that the Egyptian state emerged as a welfare provider in the mid-20th century, first by depending on the services of charitable societies to feed, educate, and provide medical assistance to the poor, and later by imitating and harnessing the activities of charitable societies. Drawing on correspondence between the state and service societies from the 1880s to 1945, when King Faruq (r. 1936–52) granted the Egyptian Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) the authority to define and to circumscribe the activities of social welfare organizations, the article illustrates the interactions of and the similarities between private and state-sponsored charity. The article further suggests that the establishment of MOSA helped to consolidate the hegemony of the Egyptian state over society and, at the same time, exemplified a dialectical process of state formation engaged in by Egyptian heads of state, service organizations, and the Egyptians whose needs they served. It was a supreme duty of the State to observe and record social conditions and their development, to diagnose social diseases and defects and to study the methods of treatment; to plan, in light of these observations and studies, a comprehensive and permanent policy of social rehabilitation with a view to uplifting the poor classes, raising the standard of living of the individual as well as the family, and finally assuring the biggest share of social justice to the people. —Ahmad Husayn, Social Welfare in Egypt By 1939, when the king of Egypt established the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) to “uplift Egyptians and to provide the people with the biggest share of social justice,” the Egyptian charitable organizations (jamiyy¯ at khayriyya) that the ministry would super- vise already offered an impressive array of services to their target communities. 1 Their kitchens gave daily alimentation to the hungry and served holiday meals to the needy. The largest and best-funded organizations offered general and specialized medical care in clinics and hospitals. Smaller and less affluent organizations provided nominal financial assistance to the needy. Some groups paid burial expenses. Benevolent associations of various sizes offered elementary and vocational education. Some organizations had occupational workshops, the products of which were sold to the needy at low prices. Those associations with the means to build small libraries provided space for study Lisa Pollard is a Professor in the History Department at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, N.C.; e-mail: pollardl@uncw.edu © Cambridge University Press 2014 0020-7438/14 $15.00