The State and Cultural Development “A Reading in the Social and Cultural History of Egypt”

This current research paper’s purpose was to identify the features of development and cultural policies in the Egyptian society, from the beginning of the cultural renaissance in the era of Muhammad Ali 1805 AD and until the present time, by standing on specific historical periods. The research also exposed the factors that served as stations and had clear fingerprints in achieving a renaissance in the cultural field or those were a major cause of its deterioration. These factors vary from one historical stage to another according to the societal context and the policies followed at each stage. The public policies pursued by the state or the political system may affect the cultural policies pursued to achieve cultural development, given the state’s supervision of the cultural field and the cultural process in Egyptian society. For this, this paper used the method of the socio-historical analysis of historical data and related literature, whether it was a theoretical or research heritage. The paper was divided into several elements according to the historical stages of historical tracing of cultural development.
This paper revealed that the latent capacities in Egyptian society, which led to a real renaissance in the nineteenth century, made Egyptians respond to the renaissance cultural project in the era of Muhammad Ali. The Egyptian intellectual in the nineteenth century also carried the banner of renaissance and intellectual, cultural and cognitive modernization in all areas of life, the (social, political and cultural) in the Egyptian society.