68 Islam and Modernity
142–7), but their Iranian counterparts retained many of their social and political
functions in the bazaars until much later in the century.^12 Rural to urban migra-
tion, a crucial factor for the shaping of the urban economy, society and politics,
started in the early twentieth century in Egypt, but gathered momentum from
the middle of the century, augmented by accelerated population growth. The
quarters of central Cairo were transformed, the rural infl ux leading to the
departure of the rich and the middle classes to the more salubrious suburbs, the
old quarters becoming poor slums. This process also weakened the organisation
and solidarity of the quarters and their function as corporate units.
The expansion of a modernised state and associated public sectors, most
notably education, spawned a new, largely secular, intelligentsia. This became
the ideological class par excellence, which absorbed and adapted the new
reformist, nationalist and revolutionary ideas whose goal was the achievement
of national independence and strength and the transformation of state and
society in accordance with particular ideological blueprints. From these ranks
came Walzer’s ‘zealous men’ organised for ‘sustained political activity’.
The overall political and administrative thrust of the Tanzimat was for
increasing centralisation of government and control of the people, and a con-
comitant expansion in the size, reach and power of the bureaucracy. By the
end of the century, it is estimated that there were half a million civil servants
who, in addition to mainstream government administration and fi nance, also
administered hospitals, secular schools, agricultural schools and model farms,
highways, telegraph and railroads (Quataert 1994: 765). Crucially, these were
‘modern’ functionaries, with institutional positions and powers (as distinct
from the personalistic networks that had characterised earlier administrations).
They, together with professionals, army offi cers and some sectors of business,
constituted the modern middle class, and the cadres of modernisation and
secularisation. They supplied the leadership and personnel of the Young Turks
movement.^13 During the Tanzimat era, this central administration gained in
power and control over other power elites. The military reforms, though not
a brilliant success in external wars, were instrumental in imposing the central
power on the provinces and their elites. The local notables and chieftains, with
extensive autonomies till the middle of the eighteenth century, came fi rmly
under government control, and its centrally appointed functionaries, although
many maintained their local power bases as power-brokers and tax-farmers: a
practice that the central government did not succeed in disrupting (ibid.: 769). In
the Kurdish and Arab provinces, the nomadic tribes were fi rmly subordinated
by the new military forces and the extension of transport and communications.
This was an important step in pacifying these provinces and enhancing the secu-
rity and productivity of the settled agricultural populations.
The expansion of government service and of employment in the expanding
private sectors of commerce, transport and communication, together with the