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| 1947 |
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| Currency reform. The Egyptian pound, formerly tied to the British pound sterling, became an independent currency. | 1 |
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| 1947–78 |
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| Expansion of the bureaucracy, from 310,000 functionaries to over 1 million (1967) and then up to 1.9 million (1978). By 1978, an additional 1.3 million employees worked in state-owned companies. After 1962, the runaway growth of the bureaucracy was fed by a government promise that guaranteed a job to every university graduate (approximately 100,000 per year by the 1970s). Bloated far beyond its needs and capacities, the bureaucracy operated as an unwieldy instrument of the state's social policy. | 2 |
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| 1948 |
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| Introduction of the Egyptian Civil Code, which was drawn up by a committee under the leadership of Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri. | 3 |
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| May |
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| Imposition of martial law. On May 15, Egyptian troops entered the war in Palestine against the newly formed state of Israel. | 4 |
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| Dec. 8 |
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| Outlawing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Retaliation was swift. A member of the Brotherhood assassinated Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi in January. | 5 |
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