In Jabartī's biography of cUthmān Bey Dhū cl-Faqār, a prominent figure in Cairo politics during the first half of the eighteenth century, there is the following intriguing passage:

This passage is fascinating on a number of levels; here I will draw out two aspects. First, cUthmān Bey is said to have founded his own court to resolve disputes among Cairenes. cUthmān Bey held a number of important positions in the administration of Ottoman Egypt: he was appointed amīr al-ḥajj for a total of four years, and was also appointed supervisor of three of the great blocs of awqāf al-ḥaramayn in Egypt: the Murādiyya, the Khāṣakiyya, and the Vālide Sulṭān. He was one of the most important figures in Cairo during the late 1720s and 1730s; by the early 1740s he was, according to Damurdāshī, the most powerful man in the city. But he was never appointed as either qāḍī or governor in Egypt, and so was never formally charged with operating a court. His establishment of his personal dīwān reflected the privatization of the provision of justice in eighteenth-century Egypt. It was an act of personal aggrandizement that sought to bolster cUthmān Bey's power and his reputation among the Cairo populace; it was also a direct challenge to the authority of the governor.