In the early seventies of the 19th. centurey, attention was drawn to the establishment of the National Library of Egypt, upon a recommendation submitted by Ali Pasha Mubarak ( the manager of schools and a prominent figures among intelligensia of the time ) to Khedive Ismail who, issued a Royal Decree with a view to establishing the Khedive Kutub Khana ._ a Turkish mame of the Khedive National Library, at the basement of Mustafa Fadel's palace at Darb-el-Jammameiz which was opened to the public in September 24, 1870.

The hand-written books (Manuscripts) and Koran (al-Qur'an) formed the first nucleus of the Library's Arabic and oriental collections, gathered from mosques, shrines, book-cases of Wakfs (endowments) and government offices. However, the first nucleus of the foreign books were donated to the Library by the Egyptian Association in 1873.

In 1886, when the holdings accumulated, the Library extended to the first floor of Mustafa Fadel's palace and it was thought to have a new building to accommodate huge amounts of books and the cornerstone of the intended Library was laid at Bab-el-Khalq square in 1899, then it was opened to the public in 1904.

The Khedive Kutub Khana was known as such under Khedive Abbas-II (1892-1914), but it was renamed once again as Dar-Al-Kutub Al-Khedawaiya ._ an Arabic name, and under Sultan Hussein Kamel it became the Sultanate National Library.

Under King Fouad-I ( 1917-1939 ) it was named as the National Library of Egypt and was known as such until the rising of the Revolution of July 23, 1952. In 1970, it was moved to its present premises on the Nile Corniche.

It is noteworthy that in Zul-Hija 5th. 1286 H. (1870), another Royal Decree No.66 relating to the administration of the National Library (Khedive Kutub-Khana ) came into effect, which provided for its holdings of 30.000 volumes, preservation and maintenance thereof and the nomination of its governing board, consisting of a manager, submanager, and four librarians responsible for preparing and making the collection accessible to the intended public.

In Jamadi- I 1287 H. a law was sanctioned to organize the work in the Khedive Kutub-Khana with the duties and assignments given below :

	Arabic and foreign books including maps and geographic collections.
	Copied hand-written books.
	Machinery Drawings and samples.
	Apparatus, chemical and engineering machines.

In 1306 H. ( April 30, 1889 ) another Royal Decree was issued by Khedive Tawfeik, which transformed the library into a corporate body with an endowment that satisfactorily supported most of its needs.

On December 17, 1899 an important regulation relating to the procedures in the Kutub-Khana al- Khedawaiya was issued, but it did not take effect until 1900. This regulation determined the operating hours of the reading rooms, defined the division of work, and established regulations which prohibited readers from smoking, eating, or drinking inside the reading rooms, copying books using transparent sheets, or defacing the pages of any book.

On April 13, 1911, a draft law was passed to effect reorganization of the Khedive Kutub-Khana on a technical and administrative basis. This law designated that specific sections shall be devoted to Turkish and Persian writings as well as a section for foreign languages, printed books, particularly those publications written about Egypt and the Arab civilization, irrespective of dates of publications. This draft law was also concerned with the formation of a more developed Higher Council, meetings of which were to be held at the National Library premises, chaired by the Minister of Education rather than the Council of Managers constituted in 987 H.

Relevant regulations were issued on June 1, 1938 to define the duties and procedures of the Library including:

	Consolidation of relations between the National Library and regional libraries by providing the latter with books and cooperating in the diffusion of culture.
	Defining the responsibilities of the Director General.
	Defining the collections of the Library.
	Defining storage for the manuscripts.
	Defining work in the Library as follows:  Library staff section responsible for the collection and delivery of books for technical processing. Acquisition section. Cataloging section. Reading rooms. Loaning section. Literary section. The printing office responsible for carrying out all relevant missions relating to printing and bindery of the stock.

After the failure of the above to achieve the desired goals, law No. 183 was enacted on April 26, 1956, to designate the National Library as a legal entity with an independent budget determined by the Higher Council and administered by a general director, whose nomination was sanctioned only by a decision of the Council of Ministers.

Thereafter, the General Egyptian Book Organization has been established as per the Presidential Decree No. 2826 for 1971, under which the General Egyptian Foundation for Authorship and Publishing and the National Library of Egypt were amalgamated, with their respective printing offices intended to serve as GEBO's objectives.

After twelve years, it was seen again that the National Library and Archives of Egypt should have an independent legal identity and became as such as per the Presidential Decree No. 176 for 1993.