In his long rise to power and a compressed, three-week campaign, Mr. Sisi has shown that he, too, sees himself as a morally superior father figure responsible for directing and correcting the nation, with a firm hand if needed.

“You want to be a first-class nation?” he asked of Egyptians, in a leaked recording of an off-the-record conversation with a journalist-confidant. “Will you bear it if I make you walk on your own feet? When I wake you up at 5 in the morning every day? Will you bear cutting back on food, cutting back on air-conditioners?”

“People think I’m a soft man,” he added. “Sisi is torture and suffering.”

Like his predecessors, Mr. Sisi has proved adept at guiding Egyptian history from behind the scenes. He teamed up with President Morsi to take the job of the former defense minister two summers ago, only to oust the president himself last summer. As chief of military intelligence, Mr. Sisi was also the secret architect of the strategy the generals employed during the 2011 uprisings, siding with “the people” against President Mubarak while ensuring the army stayed in control.

All but unknown until 10 months ago, Mr. Sisi was immediately elevated to the status of national hero by a broad section of the public — and all of the state and private media — because he promised order and stability after three years of upheaval. Now he will preside over the most populous and, in many ways, most influential Arab state.

He has quickly displayed a certain nostalgia for the Nasserite state dominance of the economy that set the stage for six decades of stagnation. He has proposed government projects to force down prices and profits as well as to irrigate and give away vast areas of desert. And he has expressed frankly condescending views of the public.