Ismail Pasha

Isma’il Pasha was the grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the founder of modern Egypt. He received a European education in Paris and undertook various diplomatic missions in Europe before becoming the viceroy of Egypt and Sudan in 1863. He greatly modernized his country, investing heavily in industrial and economic development, urbanization, and the expansion of the country’s boundaries in Africa. He also secured Ottoman and international recognition for his title of Khedive (Viceroy) in 1867. He was the patron of the Suez Canal, which was completed in 1869, and celebrated its opening with a lavish display of khedival splendour. He also established an assembly of delegates, which gave some voice to the Egyptian people. He attempted to bring the vast areas of the Sudan under effective Egyptian control, but faced resistance from the local population. His ambitious policies placed the country in severe debt, leading to the sale of the country’s shares in the Suez Canal Company to the British government, and his ultimate toppling from power in 1879 under British and French pressure. He spent the last years of his life in exile in Istanbul, where he died in 1895. He was buried in Al-Rifa’i Mosque in Cairo, which he had commissioned to be built.