Saad Zaghloul

Saad Zaghloul was an Egyptian revolutionary and statesman who played a key role in the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, which led Britain to give Egypt nominal independence in 1922. He was the leader of the Wafd Party, which represented the nationalist aspirations of the Egyptian people. He was briefly the prime minister of Egypt in 1924. He was born in Ibyana, a village in the Nile Delta, in 1859. He attended Al-Azhar University and a French law school in Cairo. He worked as a lawyer, judge, and journalist before becoming a minister of education and justice under the khedivate. He became a prominent member of the Legislative Assembly and a vocal critic of the British occupation. During World War I, he formed the Wafd Party and demanded complete independence for Egypt and Sudan. He led a delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, but was refused by the British. He was exiled to Malta and later to the Seychelles. His exile sparked a nationwide uprising that forced the British to issue a unilateral declaration of Egyptian independence in 1922, albeit with several reservations. Zaghloul returned to Egypt in 1923 and led the Wafd Party to a landslide victory in the first parliamentary elections. He became the prime minister in 1924, but resigned after a few months due to a diplomatic crisis with Britain over the assassination of Sir Lee Stack, the governor-general of Sudan. He was exiled again to the Seychelles and later to Gibraltar. He returned to Egypt in 1926 and resumed his leadership of the Wafd Party. He died in Cairo in 1927 and was buried in a mausoleum that became a symbol of Egyptian nationalism. He is widely regarded as the father of modern Egypt and one of the most influential figures in its history.