Muhammad Ali Pasha is often called the founder of modern Egypt. An Ottoman officer of Albanian origin, he came to Egypt with the army sent to drive out the French, became its ruler in 1805, and over 40 years turned it into a strong, centralized state. His family ruled Egypt until the revolution of 1952.
Rise to power
Born in Kavala, in today’s Greece, in 1769, Muhammad Ali arrived in Egypt in 1801. In the chaos after the French left, he won the support of Cairo’s religious leaders and was named governor by the Ottoman sultan in 1805. In 1811 he invited the Mamluk leaders, who still held real power, to a ceremony at the Citadel and had them killed as they left, ending their rule.
Reforms
He built a modern army and navy, factories, canals and irrigation works, and made long-staple cotton Egypt’s great export crop. He sent students to study in France and founded schools of medicine and engineering. His armies fought in Arabia, Sudan, Greece and Syria, and at one point threatened the Ottoman Empire itself.
His legacy in Cairo
He died in 1849 in Alexandria and is buried in the Mosque of Muhammad Ali on the Citadel. His descendants included Khedive Ismail, who built much of downtown Cairo, and Kings Fuad and Farouk, buried in the Al-Rifai Mosque. Visit the Citadel on our Cairo day tours.
