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Isma'il Pasha

(Redirected from Ismail the Magnificent)

Isma'il Pasha, known as Ismail the Magnificent (December 31, 1830March 2, 1895) was khedive of Egypt from 1863 until he was removed at the behest of the British in 1879. While in power he greatly modernized Egypt, but also put the country greatly into debt.

Ismail was born at Cairo, being the second of the three sons of Ibrahim Pasha and grandson of Mehemet Ali. After receiving a European education at Paris, where he attended the Ecole d'etat-Major , he returned home, and on the death of his elder brother became heir to his uncle, Said Mohammed, the Vali of Egypt. Said, who apparently conceived his own safety to lie in ridding himself as much as possible of the presence of his nephew, employed him in the next few years on missions abroad, notably to the pope, the emperor Napoleon III and the sultan of Turkey. In 1861 he was dispatched at the head of an army of 14,000 to quell an insurrection in the Sudan, and this he successfully accomplished.

On the death of Said, on January 18, 1863, Ismail was proclaimed viceroy without opposition. In 1866-1867 he obtained from the Ottoman Sultan, to whom he was still technically a vassal, firmans giving him the title of khedive in exchange for an increase in the tribute. This also changing the law of succession to direct descent from father to son, and in 1873 he obtained a new firman making him to a large extent independent.

Ismail launched vast schemes of internal reform on the scale of his grandfather, remodeling the customs system and the post office, stimulating commercial progress, creating a sugar industry, building palaces, entertaining lavishly and maintaining an opera and a theatre. He greatly expanded Cairo building an entire new city on its western edge modeled on Paris. Alexandria was also improved. He launched a vast railroad building project that saw Egypt rise from having virtually none to the most railways per habitable kilometer of any nation in the world.

He also agreed to, and oversaw the Egyptian portion of the building of the Suez Canal. On his accession he refused to ratify the concessions to the Canal company made by Said, and the question was referred in 1864 to the arbitration of Napoleon III, who awarded £ 3,800,000 to the company as compensation for the losses they would incur by the changes which Ismail insisted upon in the original grant. Ismail then used every available means, by his own undoubted powers of fascination and by judicious expenditure, to bring his personality before the foreign sovereigns and public, and he had no little success. He was made G.C.B. in 1867, and in the same year visited Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and welcomed by the lord mayor; and in 1869 he again paid a visit to England. When the canal finally opened Ismail held a festival of unprecedented scope, inviting dignitaries from around the world. In 1874 he annexed Darfur, but was prevented from expanding into Ethiopia by a military defeat.

These developments left Egypt in deep debt to the European powers, and they used this position to wring concessions out of Ismail. One of the most unpopular among regular Egyptians was the new system of mixed courts, by which European were tried by judges from their own nation. But at length the inevitable financial crisis came. A national debt of over one hundred millions sterling (as opposed to three millions when he became viceroy) had been incurred by the khedive, whose fundamental idea of liquidating his borrowings was to borrow at increased interest. The bond-holders became restive. Judgments were given against the khedive in the international tribunals. When he could raise no more loans he sold his Suez Canal shares (in 1875) to Great Britain for only £ 3,976,582; and this was immediately followed by the beginning of foreign intervention.

In December 1875 Stephen Cave was sent out by the British government to inquire into the finances of Egypt, and in April 1876 his report was published, advising that in view of the waste and extravagance it was necessary for foreign Powers to interfere in order to restore credit. The result was the establishment of the Caisse de la Dette . In October Goschen and Joubert made a further investigation, which resulted in the establishment of Anglo-French control over finances and the government. A further commission of inquiry by Major Baring (afterwards Lord Cromer) and others in 1878 culminated in Ismail making over his estates to the nation and accepting the position of a constitutional sovereign, with Nubar as premier, Charles Rivers Wilson as finance minister, and de Bhigriires as minister of public works.

This control of the country was unacceptable to many Egyptians, who united behind a disaffected Colonel Ahmed Urabi. The Urabi Revolt consumed Egypt. Hoping the revolt could relieve him of European control Ismail did little to oppose Urabi and gave into his demands to dissolve the government. England and France took the matter seriously, and insisted in May 1879 on the reinstatement of the British and French ministers. With the country largely in the hands of Urabi Ismail could not, and had little interest in, agreeing. The Europeans pressured the Sultan to recall Ismail, and this was done. The more pliable Tewfik, Ismail's son, was made his successor. Ismail at once left Egypt for Naples, but eventually was permitted by the sultan to retire to his palace of Emirghian on the Bosporus. There he remained, more or less a state prisoner, until his death.


Last updated: 05-07-2005 04:49:48
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04