Isma'il Pasha (31 December 1830-2 March 1895) was the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879, succeeding Sa'id of Egypt and preceding Tewfik Pasha.
Biography[]
Isma'il Pasha was born in Cairo, Egypt Eyalet, Ottoman Empire in 1830, the son of Ibrahim Pasha and the grandson of Muhammad Ali. He became Khedive of Egypt in 1863, succeeding Sa'id of Egypt, and he shared the ambitious outlook of his grandfather Muhammad Ali. Isma'il Pasha greatly modernized Egypt and the Sudan during his reign, heavily investing in industrial and economic development, urbanization, and expansion of the country's boundaries in Africa. In 1867, he secured Ottoman and international recognition of his title of Khedive (Viceroy) in preference to Wali (Governor), and, in 1879, he announced that Egypt was now a part of Europe and no longer a part of Africa. However, Egypt fell into debt, and he was forced to sell Egypt's shares of the Suez Canal to the United Kingdom, which had him deposed in 1879. He died in Istanbul in 1895.