Mehmed Ali

Kavalaly Mehmed Ali Pasha (c. 1770-1849), often dubbed "the founder of modern Egypt", was one of the most important figures in the history of the Ottoman Empire. Born in what is now Greece, and seemingly headed for an everyday existence as a married tobacco trader, he joined the Ottoman army at the age of thirty, and went on to become the ruler of Egypt for nearly half a century. Conqueror of Sudan and Syria, despot, and eventually a threat to the Ottoman Empire itself, he established both mass industrialisation and the mass-farming of cotton, and secured hereditary rule for his descendents. In this insightful and well-constructed biography, Kahled Fahmy assesses the infamous leader's life, and his contribution to Egyptian, and more broadly, Islamic history.