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Saad Zaghloul | |
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سعد زغلول | |
 Zaghloul in 1925 | |
| 17th Prime Minister of Egypt | |
| In office 26 January 1924 – 24 November 1924 | |
| Monarch | Fuad I |
| Preceded by | Yahya Ibrahim Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Ahmad Ziwar Pasha |
| Minister of Justice | |
| In office 1910–1912 | |
| Monarch | Abbas II |
| Minister of Education | |
| In office 28 October 1906 – 23 February 1910 | |
| Monarch | Abbas II |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 July 1859 Ibyana,Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate, Khedivate of Egypt |
| Died | 23 August 1927(1927-08-23) (aged 68) Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt |
| Resting place | Mausoleum of Saad Zaghloul, Cairo |
| Political party | Wafd Party |
| Spouse | Safiya Zaghloul |
Saad ZaghloulPasha (Arabic:سعد زغلول /ALA-LC:Saʻd Zaghlūl; alsoSa'd ZaghloulPasha ibn Ibrahim) (July 1857[1] – 23 August 1927) was anEgyptian revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of Egypt's nationalistWafd Party, and served as the first Honorary President ofAl Ahly SC.
He led acivil disobedience campaign with the goal of achieving independence for Egypt (andSudan) from British rule.[2] He played a key role in theEgyptian Revolution of 1919, as well as played a role in prompting the BritishUnilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence in 1922. He served as Prime Minister ofEgypt from 26 January 1924 to 24 November 1924.
Zaghloul was born in Ibyanah village in theKafr el-Sheikh Governorate of Egypt'sNile Delta. For his post-secondary education, he attendedAl-Azhar University and a French law school inCairo. By working as a Europeanized lawyer, Zaghloul gained both wealth and status in a traditional framework of upward mobility. Despite this, Zaghloul's success can equally be attributed to his familiarity with the Egyptian countryside and its many idioms. He was part of the Egyptian freemason lodge.[3] In 1918, he became politically active, as the founding leader of the Wafd Party, for which he was later arrested.[4]
Upon his release from prison, he practiced law and distinguished himself; amassed some independent means, which enabled him to participate in Egyptian politics, then dominated by the struggle of moderate and extremist against British occupation; and effected useful, permanent links with different factions of Egyptian nationalists. He became close toPrincess Nazli Fazl, and his contacts with the Egyptian upper class led to his marriage to the daughter of theEgyptian prime ministerMustafa Fahmi Pasha, whose friendship withEvelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, then the effective British ruler of Egypt, accounts in part for the eventual acceptability of Zaghloul to the British occupation. In succession, Zaghloul was appointed judge, minister of education (1906–1908), minister of justice (1910–1912); and in 1913 he became vice-president of the Legislative Assembly.
In all his ministerial positions, Zaghloul undertook certain measures of reform that were acceptable to both Egyptian nationalists and the British occupation. Throughout this period, he kept himself outside extreme Egyptian nationalist factions, and although acceptable to the British occupation, he was not thereby compromised in the eyes of his Egyptian compatriots. The relationship between Britain and Egypt continued to deteriorate during and after the Great War.
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Zaghloul became increasingly active in nationalist movements, and in 1919 he led an official Egyptian delegation (orwafd, the name of the political party he would later form) to theParis Peace Conference demanding that theUnited Kingdom formally recognize the independence and unity of Egypt and Sudan (which had been united as one country underMuhammad Ali Pasha).[2] Other members of the delegation were Hamad Mahmoud El Bassel Pasha and Abdel Latif Mikabbaty. Britain had occupied the country in 1882, and declared it aprotectorate at the outbreak of theFirst World War. Though Egypt and Sudan had its ownSultan, parliament and armed forces, it had effectively been under British rule for the duration of the occupation.
The British in turn demanded that Zaghloul end his political agitation. When he refused, theyexiled him toMalta, and later to theSeychelles. In 1922, he was moved from the Seychelles and was taken to Gibraltar due to ill health arriving there on boardHMSCurlew and he was released in 1923. They had employed a similar tactic against Egyptian nationalist leaderAhmed Orabi in 1882, whom they exiled toCeylon. At the time of Zaghloul's arrival in the Seychelles, a number of other prominent anti-imperialist leaders were also exiled there, includingMohamoud Ali Shire, the 26thSultan of the Warsangali, with whom Zaghloul would soon develop a rapport.[5] In order to avoid engendering anti-colonial sentiments, the colonial government imposed edicts which censored letters that exiled individuals sent to their family and compatriots back home. Zaghloul regularly found a way around these controls. He and other prominent exiles employed letter-writing as major non-violent political tools of communication, through which they were able to describe their time in exile beyond the Seychelles.[6]
Zaghloul's absence caused disturbances in Egypt, ultimately leading to theEgyptian Revolution of 1919.[7]
Upon his return from exile, Zaghloul led the Egyptian nationalist forces. He began to formulate a strong base amid his return which led to the elections of 12 January 1924 giving theWafd Party an overwhelming majority, and two weeks later, led to Zaghloul forming the first Wafdist government.[8] As P. J. Vatikiotis writes inThe History of Modern Egypt (4th ed., pp. 279 ff.):
The masses considered Zaghloul their national leader, theza'im al-umma, the uncompromising national hero. His opponents were equally discredited as compromisers in the eyes of the masses. Yet he also had finally come to power partly because he had compromised with the palace group and implicitly accepted the conditions governing the safeguarding of British interests in Egypt.
Following the assassination on 19 November 1924 of SirLee Stack, theSirdar andGovernor-General of theSudan, and subsequent British demands which Zaghloul felt to be unacceptable, Zaghloul resigned. Yet he returned to active politics two years later and, though he never again held the Prime Ministership, he remained an extremely influential figure until his death in 1927.
Zaghloul's wife,Safiya Khānūm, was the daughter ofMustafa Fahmi Pasha, the Egyptian cabinet minister and two-time prime minister of Egypt.[9] A feminist and revolutionary, she was also active in politics.[10]
Zaghloul's brother,Ahmad Fathy Zaghlul was a lawyer and politician. He had several administrative and government posts, and at one point was Deputy Minister of Justice. In 1906 he was amongst the Egyptian judges at the summary trial for theDenshawai Incident.[11]
He is buried with his wife in their mausoleumBeit El-Umma in Cairo.
Education: Attended the Al-Azhar in Cairo, as well as at the Egyptian School of Law.
— Partakes in the establishment of Hizbu l-Ummah, which was a moderate group in a time when more and more Egyptians claimed to revive their independence from the British.
— Zaghloul returns to Egypt, and is welcomed as a national hero.
— Zaghloul experiences that not even he is able to stop demonstrations and riots among Egyptians.— November: After that the British commander in chief over the Egyptian army is killed, Zaghloul is forced to leave office.
Saad Zaghloul died in Cairo on 23 August 1927, and was buried in the tombs of Imam Al-Shafi'i. His remains were later transferred to a mausoleum built for him at 1936, nine years after his death.
Media related toSaad Zaghloul at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Egypt 1924 | Succeeded by |
