Saad Zaghloul (
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
سعد زغلول; also:
Saad Zaghlul, Sa'd Zaghloul PashaPasha or pacha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries...
ibn Ibrahim) (1859-August 23, 1927) was an
EgyptianEgyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt....
political figure. He served as
prime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
from 26 January 1924 to 24 November 1924.
Zaghloul was a native of Ibyana village, Gharbia Governorate in the
DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
. He attended
Al-Azhar UniversityAl-Azhar University in Egypt, founded in 970~972, is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world and the world's second oldest surviving degree granting university. It is associated with Al-Azhar mosque in Islamic Cairo. The university's mission includes the...
and in the
1880sThe 1880s was the decade that spanned between the years 1880 and 1889. They occurred at the core period of the Second Industrial Revolution. Most Western countries experienced a large economic boom, due to the mass production of railroads and other more convenient methods of travel...
became politically active for which he was arrested.
Saad Zaghloul (
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
سعد زغلول; also:
Saad Zaghlul, Sa'd Zaghloul PashaPasha or pacha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries...
ibn Ibrahim) (1859-August 23, 1927) was an
EgyptianEgyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt....
political figure. He served as
prime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
from 26 January 1924 to 24 November 1924.
Education and activism
Zaghloul was a native of Ibyana village, Gharbia Governorate in the
DeltaThe Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
. He attended
Al-Azhar UniversityAl-Azhar University in Egypt, founded in 970~972, is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world and the world's second oldest surviving degree granting university. It is associated with Al-Azhar mosque in Islamic Cairo. The university's mission includes the...
and in the
1880sThe 1880s was the decade that spanned between the years 1880 and 1889. They occurred at the core period of the Second Industrial Revolution. Most Western countries experienced a large economic boom, due to the mass production of railroads and other more convenient methods of travel...
became politically active for which he was arrested. After his release he went on to practice law. He became increasingly active as a nationalist and in 1918 led a delegation demanding complete independence from Britain. After this he was deported to
MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
and later
SeychellesSeychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an archipelago nation of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar...
, which caused disturbances in Egypt. (
Encyclopedia AmericanaThe Encyclopædia Americana is one of the largest general encyclopedias in the English language. As the name suggests, it is produced in the United States and is aimed mainly at the North American market; it is, however, also sold in Asia and elsewhere...
, pg 739)
Political history
Saad Zaghloul led the nationalist forces. The elections of January 12, 1924, gave the Wafd Party an overwhelming majority, and two weeks later Zaghloul formed the first Wafdist government. As P.J. Vatikiotis says in
The History of Modern Egypt (4th ed., pp. 279 ff.), "The masses considered Zaghloul their national leader, the
za'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 of Sir Lee Stack, Sirdar and Governor-General of the
SudanAnglo-Egyptian Sudan referred to the manner by which Sudan was administered between 1899 and 1956, when it was a condominium of Egypt and the United Kingdom.-Union with Egypt:...
, on November 19, 1924, and subsequent British demands which Zaghloul felt were unacceptable, he resigned, to play no further role in government.
Family
His wife, Safiyya Zaghloul, the daughter of
Mustafa Fahmi PashaMustafa Fahmi Pasha was an Egyptian politician, cabinet minister, and twice premier.-Early life:He was born in Crete to a Turkish family that had earlier settled in Algeria. His father, Husayn Efendi, a colonel, died in the Crimean War, and Mustafa Fahmi was adopted by an uncle, Muhammad Zaki,...
, was also active in politics, was a feminist and revolutionary.
External links
- Al-Ahram: "The bitter harvest" An account of the 1924 assassination in Cairo of Sir Oliver (Lee) Stack and its consequences for Egypt and Zaghloul A 1926 story about Zaghloul's attempt to return to power