Tewfik Pasha

Tewfik Pasha was the sixth ruler of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1879 to 1892. He inherited a state that was suffering from the financial and political mismanagement of his father, Ismail I, who had accumulated a huge foreign debt and provoked the intervention of Britain and France. Tewfik Pasha was forced to accept the Anglo-French control of the state finances and administration, which led to the discontent of the Egyptian army and the rise of the nationalist leader Ahmad Urabi. In 1882, Urabi led a revolt against the foreign influence and Tewfik Pasha sought the protection of the British, who invaded Egypt and defeated Urabi’s forces. Tewfik Pasha remained as a nominal ruler under the British occupation, but he had little power or popularity. He tried to introduce some reforms in the legal system, the education, and the agriculture, but he faced the opposition of the British consul general, Lord Cromer, who dominated the Egyptian affairs. Tewfik Pasha died unexpectedly in 1892 after a sudden illness in Helwan, near Cairo. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Abbas Helmy II.