Mehmed Ali: From Ottoman Governor to Ruler of Egypt

Kavalali 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 …