Ruler
Khedive Ismail
Grandson of Muhammad Ali, builder of khedival Cairo
1863 – 1879
Regnal years; he lived 1830–1895.
Biography
He obtained the title of "Khedive" from the Ottoman sultan in 1867. He built new quarters of Cairo and an opera house, and opened the Suez Canal in 1869. But his projects plunged Egypt into debt; he sold Egypt’s canal shares to Britain in 1875, and in 1879 the sultan deposed him under European pressure.
Key facts
Certainty: Established
Khedive Ismail sold Egypt’s shares in the Suez Canal Company to the British government in 1875.
- Zachary Karabell (2003) “Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal” Alfred A. Knopf
- M. W. Daly (ed.) (1998) “The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 2: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century” Cambridge University Press