Mustafa Fahmi Pasha

Infobox Prime Minister
name = Mustafa Fahmi
honorific-suffix = Pasha
small

order = 12th
office = Prime Minister of Egypt
term_start = May 14, 1891
term_end = January 17, 1892
predecessor = Mustafa Riyad Pasha
successor = Husayn Fakhri Pasha
order2 = 16th
office2 = Prime Minister of Egypt
term_start2 = November 12, 1895
term_end2 = November 11, 1908
predecessor2 = Nubar Pasha
successor2 = Boutros Ghali Pasha
birth_date = 1840
birth_place = Crete, Ottoman Empire
death_date = September 13, 1914
death_place = Cairo, Egypt
party = Pro-British
children = Safiyya Zaghlul
alma_mater = Egyptian Military Academy
religion = Sunni Islam
rank = Lieutenant general

Mustafa Fahmi Pasha (Lang-ar|مصطفى فهمي باشا) (1840 – 13 September 1914) 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, director of the Public Works Department. Fahmi was educated at the Egyptian Military Academy and, upon being commissioned, rose through the Egyptian Army to the rank of lieutenant general. He then was appointed governor of Monufia, then of Cairo, and, finally, of Port Said. He later became director of the khedivial estates and then master of ceremonies. Prefect of the Cairo police in 1876, he was widely suspected of murdering the "Mufattish", Isma'il Siddiq.

Political career

He served as minister of public works (1879), foreign affairs (1879-1882), justice (1882), finance (1884-1887), interior three times (1887-1888, 1891-1893, and 1895-1908), [cite web | title = Former Ministers of Interior | publisher = Official website of the Egyptian Ministry of Interior | url = http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg/English/AboutMOI/FormerMinisters/ministers2.htm | accessdate = 2008-08-19] and war and marine twice (1887-1891 and 1894-1895). He was prime minister from 1891 to 1893 and again from 1895 to 1908. His illness early in 1893 caused a crisis between Lord Cromer and Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, who tried to replace his cabinet with one headed by Husayn Fakhri Pasha without consulting the British consul. Fahmi was allowed to leave the government for a while to recover his health, but returned under Nubar Pasha and soon afterward took charge of what would be Egypt's longest-lasting cabinet, one in which the power of the British advisers far outweighed that of the ministers.

Later life

He was pro-British for most of his active career, deferring repeatedly to Lord Cromer, but after he left office, he fell under the influence of Saad Zaghlul, who was married to Fahmi's youngest daughter Safiyya. It was rumored that Fahmi might head a cabinet in 1914 after Muhammad Said Pasha's resignation, but he was in poor health and died shortly afterward in Cairo. Most Egyptians regard him as having been too complaisant toward the British.

References

;General
*cite book
last = Goldschmidt Jr.
first = Arthur
title = Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt
publisher = American University in Cairo Press
date = 2000
location = Egypt
pages = 51
isbn = 977 424 579 2;Specific

s-ttl|title=Minister of Interior
years=10 March 1887 – 9 June 1888s-ttl|title=Prime Minister of Egypt
years=14 May 1891 – 17 January 1892s-ttl|title=Minister of Interior
years=14 May 1891 – 15 January 1893s-ttl|title=Minister of Interior
years=12 November 1895 – 11 November 1908s-ttl|title=Prime Minister of Egypt
years=12 November 1895 – 11 November 1908s-ttl|title=Governor of Alexandria
years=11 August 1874 – 13 October 1874s-ttl|title=Governor of Omoum Al-Canal (Port Said)
years=15 May 1877 – 28 May 1877s-ttl|title=Governor of Alexandria
years=12 April 1879 – 2 July 1879