26 Facts About Tewfik Pasha

Mohamed Tewfik Pasha, known as Tawfiq of Egypt, was khedive of Egypt and the Sudan between 1879 and 1892 and the sixth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty.

Tewfik Pasha inherited a state suffering under the financial and political mismanagement of his predecessor Isma'il.

Tewfik Pasha was the oldest son of Khedive Isma'il, and was born on April 30 or November 15,1852.

Tewfik Pasha was not sent to Europe to be educated like his younger brothers, but grew up in Egypt.

Ismail sought this alteration mainly because he disliked his uncle, Halim Tewfik Pasha, who was his heir-presumptive, and he had imagined that he would be able to select whichever of his sons he pleased as his successor.

Tewfik Pasha was given a palace near Cairo to live in, and for twelve years he led an uneventful life, farming and establishing a reputation for good sense and fair dealing with his fellow tenants.

Tewfik Pasha held this office only for a few months; but this was long enough to show that he had the wisdom to refrain from taking part in the intrigues which then dominated the political life in Egypt and Sudan.

Tewfik Pasha went back to his estate, and settled down once more to a quiet country life.

On 26 June 1879, Isma'il, at the insistence of Britain and France, was deposed by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who sent orders at the same time that Tewfik Pasha should be proclaimed Khedive.

Tewfik Pasha's people were dissatisfied, his army disaffected; his advisers were nearly all of the adventurer class, with their own ends to gain; and he himself had neither the character of a strong ruler nor the experience that would have enabled him to secure an orderly administration of affairs.

Tewfik Pasha had been blamed for his failure to take a firm line with the rebels, but his attitude was governed by his relations with Britain and France, and he was unable to control events.

The dissatisfaction culminated in the anti-foreign movement headed by Urabi Tewfik Pasha, who had gained complete command of the army.

Tewfik Pasha showed his courage equally during the cholera epidemic at Alexandria in 1883.

Tewfik Pasha had gone back to Cairo after the Battle of Tel al-Kebir, had consented to the reforms insisted upon by Britain, and had assumed the position of a constitutional ruler under the guidance of Lord Dufferin, the British special commissioner.

Tewfik Pasha's wife accompanied him, and he went round the hospitals, setting an excellent example to the authorities of the city, and encouraging the patients by kind and hopeful words.

Tewfik Pasha gave his consent with natural reluctance, but, having consented, he did everything he could to ensure the success of the policy which Baring had been sent to carry out.

Tewfik Pasha behaved with equal propriety during the negotiations between Sir H Drummond Wolff and the Turkish envoy, Mukhtar Pasha, in 1886.

Tewfik Pasha's position was not a dignified one but that of a titular ruler compelled to stand by while others discussed and managed the affairs of his country.

On occasion he acted on his own initiative, as when in June 1888 he dismissed Nubar Pasha and summoned Riaz Pasha to form a ministry, an action influenced, nevertheless, by Tewfik's knowledge of the divergence of views between Nubar and the British agent.

Tewfik Pasha was not an imposing man, but he showed a genuine desire to govern his country for its own benefit.

Tewfik Pasha understood the importance to Egypt of British assistance and support; his natural shrewdness made him accept the British conditions; his natural good feeling kept him from any inclination to intrigue.

Tewfik Pasha was courteous and amiable, he had no desire to keep up the unapproachable state of an oriental ruler.

Tewfik Pasha married in 1873 his ethnic Albanian kinswoman, Emina Ilhamy, with whom he lived very happily.

Tewfik Pasha was his only wife and Tewfik was a strong advocate of monogamy.

When Tewfik Pasha ascended the throne, he closed the harem quarters in the imperial palace, and sold all of his father's female slaves to slave markets.

Tewfik Pasha died on 7 January 1892, at the Helwan Palace near Cairo, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Abbas II.