Mohamed Sherif Pasha GCSI (February 1826 – 20 April 1887) () was an Egyptian statesman. He served as

Prime Minister of Egypt A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

three times during his career. His first term was between 7 April 1879 and 18 August 1879. His second term was served from 14 September 1881 to 4 February 1882. His final term was served between 21 August 1882 and 7 January 1884.

Biography

Sherif, who was a Turk from Kavala in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

(now in northern

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), filled numerous administrative posts under Sa'id Pasha and Isma'il Pasha. He was better educated than most of his contemporaries, and had married Nazli al-Faransawi Hanim, a daughter of Colonel Joseph Anthelme Sèves, the French non-commissioned officer who became Suleiman Pasha under Mehmet Ali, and wife Maria Myriam Hanem. They were the maternal grandparents of

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Nazli of Egypt and

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Sherif Sabri Pasha. As minister of foreign affairs he was useful to Ismail, who used Sherif's bluff bonhomie to veil many of his most insidious proposals. Of singularly lazy disposition, he yet possessed considerable tact; he was in fact an Egyptian Lord Melbourne, whose policy was to leave everything alone. Sherif's favorite argument against any reform was to appeal to the

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as an immutable proof of the solidity of Egypt financially and politically. His fatal optimism rendered him largely responsible for the collapse of Egyptian credit which brought about the fall of Ismail. Upon the military insurrection of September 1881 under Urabi Pasha, Sherif was summoned by the khedive Tawfiq to form a new ministry. The impossibility of reconciling the financial requirements of the national party with the demands of the British and French controllers of the public debt, compelled him to resign in the following February. After the suppression of the Urabi Revolt he was again installed in office (August 1882) by Tawfiq, but in January 1884 he resigned rather than sanction the evacuation of the Sudanese regions of the

Khedivate of Egypt The Khedivate of Egypt ( or , ; ') was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of Napoleon Bonaparte's forces which brought an end to the short- ...

. As to the strength of the Mahdist movement he had then no conception. When urged by Sir Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer) early in 1883 to abandon some of the more distant parts of the Sudan, he replied with characteristic light-heartedness: "''Nous en causerons plus tard; d'abord nous allons donner une bonne raclée à ce monsieur''" (We'll talk about that later, first we're going to give this gentleman (i.e. the self declared Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad) a good thrashing). Hicks Pasha's expedition was at the time preparing to march on El Obeid. Sherif died in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

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, on 20 April 1887.

References

1826 births 1887 deaths 19th-century prime ministers of Egypt Egyptian Muslims Egyptian pashas Egyptian people of Greek descent People of the Urabi revolt Ministers of foreign affairs of Egypt Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India Turks from the Ottoman Empire Grand viziers of Egypt Irrigation ministers of Egypt {{Egypt-politician-stub