Mohammad Farid (or Muhammad Farîd; ; January 20, 1868 in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

– November 15, 1919 in

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) was an influential

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

political figure. He was a nationalist leader, writer, and lawyer.

Early life

Farid was born to an Egyptian

Upper class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status. Usually, these are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper cla ...

family with distant Turkish descent and strong ties to Muhammad Ali Pasha. Farid was the son of the director of el-Da'irah el-Saniyya (Royal state domains administration) and belonged to a landowning family. He attended the Khalil Agha School, the ''Ecole des Freres'', and the School of Administration. He worked as a lawyer for the Egyptian government and for the Parquet (office of the attorney general).

Political life

He was dismissed for backing Shaykh Ali Yusuf, a popular Egyptian newspaper editor who was tried for publishing secret telegrams taken from the War Ministry. Farid proceeded to open his own law office. Farid was the main political and financial supporter of Mustafa Kamil, the founder of the Egyptian National Party, and after his premature death in 1908, was elected second president of that party. He led the party in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

until March 1912 and then in exile until his death. He argued that the British must withdraw their army of occupation from Egypt and that only Egypt's monarch, the

khedive Khedive ( ; ; ) was an honorific title of Classical Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the Khedive of Egypt, viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan"Khedive" ''Encyclopaedi ...

, could grant a constitution to the

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. He called for the spread of education and advocated social and economic reforms, especially to benefit workers. At times he sought help from 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 ...

(to which the Egyptian khedivate still owed technical

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), notably while in exile during

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, but he also suspected the Turks of undermining Egyptian national aims. Farid's occasional support for pan-

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alienated Egyptian Copts.

Legacy

Among Egyptians today, Farid is respected for his nationalism, courage, and self-sacrifice. His memoirs have been published in

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, and partly in English translation. He also wrote histories of the

Muhammad Ali Dynasty The Muhammad Ali dynasty or the Alawiyya dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Egypt and Sudan from the 19th to the mid-20th century. It is named after its progenitor, the Albanians, Albanian Muhammad Ali of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, regarded as the fou ...

, the

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, and the Ottoman Empire, as well as travel diaries, and numerous articles for local nationalist newspapers. Historian Fawaz Gerges identifies Farid as exemplifying "the emergence of a politics of exile as a means to sustain the struggle against British colonialism."

Notes

References

* ''Muhammad Farid: The Memoirs and Diaries of Muhammad Farid, an Egyptian Nationalist Leader (1868-1919)''. Edited, annotated, and translated by Arthur Goldschmidt Jr (San Francisco:

Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press, sometimes stylised as Mellen Press, is an academic publisher. It was founded in 1972 by theology professor Herbert Richardson (publisher), Herbert W. Richardson. It has been involved in a number of notable legal and acad ...

, 1992). * Arthur Goldschmidt Jr. ''Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt'' (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000). pp. 53–54. * Ehud R. Toledano. 2015 "Muhammad Farid between Nationalism and the Egyptian-Ottoman Diaspora" in Anthony Gorman and Sossie Kasparian, eds.''Diasporas of the Modern Middle East: Contextualizing Community'' Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

. 1868 births 1919 deaths Egyptian exiles Egyptian people of Turkish descent Politicians from Cairo Egyptian expatriates in Germany {{Egypt-politician-stub