Muhammad Ali << moo HAM uhd AH lee >> (1769-1849), ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848. He used French and other European advisers to help modernize Egypt and to increase its wealth and power. Under him, the Egyptian government and army came to be patterned after those of European countries. But he did not encourage democracy. He kept power firmly in his own hands.
Muhammad Ali was born in Kavalla, then part of the Turkish-based Ottoman Empire and now in Greece, probably on March 4, 1769. In 1801, he helped evict French invaders from Egypt as an officer in the Ottoman army. The Ottoman sultan (prince) named him governor of Egypt in 1805. In 1831, Muhammad Ali turned against the sultan and attacked Ottoman forces, gaining temporary control of an area that now includes Syria. In 1841, the Ottoman Empire granted him and his family the hereditary right to rule Egypt. Muhammad Ali died in Alexandria on Aug. 2, 1849. His descendants held this right until 1953, though they usually ruled under British control.
