Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the Sudan

(1769 –1849), was the Albanian Ottoman governor and de facto ruler and King of Egypt from 1805 to 1848. At the height of his rule, he controlled Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, Sudan and parts of Arabia and the entire Levant. Though not a modern nationalist, he is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt.
Muhammad Ali was born in Ottoman Macedonia, to a family of Albanian origins. He was a military commander in an Albanian Ottoman force sent to recover Egypt from a French occupation under Napoleon. Following Napoleon’s withdrawal, Muhammad Ali rose to power through a series of political maneuvers, and in 1805 he was named Wāli (viceroy) of Egypt and gained the rank of Pasha.
He attempted to modernize Egypt by instituting dramatic reforms in the military, economic and cultural spheres. He also initiated a violent purge of the Mamluks, consolidating his rule and permanently ending the Mamluk hold over Egypt.
Militarily, Muhammad Ali recaptured the Arabian territories for the sultan, and conquered Sudan on his own accord. His attempt at suppressing the Greek rebellion failed decisively, however, following an intervention by the European powers at Navarino. In 1831, Muhammad Ali waged war against the sultan, capturing Syria, crossing into Anatolia and directly threatening Constantinople but Western Powers threatened him to retreat. He did the same invasion against the Ottoman Empire in 1840, when he defeated again the Ottomans and had a free way to capture Istanbul. Faced with another European intervention, he accepted a brokered peace in 1842 and withdrew from the Levant; in return, he and his descendants were granted hereditary rule over Egypt and Sudan. The dynasty he established would rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952.