Isma'il Pasha

Isma'il Pasha ruled Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879, inheriting his grandfather Muhammad Ali's appetite for transformation. He poured money into industry, infrastructure, and territorial expansion, determined to remake his realm in a European image. In 1867 he paid the Ottoman Sultan handsomely for the upgraded title of Khedive and the right to pass it only to his direct heirs, cutting out the rest of the dynasty. But the modernization binge buried Egypt in debt so deep that Isma'il had to sell the country's stake in the Suez Canal to Britain. In 1879, London and Paris—creditors grown impati…