Muhammad Ali of Egypt

Born in 1769 in an Albanian village, Muhammad Ali moved to Kavala where his father served as an Ottoman commander and tobacco merchant. He arrived in Egypt in 1801 as a military officer in an Albanian force sent to expel the French after Napoleon's withdrawal, and through calculated political maneuvering, was named governor and Pasha by 1805. He consolidated power through a violent purge of the Mamluks and set about transforming Egypt with sweeping military, economic and cultural reforms. He recaptured Arabian territories for the sultan and conquered Sudan independently, but his forces were crushed at Navarino trying to suppress the Greek rebellion. In 1831 he turned on the sultan himself, capturing Syria and crossing into Anatolia until European powers forced him back; after another Ottoman collapse in 1839 he invaded again, defeating them and opening the road to Constantinople before accepting a brokered peace in 1842. In exchange for withdrawal from the Levant, he secured hereditary rule over Egypt and Sudan - a dynasty that lasted until 1952.