1846 - 1910
Egyptian diplomat and cabinet minister.
Born in a village near Bani Suwayf in Egypt, Boutros Ghali went to the reformist Coptic school at Harat al-Saqqayin and the princes' school of Mustafa Fadil. He later studied at the School of Languages, learning Arabic, French, English, Turkish, and Persian, but never earned a license or any other degree. He became a clerk for the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce and in 1873 was appointed by the sharif to the head clerkship of the justice ministry. At this time he also helped to organize the Coptic (Lay) Council. When the mixed courts were being established, Ghali helped the justice minister write an Arabic translation of their (mainly French) law code, even though he lacked any legal training.
His work brought him to the attention of Prime Minister Boghos Nubar Pasha, who made him Egypt's representative to the Caisse de la Dette Publique, thus mediating frequently between the Egyptian government and its European creditors. Named deputy justice minister in 1879, he held various responsible posts during the Urabi revolution. Afterward, he mediated between Khedive Tawfiq and the nationalists, saving many from execution.
Ghali received his first ministerial appointment in 1893 when Khedive Abbas Hilmi II challenged the British occupation by appointing his own cabinet under Husayn Fakhri (without consulting Lord Cromer). He remained finance minister under the compromise cabinet of Mustafa al-Riyad. He served as foreign minister from 1894 to 1910 and continued to mediate between power centers, signing the 1899 Sudan Convention that set up the Anglo - Egyptian Condominium Agreement. He represented the cabinet on the bench at the 1906 trial in the Dinshaway Incident, concurring in the death sentences on four of the accused peasants and angering Egypt's nationalists.
Khedive Abbas and Sir Eldon Gorst concurred in naming him prime minister in 1908, despite misgivings about having a Copt as the head of Egypt's government. He further angered the nationalists by reviving the 1881 press law and publicly advocating the extension of the Suez Canal Company's concession, policies that he reportedly opposed privately. His assassination by Ibrahim Nasif al-Wardani, a nationalist, in February 1910, set off a wave of Coptic - Muslim confrontations and led to a more repressive government policy against the nationalists.
Bibliography
Seikaly, Samir. "Coptic Communal Reform (1860 - 1914)." Middle Eastern Studies 6 (1970):4.
Seikaly, Samir. "Prime Minister and Assassin: Butrus Ghali and Wardani." Middle Eastern Studies 13 (1977):1.
— ARTHUR GOLDSCHMIDT
