1834 - 1911
Egyptian official, cabinet minister, and three-time premier.
The origins of Mustafa al-Riyad, usually known as Riyaz Pasha during his lifetime, are obscure; he may have been Jewish. In Egypt, he began his career as a clerk in the foreign ministry and then in the army. Aide-de-camp for Abbas Hilmi I, he then held a succession of provincial governorships. Khedive Ismaʿil entrusted various ministerial portfolios to him. He contributed to Egypt's intellectual life by inviting Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and the editors of al-Muqtataf to settle there and also provided an endowment for the newly founded National Library. He backed Egypt's foreign creditors against Khedive Ismaʿil and helped write the 1880 liquidation law, which reduced Egyptian government indebtedness by strictly limiting expenditures.
Riyad underestimated the strength of the Egyptian officers in his first term as head of Egypt's government. Having acceded to their demand to dismiss his war minister in February 1881, he had to resign after their Abdin demonstration in September of that year. He stayed in Europe as long as the followers of Ahmad Urabi held sway. He served again as head of Egypt's government from 1888 to 1891 and from 1894 to 1895. He was widely thought to oppose the British occupation and to support the establishment of Cairo's first Muslim-owned daily, al-Muʾayyad. He favored bringing in Western technology but resisted the growing power of Europeans over Egyptian finances, justice, and government.
Bibliography
Hunter, F. Robert. Egypt under the Khedives, 1805 - 1879: FromHousehold Government to Modern Bureaucracy. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984.
Moberly-Bell, C. F. Khedives and Pashas. London: S. Low, 1884.
Sayyid-Marsot, Afaf Lutfi. Egypt and Cromer: A Study in Anglo-Eyptian Relations. London: Murray, 1968.
Schölch, Alexander. Egypt for the Egyptians! The Socio-PoliticalCrisis in Egypt, 1878 - 1882. London: Ithaca Press, 1981.
— ARTHUR GOLDSCHMIDT
