Ahmad Maher Pasha

For other people named Ahmad Pasha, see Ahmad Pasha (disambiguation).
Ahmad Maher Pasha
Pasha
أحمد ماهر باشا
26th Prime Minister of Egypt
In office
10 October 1944 – 24 February 1945
MonarchFarouk of Egypt
Preceded byMostafa el-Nahas
Succeeded byMahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha
Personal details
Born1885
Died24 February 1945(1945-02-24) (aged 56–57)
PartySaadist Institutional Party
Other political
affiliations		Wafd Party

Ahmad Maher Pasha[a] (1885/6[b]– 24 February 1945) (Arabic: أحمد ماهر باشا) was an Egyptian politician from the Saadist Institutional Party who served as Prime Minister of Egypt from October 1944 to February 1945. He was the younger brother of Aly Maher, and the grandfather of the diplomats Ahmed Maher El Sayed and Ali Maher.

Maher was the son of Muhammad Mahir, a former Under-Secretary of State for War.[1] He attended Montpellier University where he earned a license en droit, later teaching at law school, what became Cairo University.[2] He later became involved in the Wafd party during the 1919 Egyptian Revolution. After rivals of the Wafd formed the Liberal Constitutional Party, two of its members were assassinated because they were mistaken for party founders, Adly Pasha and Husayn Rushdi. Maher was arrested for this crime but then released shortly afterwards.[3] He then became Minister of Education under the government of Sa'ad Zaghloul. He had to resign after being implicated in the assassination of Sir Lee Stack, but was later acquitted in June 1926 alongside fellow Wafdist Mahmoud El Nokrashy. Despite his acquittal, the British were still wary of Maher.[4][5][6] He became president of the Comptabilité Committée in parliament following the 1926 Egyptian elections and was a member of the Wafd High Command in 1927, 1932 and 1935.[7][8][9] He was also a signatory to the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in his capacity of president of the Chamber of Deputies.[10]

In 1937, Maher and Nokrashy left the Wafd party to form the Saadist party. After the 1938 Egyptian parliamentary election Maher became Minister of Finance.[11] He was the prime minister from 10 October 1944 to 24 February 1945. He was appointed upon the removal of Mustafa an-Nahhas Pasha by King Farouk of Egypt.

Maher consistently supported the Allies during World War II.[12] While Prime Minister, he declared war against the Axis powers in World War II on 24 February 1945. Immediately after this announcement, he was assassinated in Parliament by a 26-year-old Egyptian lawyer named Mahmud Issawi.[13][14][15] Issawi was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. However, he died while on a hunger strike on death row 23 August 1945.[16]

Notes

  1. ^ Also spelt Ahmad Mahir
  2. ^ Goldschmidt (2003) puts his year of birth as 1885, while Long (2005) puts it at 1886

References

  1. ^ Deeb 1979, p. 161.
  2. ^ Goldschmidt Jr. 2003, p. 247.
  3. ^ Badrawi 2013, p. 182.
  4. ^ Reid 1982, p. 631"The British eagerly tried to trace responsibility for Stack's assassination up to Ahmad Mahir and Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi (minister of education and deputy minister of interior, respectively, in Zaghlul's government) and perhaps to Zaghlul himself. Mahir, Nuqrashi, and three others were brought to trial in the spring of 1926. Mahir had actually commanded the secret apparatus earlier and Nuqrashi had been active in it, so the Wafd pulled out all the stops in their defense ... For the next ten years British officials squirmed uncomfortably whenever political necessity forced them to deal with Mahir and Nuqrashi."
  5. ^ Long 2005, p. 186.
  6. ^ Marsot 1977, p. 83.
  7. ^ Marsot 1977, p. 96"Ahmad Mahir had been elected president of the Comptabilité Committée in parliament and Nuqrashi had been elected secretary of the Education Committee"
  8. ^ Terry 1982, p. 192.
  9. ^ Quraishi 1967, pp. 224–225, Appendix B: Leadership of the Wafd Party.
  10. ^ Foreign and Commonwealth Office. (1936, August 26). Treaty of Alliance Between His Majesty, in Respect of the United Kingdom, and His Majesty, the King of Egypt.
  11. ^ Goldschmidt Jr. 2003, p. 248.
  12. ^ Gershoni, Israel (2010). Confronting Fascism in Egypt: Dictatorship versus Democracy in the 1930s. Stanford University Press. p. 25. Not all participants in the debate advocated Egypt avoiding involvement in the coming war: the politician who later was the strongest advocate of Egyptian entry into World War II, Ahmad Mahir of the Sadist Party, was vehement in rejecting Sidqi's suggestion and in insisting on the necessity of Egypt standing by the British in opposing Fascist and Nazi expansionism.
  13. ^ "Aḥmad Māhir | Egyptian leader, reformer, statesman". Britannica. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  14. ^ "EGYPTIAN PREMIER SLAIN IN CHAMBER; DIES OF WOUNDS (Published 1945)". 1945-02-25. Retrieved 2025-10-28.
  15. ^ "War & Death - TIME". www.time.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2025-10-28.
  16. ^ "Egypt Premier's Slayer Succumbs". LA Evening Citizen News. Vol. 41, no. 124 (2 ed.). 23 August 1945. Retrieved 2024-04-13 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
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Sources

  • Goldschmidt Jr., Arthur (2003). "MAHIR, AHMAD (1885–1945)". Historical Dictionary of Egypt (5th ed.). Scarecrow Press. pp. 247–248. ISBN 978-0-8108-6586-0.
  • Long, Richard (2005). "Appendix 2: Egyptian personalities". British Pro-Consuls in Egypt, 1914-1929 : The Challenge of Nationalism. RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 185–186.
  • Badrawi, Malak (2013) [2000]. Political Violence in Egypt 1910-1924: Secret Societies, Plots and Assassinations. Routledge.
  • Terry, Janice J. (1982). The Wafd: Cornerstone of Egyptian Political Power. Publisher: Third World Centre for Research and Publishing. ISBN 9780861990009.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  • Reid, Donald M. (1982). "Political Assassination in Egypt, 1910-1954". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 15 (4): 625–651. doi:10.2307/217848.
  • Deeb, Marius (1979). Party Politics in Egypt: the Wafd & its rivals 1919–1939. Ithaca Press. ISBN 9780903729406.
  • Quraishi, Zaheer M. (1967). Liberal Nationalism in Egypt; Rise and Fall of the Wafd Party. Jamal Printing Press. ISBN 9780861990009.
  • Marsot, Afaf Lutfi (1977). Egypt's Liberal Experiment: 1922–1936. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520031098.
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