Mohamed Sa'id Pasha (, , March 17, 1822 – January 17, 1863) was the Wāli of Egypt and Sudan from 1854 until 1863, officially owing fealty to the Ottoman Sultan but in practice exercising virtual independence. Construction of the Suez Canal began under his tenure.
Biography
He was the fourth son of Muhammad Ali Pasha. Ali Pasha wanted his son to have an athletic body, and to get rid of his obesity, so he ordered his young son to exercise daily for two hours and follow a very simple diet. To safeguard the child's morals, he could visit no other house than that of Mathieu de Lesseps, the French consul. The young prince became friend of Mathieu's son, Ferdinand, and "both of them revelled in devouring immense quantities of spaghetti. This intimacy and his longing for pasta caused Muhammad Said to hurry to the French consulate whenever the frugal diet of the viceregal table left a void in his stomach".
Then, the young Egyptian was sent there to complete his education in Paris, where he again frequented the Lesseps' household.
Under Sa'id's rule there were several law, land and tax reforms. Some modernization of Egyptian and Sudanese infrastructure also occurred using western loans. In 1854 the first act of concession of land for the Suez Canal was granted, to a French businessman, his old friend Ferdinand de Lesseps. The British opposed a Frenchman building the canal and persuaded the Ottoman Empire to deny its permission for two years. Sa'id signed the concession to build a canal on January 5, 1856,
Under Sa'id's rule, the influence of sheikhs was curbed, and many Bedouin reverted to nomadic raiding.
In 1854, he established the Bank of Egypt. In the same year Egypt's first standard gauge railway was opened, between Kafr el-Zayyat on the Rosetta branch of the Nile and Alexandria. In addition, he founded the Medjidieh, a precursor to the Khedivial Mail Line.
Sa'id's heir presumptive, Ahmad Rifaat, drowned in 1858 at Kafr el-Zayyat when a railway train on which he was travelling fell off a car float into the Nile. Therefore, when Sa'id died in January 1863 he was succeeded by his nephew Ismail.
The Mediterranean port of Port Said is named after him.
He married twice, to a first wife Inji Hanim with one son Ahmed Sherif Pasha, and to a second wife Melekber Hanim with two sons, Mahmoud Bey, and Mohamed Toussoun Pasha.
He was buried in Hosh al-Basha the Royal Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i, Cairo, Egypt.
The wife and her children:
Ingy Hanem: Ahmed Sherif Pasha.
Malak Bar Hanem: Mohamed Toson Pasha, Mahmoud Pasha.
Currently, one of his family members and descendants is Prince Mohamed Farouk Sherif, the eldest grandson of Ahmed Sherif Pasha, son of Mohamed Said Pasha. He now lives in Alexandria, in the Saba Pasha area in the Al-Gleem district. He married Princess Nagwa, and they have two children: Prince Sherif and Princess Mona, who also live in the same area in Alexandria.
Honours
- : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (civil), 26 January 1855
- French Empire: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, 1863
- :
- Order of Glory
- Order of Osmanieh, Special Class
- Order of the Medjidie, Special Class, 1853
- : Grand Cross of St. Joseph, 1856
- : Grand Cross of the Netherlands Lion, 1856