Quick Facts
Also called:
Muṣṭafā Kāmil Pasha
Born:
Aug. 14, 1874, Cairo, Egypt
Died:
Feb. 10, 1908, Cairo (aged 33)

Muṣṭafā Kāmil (born Aug. 14, 1874, Cairo, Egypt—died Feb. 10, 1908, Cairo) was a lawyer, journalist, and Egyptian nationalist who was a founder of the National Party.

Muṣṭafā Kāmil, the son of an army officer, studied law in Cairo and in Toulouse, France, obtaining a law degree in 1894. Muṣṭafā Kāmil strongly opposed the British occupation of Egypt and, with the encouragement of the khedive ʿAbbās II, helped establish a secret society that laid the foundation for what would later be the National Party (Arabic: Al-Ḥizb al-Waṭanī). In 1900 he founded the daily Al-Liwāʾ (“The Standard”) to put forth the group’s views. Realizing that independence would be difficult to obtain, he looked to France, which he saw as the symbol of European liberalism, to help Egypt counter British power. When France and Great Britain signed the Entente Cordiale in 1904, Muṣṭafā Kāmil turned to the Ottoman sultan to aid Egypt in its struggle.

Although, nominally, Egypt was a province of the Ottoman Empire, Muṣṭafā Kāmil did not want a resumption of direct Ottoman rule. Nevertheless, he saw Ottoman solidarity as an aid in the conflict with the British. He believed that the strength of the Egyptians themselves could be channeled into a patriotic spirit—a feeling of love for the land and traditions of Egypt, in which he included the Sudan. He joined in formally founding the National Party as a political vehicle for these policies in October 1907, but he died a few months later.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Also called:
Arabism or Arab nationalism

Pan-Arabism, nationalist notion of cultural and political unity among Arab countries. Its origins lie in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when increased literacy led to a cultural and literary renaissance (known as the Nahda or al-nahḍah al-adabiyyah) among Arabs of the Middle East. This contributed to political agitation and led to the independence of most Arab states from the Ottoman Empire (1918) and from the European powers (by the mid-20th century). An important event was the founding in 1943 of the Baʿth Party by Pan-Arabist thinkers Michel ʿAflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar, which formed branches in several countries and became the ruling party in Syria and Iraq. Another important event was the founding of the Arab League in 1945. An experiment in political union between two Arab countries, Egypt and Syria, in the form of the United Arab Republic (1958–61) was short-lived. Pan-Arabism’s most charismatic and effective proponent was Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, under whom it reached its peak in both political and social expression. But, after Nasser’s death, disappointment in Pan-Arabism’s inability to effectuate lasting prosperity in the Arab world led to a rise in Islamism as an alternative. Despite the decline in enthusiasm for Pan-Arabist policies, Syria’s Ḥāfiẓ al-Assad, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, and Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi were among those who tried to assume the mantle of Arab leadership after Nasser. For more on the history of integration among Arab countries, see Arab integration.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Zeidan.