4to. Volume I: vi, 489 pp., 1 frontispiece portrait, 100 b/w plates / Volume II: 305 pp., 70 plates, 2 folding maps at rear, half-title, contemporary half-calf, with marbled boards, title gilt on raised spine, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1935.

Synopsis

An excellent copy of this lavishly illustrated monograph on the dynasty of Mohammed Ali Pasha (1769-1848), written by the French Vice-Admiral G. Durand-Viel (1875-1959) in commission of King Fouad of Egypt. Mohammed Ali, an Albanian lieutenant in the Ottoman army came to Egypt in 1799. The Ottomans elevate him to khedive or viceroy of Egypt 1806. Although Mohammed Ali was nominally a representative of the Ottoman Sultan he was for all intents and purposes an absolute ruler. He was dedicated to the modern development of Egypt, building factories, railways and canals, bringing in European architects and technicians to create a modern state. Ali was also an ambitious expansionist whose armies extended his power over Syria, Sudan, Greece and the Arabian Peninsula until by 1839 he controlled a large portion of the Ottoman Empire.
The author was a French marine officer, Directeur de l’École de Guerre (1927), Vice-admiral (1928), Vice-président du Canal de Suez (1937) and Membre de l’Académie des Sciences (1935) et de l’Académie de Marine.