CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Mustafa Kamil Pasha

Egyptian politician (1874–1908)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ2669418 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mustafa Kamil Pasha (Arabic: مصطفى كامل, IPA: [mosˈtˤɑfɑ ˈkæːmel]) (August 14, 1874 ⁠– February 10, 1908) was an Egyptian lawyer, journalist, and nationalist activist.

Early life and education

Kamil was born in Cairo in 1874. His father was an engineer who first worked for the Egyptian army and then for the civil institutions. He was a graduate of the Khidiwiyya high school in Cairo. He was trained as a lawyer at the French law school in Cairo and at the Toulouse School of Law in France. In January 1893, as a university student Kamil first became famous when he led a group of students who destroyed the offices of the newspaper Al Muqattam which supported the British occupation of Egypt. As a passionate nationalist, he supported Egypt's khedive, Abbas Hilmi II, who strongly opposed the British occupation. A protegee of Abbas Hilmi, whom he first met in 1892, it was the khedive who paid for Kamil to be educated in Toulouse. The American historian Michael Laffan described Kamil as "...a spellbinding orator, tireless traveller, prolific writer and charismatic personality". Kamil befriended the French Orientalist François Deloncle who promised to introduce him to French politicians, but instead gave him the job as his secretary, causing him to quit in disgust.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mustafa Kamil Pasha” is egyptian politician (1874–1908). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mustafa, Kamil and Pasha, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1874, 1908, 1893, 1892—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1874-08-14, 1874—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Mustafa, Kamil and Pasha is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “egyptian politician (1874–1908)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2669418. VIAF identifies the subject as 56925008. The Library of Congress control number is n82072947. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1874, 1908, 1893 and 1892.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mustafa Kamil Pasha”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mustafa Kamil Pasha primary sources, Mustafa Kamil Pasha archive and Mustafa research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mustafa Kamil Pasha”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mustafa Kamil Pasha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.