ABSTRACT
The firman the stout sword of Muhammad Ali wrung from the Sultan transmitted the viceregal sceptre to the eldest prince of the dynasty which that intrepid Albanian had created. It respected the traditions of Islam, whose idea of primogeniture was not that of the Occident. On the contrary, it decreed that the throne should pass to Muhammad Ali’s eldest living descendant, regardless of his relationship to his predecessor. It thus came to pass that, although the creator of modern Egypt left several sons, he was succeeded by his grandson, Abbas Pasha.
