KAMIL, MUSTAFA

also called Mustafa Kamil Pasha born Aug. 14, 1874, Cairo, Egypt died Feb. 10, 1908, Cairo lawyer, journalist, and Egyptian nationalist who was a founder of the National Party. Kamil believed that Egypt was already a nation and fully qualified to rule itself. To put forward his views, he founded the newspaper Al-Liwa' (The Standard) in 1900. He realized that independence would be difficult to obtain, and 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, Kamil turned to the Ottoman sultan to aid Egypt in its struggle. Although, nominally, Egypt was a province of the Ottoman Empire, Kamil 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 spirita feeling of love for the land and traditions of Egypt, in which he included the Sudan. As a political vehicle for these policies he joined in founding the National Party (al-Hizb al-Watani) in October 1907 but died a few months later.