Yehya Ibrahim Pasha

Yehia Ibrahim was born in Bahsheen – Beni Suef. He studied at the Greater Coptic School of Cairo and graduated from the School of Law in 1880 and became an assistant professor at the Alsson School, a position he held from 1880 – 1881. He was then appointed assistant professor in the Faculty of Management within the School of Law and taught in that post from 1881 – 1882. He also taught law and translation and became Dean of the Faculty of Management, a post he held from 1884 – 1888. He was promoted from the highest authority to the Civil Court of Alexandria where he served as an Assistant Judge from 1888 – 1889. He was later upgraded to full Judge in 1889 and moved to Mansoura where he served as the President of the Court of Beni Suef from 1889 – 1891. He then moved to the Civil Court of Appeals in 1893. He worked as a Chancellor to the Criminal Court of Tanta in 1905 and was promoted to President of the Native Court of Appeal and remained in that post until 1919.

During Youssef Wahba’s first term as Prime Minister, Ibrahim was appointed Minister of Education and served from November 20, 1919 to May 21, 1920. He held the post of Minister of Education again during Tawfik Nasseem’s second term from November 30th, 1922 to February 9th, 1923. As Minister, he focused on eradicating the illiteracy of workers in several districts throughout the country.

He was appointed Prime Minister on March 15th, 1923, and served until January 27th, 1924, where he continued to work as the Minister of Education. In addition to this, he became the Minister of Justice on November 18th, 1923. During his tenure as Prime Minister, he was known for his judiciousness and was given the nickname Sheikh Al Qadaa, or Chief of Judges. His time as Prime Minister was known as the “Ministry of Law” because of his simple and straight forward programme of putting the Constitution in force says Sir William Hayter in his book Recent Constitutional Developments In Egypt.

The most important accomplishments of his reign include: the release of Saad Zaghlol after only serving as Prime Minister two weeks, the release of detainees in Egypt, the release of members of the Wafd Party and others exiled to Seychelles, several laws that he had annulled, and the issuance of the constitution [1] on April 19, 1923. Another important accomplishment was the modification of the elections law and the introduction of greater transparency within the elections process. During his tenure as Prime Minister and with the return of Saad Zaghloul Pasha from exile the Zagloulists won elections obtaining almost all seats of the parliament. On January 17, 1924 Ibrahim submitted his resignation from his post as Prime Minister stating that he would have liked to stay long enough to also supervise the Senate election but the people of Egypt have spoken and their will should be respected. This loss reinforced the idea that the elections under his reign were fair and free. After ten days of hesitation, King Fouad accepted the Cabinet resignation, Egypt Chronicles.com. He became the first President of the Hizb Al Etihad or the “Union Party”, which was established to support the palace in 1925, and was also appointed as the head of the Senate in 1925 and Minister of Finance in Ziwar Pasha term as Prime Minister.