Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Albanian founder of modern Egypt

Muhammad Ali of Egypt was the Ottoman Albanian viceroy and governor who became the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely considered the founder of modern Egypt.

He was born in the Sanjak of Kavala (modern-day Kavala), in the Rumelia Eyalet, to an Albanian family from Korça region. He was the second son of a Bektashi Albanian tobacco and shipping merchant named Ibrahim Agha, who also served as an Ottoman commander of a small unit in their hometown.