Ali Pasha Sherif

Ali Pasha Sherif (1834 – February 26, 1897) (alt spelling, from French Ali Pacha Chérif) was an Egyptian government official and a renowned breeder of Arabian horses during the late 19th century.

Born in Egypt, Ali Pasha Sherif was a son of El Sayed Muhammad Sherif Pasha El-Kebir (d. 1865), who was Cooper. It is important to note that this article mentions that Muhammad Sherif Pasha (Khalil's father) died in 1865 (this confirms the date given in the caption to Muhammad's photo, reference a native of Kavala in what today is northern Greece. His brothers were Osman Bey and Halil Şerif Paşa (also known as Khalil Sherif Pasha). El Sayed Muhammad was a brilliant student who caught the eye of his uncle, Muhammad Ali Pasha, the future Governor-General of Egypt, who was also a native of Kavala. Muhammad Ali adopted El Sayed Muhammad Sherif, and when the latter was 12 years old Muhammad Ali took him to Egypt and had him educated with his own sons in an elite boarding school known as the Princes' School, which was located at El-Khanka, a city 12 miles northeast of Cairo. Muhammad Sherif married one of Muhammad Ali's daughters, making him both an adopted son and a son-in-law. Muhammad Sherif went on to become an important administrator in Muhammed Ali's regime, eventually becoming Wali of "El Sham and Arabistan", or Governor-General of Syria and the Arab lands, from November 1832 to 1840. He also served as Finance Minister of Egypt in 1844.

As a child, Ali Pasha Sherif developed a love of horses and horsemanship, and he later developed contacts with many desert Bedouin chieftains who were owners and breeders of Arabian horses. Also, as a child and young man, he was exposed to the Arabian horses collected by Muhammad Ali Pasha and his successor Abbas I of Egypt, also known as Abbas I Pasha, or Abbas Pasha.

In the first half of his life, Ali Pasha Sherif went by the name Ali Bey or Ali Bey Fahmy. As a teen, he attended the same elite boarding school at El-Khanka that his father had attended. His father next enrolled him in the École Militaire Égyptienne, a school established by Muhammad Ali Pasha in 1844 in Paris to train men for effective service in the Egyptian military corps. After completing his studies at the École Militaire Égyptienne, Ali Bey continued his education at the School of Application for the Staff, located on the Rue de Grenelle, Paris, close to Les Invalides, many graduates of which were selected to become staff officers in the French army. As a result of this training Ali Bey became an artillery colonel in Mohammed Ali's Egyptian Army.

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