Ismail al-Azhari

Ismail al-Azhari
3rd President of the Sudan
In office June 10, 1965 – May 25, 1969
Preceded by	Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa (Transition)
Succeeded by	Gaafar Nimeiry
first Prime Minister of Sudan
In office 6 January 1954 – 5 July 1956
Succeeded by	Abdullah Khalil
Personal details
Born	20 October 1900 Omdurman, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Died	26 August 1969 (aged 68)
Political party	Democratic Unionist Party
Religion	Sunni Islam

Ismail al-Azhari (Saiyid) (October 20, 1900 – August 26, 1969) (Arabic: إسماعيل الأزهري‎‎) was a Sudanese nationalist and political figure. He served as the first Prime Minister of Sudan between 1954 and 1956, and as President of Sudan from 1965 until he was overthrown by Gaafar Nimeiry in 1969.

Sayyid Ismail al-Azhari was born in Omdurman, the son of a religious notable. He studied at Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum and graduated in mathematics at the American University of Beirut in 1930. He became a teacher of mathematics and then an administrator in the Anglo-Egyptian condominium government that ruled the Sudan during the colonial period.

Al-Azhari and other educated Sudanese demanded greater participation in the administration of the country, and to promote their objectives they formed the Graduates' General Congress in 1938. Al-Azhari's election as secretary to the congress launched him into a career in politics.

Although the congress at first had no political aspirations, in 1942 it asserted its claim to act as the spokesman for all Sudanese nationalists. When the wartime British administration rejected this claim, the congress split into two groups: the moderates, who were prepared to work with the British toward full independence, and a more extreme group, led by al-Azhari, which distrusted the British and sought unity with Egypt in the post-colonial period.

In 1943 al-Azhari and his supporters from the congress formed the Ashiqqa (Brothers') party, the first true political party in the Sudan. His main support came from the Khatmiyya brotherhood, one of the two main Muslim groups in the country. When the more moderate nationalists formed the Umma Party in 1945, its principal support came from the chief rival of the Khatmiyya, the anti-Egyptian Mahdist sect.

Between 1944 and 1953 al-Azhari, as the leading advocate for uniting the Sudan with Egypt, fought tenaciously against any act which appeared to weaken the "unity of the Nile Valley". Thus, in 1948 he boycotted the elections to establish a legislative assembly in the Sudan, and his propaganda and demonstrations led to his arrest and imprisonment for subversion in 1948-1949.

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