Soliman Pasha al-Faransawi (Süleyman Pasha the French; 17 May 1788 – 12 March 1860), born Joseph Anthelme Sève, was a French-born Egyptian commander.
Biography
Joseph Anthelme Sève was born in Lyon. He became a sailor.[2] Later he joined the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. He fought at the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo.[2] After the war ended in 1815, he resigned from Napoleon's Army and worked as a merchant.
At this time, Muhammad Ali Pasha, also known as Muhammad Ali of Egypt, was recruiting European officers to train his newly formed military on modern warfare and soldierly discipline. Sève travelled to Egypt, changed his name and converted to Islam.[citation needed] He was placed in charge of the new soldiers' school at Aswan, now the Egyptian Military Academy. His task was to train a new model army of Sudanese slaves. When this did not work out, Muhammed Ali sent him other ethnicities to train as officers: Egypt-born Circassians, Albanians and Greeks.
Marriage and children
He married a Greek woman, Maria Myriam Hanem, with whom he had four children:[3][4][5] Asmaa al Faransawi, Nazli al Faransawi, Muhammed bey al mahdi al Faransawi (Iskander bey), and Zuhra al Faransawi.[6] One of his great-granddaughters was Queen Nazli,[4] wife of KingFuad, and mother of King Farouk.[5] Suleiman Pasha died in Cairo.
He still has many descendants living in Egypt.[citation needed]
Death
His tomb is in Old Cairo, and the body of his wife is buried nearby.[3]
^ abRodenbeck, John (1993). Cairo. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. p. 143. ISBN9780395664315. Born in Lyon in 1788 and originally known in France as Anthelme Seve, Sulayman Pasha ... In the building nearby is interred the body of Lady Maryam, Sulayman Pasha's wife, a beautiful Greek whom the young and dashing colonel had rescued...
^ abMostyn, Trevor (2006). Egypt's Belle Époque: Cairo and the Age of the Hedonists. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. pp. 27–28. ISBN9781845112400. Sulaiman Pasha made an eccentric figure ... Born in Lyon in 1788, he lived to the age of seventy-two with his favourite Greek mistress, dying in Cairo on 12 March 1860. His daughter, Nazli Hanem, married Muhammad Sherif Pasha, who was to become an important prime minister under Ismail. Their granddaughter, the beautiful, domineering Nazli Sabri, was to marry King Fouad and give birth to the last of the dynasty, King Farouk.
^ ab"Weekend Nostalgia". The Middle East Journal. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
^ Soliman-Pacha, colonel Sève, généralissime des armées égyptiennes; ou, Histoire des guerres de l'egypte de 1820 à 1860