Monarchs of the Muhammad Ali dynasty reigned over Egypt from 1805 to 1953. Their rule also extended to Sudan throughout much of this period, as well as to the Levant, and Hejaz during the first half of the nineteenth century. The Muhammad Ali dynasty was founded by Pasha Muhammad Ali, an Albanian commander in the expeditionary force sent by the Ottoman Empire in 1801 to dislodge the French occupation of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte. The defeat and departure of the French left a power vacuum in Egypt, which had been an Ottoman province since the sixteenth century, but in which the pre-Ottoman Mamluk military caste maintained considerable power. After a three-year civil war, Muhammad Ali managed to consolidate his control over Egypt, and declared himself Khedive of the country. The Ottoman government refused to acknowledge this title, instead recognizing Muhammad Ali by the more junior title of Wāli (roughly equivalent to a governor or viceroy) on 18 June 1805, making Muhammad Ali the successor to Ahmad Pasha in that position. In the years following his consolidation of power, Muhammad Ali extended Egypt's borders southwards into Sudan, and eastwards into the Arab-majority Mashriq, particularly the Levant. In 1840, his demand for hereditary control of Egypt and Sudan to be passed to his heirs and successors was accepted and confirmed by the Convention of London, but he was compelled to agree that, upon his death, control over his territories in the Mashreq would revert to the Porte.
Muhammad Ali had a 43-year reign, the longest in the history of modern Egypt. Termed the "father of modern Egypt," he is viewed in Egyptian historiography as the dynasty's most important ruler, due to his massive agricultural, administrative, and military reforms. His son, Ibrahim Pasha, was the shortest-reigning monarch of the dynasty. The duration of his rule varies from one source to another, depending on whether or not his reign as regent is taken into account. Contrary to what the short length of his reign might suggest, Ibrahim Pasha was far from being a historically negligible figure, although most of his significant achievements were made before his accession to the throne. His successor, Abbas Helmi I, a traditionalist described by Lord Cromer as "an Oriental despot of the worst type," reverted many of his predecessors' reform-minded measures, and is considered the most controversial ruler of his family.
Sa'id Pasha and Isma'il Pasha were far more open to Western influence, and continued the process of expansion and modernization set up by Muhammad Ali, but on a more lavish scale. Isma'il Pasha is especially notable for his inauguration of the Suez Canal and for his Haussmann-inspired reconscrution of Cairo. However, his costly policy of Europeanisation left the country bankrupt; as a consequence, European creditors greatly expanded their influence over Egypt and Sudan's internal affairs. Isma'il's son, Tewfik Pasha, became increasingly powerless following the Urabi revolt, and was turned into a figurehead ruler following the establishment of British control in 1882. After his death, his son, Abbas Helmi II, tried unsuccessfully to detach himself from the influence of the British, who ended up deposing him in 1914. The following reign, that of Hussein Kamel, lasted only three years and was thus little more than an interregnum. Hussein Kamel's successor Fuad I was a far more historically significant figure. Described by historian Philip Mansel as "the last great royal patron of history," his reign was marked by the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, and the United Kingdom's resultant recognition of Egyptian independence. The British, however, refused to include Sudan within the sphere of this recognition, and continued to abide by the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. Fuad's son, Farouk I, was Egypt and Sudan's penultimate monarch. After his forced abdication following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, his infant son Fuad II continued to reign as a nominal king-in-exile until the monarchy was formally abolished on 18 June 1953.