Wasif Boutros Ghali (1878–1958) ( ar, واصف بطرس غالي) was an Egyptian writer, diplomat, and

political figure A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He was appointed Foreign Minister of Egypt four times: in 1924, 1928, 1930 and between 1936 and 1937.

Biography

Ghali was a son of Egyptian Prime Minister

Boutros Ghali , image = Boutros Ghali Pasha.jpg , order = 9th Prime Minister of Egypt , monarch = Abbas II , birth_date = , birth_place = Kiman-al-'Arus, Beni Suef, Ottoman Empire , death_date = , death_place = Cairo, Khedivate of ...

. Born into a Coptic Orthodox Christian family, he was part of the French-speaking elite of Egypt. His older brother Youssef was the father of

Boutros Boutros-Ghali Boutros Boutros-Ghali (; , ar, بطرس بطرس غالي ', ; 14 November 1922 – 16 February 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 1992 to 1996. An academic ...

, who became Secretary General of the United Nations. After studying law in France, he worked from 1905 to 1911 in the khedive's European chancery. From 1911 he was in France, holding a chair in Arabic Literature at the EHES from 1914. He married a Frenchwoman and had his books published in Paris. After the war, he returned to Egypt. He was a member of the

Wafd Party The Wafd Party (; ar, حزب الوفد, ''Ḥizb al-Wafd'') was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period from the end of World War I through the 1930 ...

. He was Egypt's principal representative at the 1937 Montreux conference. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1939. He was a director of the

Suez Canal Company Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same b ...

from 1950 to 1956.

Publications

* ''Le jardin des fleurs, essais sur la poésie arabe, et morceaux choisis'' (1913). * ''Les perles éparpillées, contes et légendes arabes'' (1919). * ''La tradition chevaleresque des Arabes'' (1919). * ''Pour le peuple égyptien'' (1920).

Sources

* Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., "The Butrus Ghali Family", ''Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt'', Vol. 30 (1993), p. 182-88. * Raouf Kamel, ''Wacyf Ghali, l'écrivain'' (Cairo: IFAO, 1960).

References

Foreign ministers of Egypt Coptic politicians 1878 births 1958 deaths Boutros Ghali family {{Egypt-politician-stub