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| 1905 |
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| Death of MUHAMMAD ABDUH (b. 1849), the leading figure in the modern Islamic reform movement. He rose to become the Grand Mufti of Egypt, and in his legal rulings as well as his books, he advocated the reform of Islam to adapt it to modern requirements. His ideas have had an immense influence on Islamic thought in the 20th century. | 1 |
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| 1906, June 13 |
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| The Dinshaway Incident. A British officer died following a scuffle with Egyptian villagers in a trivial dispute over pigeon shooting. The British imposed heavy punitive sentences on the villagers, including public executions, which stirred widespread indignation and nationalist feelings in the country. | 2 |
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| 1907–11 |
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| Sir Eldon Gorst served as British consul general, replacing Cromer. He followed a more conciliatory policy of cultivating good relations with the khedive, increasing the Egyptian share in the administration, and putting life into the Egyptian consultative bodies set up shortly after the occupation. He was partially successful, although nationalist opposition to the British was not checked. | 3 |
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| 1907 |
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| Formation of political parties. Mustafa Kamil (1874–1908), a French-educated lawyer, charismatic speaker, and editor of the newspaper al-Liwa’ (founded 1900), established the Nationalist Party (al-Hizb al-Watani), which represented uncompromising hostility to British rule. The party declined after his premature death. A more moderate group of nationalists founded the newspaper al-Jarida and a rival party, Hizb al-Umma, which was oriented toward cooperation with Britain to develop constitutional government and Egyptian self-rule. Sheik Ali Yusuf, who in 1889 founded the popular journal al-Mu'ayyad, established the Constitutional Reform Party, which supported the interests of the khedive. The party did not survive his death in 1913. | 4 |
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| 1908 |
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| Establishment of the first Egyptian university, financed by voluntary contributions. It was taken over by the state and became King Fu'ad University in 1925. | 5 |
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| 1910, Feb. 20 |
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| Assassination of the Coptic prime minister Butrus Ghali by a young Muslim nationalist. One of its repercussions was a new Coptic mistrust of the Muslim Egyptian nationalists. A Coptic Congress met in Asyut in 1911 to voice specifically Coptic political demands, which were rejected by a rival Muslim Congress convened in Heliopolis that year. | 6 |
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| 1911–14 |
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| Lord Kitchener served as consul general, following Gorst's death. He abandoned the policy of conciliation with the khedive and restored strong autocratic methods of rule. | 7 |
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| 1913 |
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| Creation of the new Legislative Assembly, with wider powers than previous parliamentary bodies. It was dominated by large landowners, but from its members emerged the leaders of the 1919 Revolution, including Sa’d Zaghlul. | 8 |
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| 1914 |
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| Death of Jurji Zaydan (b. 1861), a Lebanese Christian emigrant who wrote historical novels and biographies and became a pioneering figure in Egyptian journalism. His periodical al-Hilal, founded in 1892, introduced the popular presentation of topics in different fields of knowledge and gained wide appeal. | 9 |
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| Dec. 19 |
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| Deposition of Khedive Abbas II (while on a visit to Istanbul) by the British, a day after their declaration of a protectorate over Egypt. Abbas was succeeded by his uncle, Husayn Kamil (d. 1917), who took the title of sultan to signal the end of Ottoman suzerainty over Egypt. (See Egypt) | 10 |
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