Isma'il Pasha of Egypt in the context of "Abdeen Palace"

Downtown Cairo (Arabic: وسط البلد Wust al-Balad, "middle of town") is the colloquial name given to the 19th-century western expansion of Egypt's capital Cairo, between the historic medieval Cairo, and the Nile, which became the commercial center of the city during the 20th century. Given its rich architectural heritage from the era of Khedive Ismail, it has been officially named Khedival Cairo and declared by the government as a protected Area of Value, with many of its buildings also deemed protected. Administratively Wust al-Balad covers areas of qism Qasr al-Nil, and the Abdeen and Ezbekia districts. The protected Khedival Cairo covers a larger area extending south to Sayida Zeinab.

Ibrahim Pasha (Arabic: إبراهيم باشا Ibrāhīm Bāshā; 1789 – 10 November 1848) was an Egyptian general and politician; he was the commander of both the Egyptian and Ottoman armies and the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman Wāli and unrecognized Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He was the second ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and ruled from 20 July 1848 to 10 November 1848. Ibrahim served as a general in the Egyptian army that his father established during his reign, taking his first command of Egyptian forces when he was merely a teenager. In the final year of his life, he was appointed Regent for his still-living father and became the effective ruler of Egypt and Sudan, owing to the latter's ill health. His rule also extended over the other dominions that his father had brought under Egyptian rule, namely Syria, Hejaz, Morea, Thasos, and Crete. Ibrahim pre-deceased his father, dying 10 November 1848, only four months after rising to power. He was succeeded as Regent by his nephew (son of Muhammad Ali's second oldest son), Abbas, who upon Muhammad Ali's death the following year inherited the Egyptian throne.

Ibrahim remains one of the most celebrated members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, particularly for his impressive military victories, including several crushing defeats of the Ottoman Empire, which placed him among the most outstanding commanders in military history. Among Egyptian historians, Ibrahim, his father Muhammad Ali, and his son Isma'il the Magnificent are held in far higher esteem than other rulers from the dynasty, who were largely viewed as indolent and corrupt; this is largely the result of efforts by his grandson Fuad I of Egypt to ensure the positive portrayal of his paternal ancestors in the Royal Archives that he created, which were the primary source for Egyptian history from the 1920s until the 1970s. Today, a statue of Ibrahim occupies a prominent position in Egypt's capital, Cairo.

Khedive (/kəˈdiːv/ kə-DEEV; Ottoman Turkish: خدیو, romanized: hidiv; borrowed from Persian: خدیو, romanized: xædīv) was an honorific title of Classical Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.

It is attested in Persian poetry from the 10th century and was used as an Ottoman honorific from the 16th. It was borrowed into Ottoman Turkish directly from Persian. It was first used in Egypt, without official recognition, by Muhammad Ali Pasha, the ethnically Albanian governor of Ottoman Egypt and Turco-Egyptian Sudan from 1805 to 1848. The initially self-declared title was officially recognized by the Ottoman government in 1867 and used subsequently by Isma'il Pasha of Egypt and his dynastic successors until 1914. The term entered Arabic in Egypt in the 1850s.

Islamic Cairo (Arabic: قاهرة المعز, romanized: Qāhira al-Muʿizz, lit. 'Al-Mu'izz's Cairo'), or Medieval Cairo, officially Historic Cairo (القاهرة التاريخية al-Qāhira tārīkhiyya), refers mostly to the areas of Cairo, Egypt, that were built from the Muslim conquest in 641 CE until the city's modern expansion in the 19th century during Khedive Ismail's rule, namely: the central parts within the old walled city, the historic cemeteries, the area around the Citadel of Cairo, parts of Bulaq, and Old Cairo (Arabic: مصر القديمة, lit. 'Misr al-Qadima') which dates back to Roman times and includes major Coptic Christian monuments.

The name "Islamic" Cairo refers not to a greater prominence of Muslims in the area but rather to the city's rich history and heritage since its foundation in the early period of Islam, while distinguishing it from with the nearby Ancient Egyptian sites of Giza and Memphis. This area holds one of the largest and densest concentrations of historic architecture in the Islamic world. It is characterized by hundreds of mosques, tombs, madrasas, mansions, caravanserais, and fortifications dating from throughout the Islamic era of Egypt.

Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur Pasha (Arabic: الزبير رحمة منصور; c. 1830 – January 1913), also known as Sebehr Rahma or Rahama Zobeir, was a Sudanese slave trader and warlord in the late 19th century. He was later acknowledged by Isma'il Pasha, of the Khedivate of Egypt in granting him the title of Governor over Bahr el Ghazal (today western South Sudan).

His reputation as an archenemy of General Charles Gordon led to him gaining a near-mythic status in the United Kingdom, where he was referred to as "the richest and worst", a "Slaver King" "who [had] chained lions as part of his escort".

Mohamed Tewfik Pasha (Arabic: محمد توفيق باشا Muḥammad Tawfīq Bāshā; April 30 or 15 November 1852 – 7 January 1892), also known as Tawfiq of Egypt, was khedive of Egypt and the Sudan between 1879 and 1892 and the sixth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty. He inherited a state suffering under the financial and political mismanagement of his predecessor Isma'il. Disaffection in the Egyptian army as well as Anglo-French control of the state in the 1880s culminated in the anti-foreign Urabi revolt. Tewfik also took interest in matters concerning irrigation, education and justice; as well as selling his father's female slaves and closing the court's harem quarters.

Rabih az-Zubayr bin Fadlallah (Arabic: رابح فضل الله ,رابح الزبير ابن فضل الله, romanized: Rābiḥ az-Zubayr ibn Faḍlallāh; c. 1840 – April 22, 1900) was a Sudanese warlord, adventurer, and slave trader who through conquests established a large and powerful empire in Central and West Africa in the late 19th century. A formidable military tactician and leader, Rabih supplanted the al-Kanemi dynasty of the Kanem–Bornu Empire and frustrated European colonial interests in the region for several years.

Rabih began his career as a soldier in the Egyptian army under Isma'il Pasha, eventually joining the raider and trader Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur in the Bahr el Ghazal. After Mansur's forces were suppressed by the Egyptians and British, Rabih took a small force westwards and gradually built up a larger army and considerable wealth through raiding. Over the course of about a decade, Rabih's army grew from 400 soldiers to 5,000 and he became strong enough to face and defeat well-established states in central Africa, such as the Sultanate of Bagirmi. In 1892–1894, Rabih conquered the Kanem–Bornu Empire and transformed it into a military dictatorship under the leadership of himself and his close military commanders. Rabih instituted a highly efficient but brutal and extortionate taxation system, and his army was one of the best-equipped and best-organised forces in sub-Saharan Africa. Rabih's rule was particularly damaging for the traditionally prosperous agriculture of Bornu and caused food production to run dangerously low.

Islamic Cairo (Egyptian Arabic: قاهرة المعز, romanized: Qāhira al-Muʿizz, lit. 'Al-Mu'izz's Cairo'), or Medieval Cairo, officially Historic Cairo (القاهرة التاريخية el-Qāhira tārīkhiyya), refers mostly to the areas of Cairo, Egypt, that were built from the Muslim conquest in 641 CE until the city's modern expansion in the 19th century during Khedive Ismail's rule, namely: the central parts within the old walled city, the historic cemeteries, the area around the Citadel of Cairo, parts of Bulaq, and Old Cairo (Arabic: مصر القديمة, lit. 'Misr al-Qadima') which dates back to Roman times and includes major Coptic Christian monuments.

The name "Islamic" Cairo refers not to a greater prominence of Muslims in the area but rather to the city's rich history and heritage since its foundation in the early period of Islam, while distinguishing it from with the nearby Ancient Egyptian sites of Giza and Memphis. This area holds one of the largest and densest concentrations of historic architecture in the Islamic world. It is characterized by hundreds of mosques, tombs, madrasas, mansions, caravanserais, and fortifications dating from throughout the Islamic era of Egypt.