NUBAR PASHA (1825-1899), Egyptian statesman, was born at Smyrna in January 1825, the son of an Armenian mer chant named Moghreditch, who had married a relative of Boghos Bey, an influential minister of Mehemet Ali. He was educated at Vevey and by the Jesuits at Toulouse. After some eighteen months' training as secretary to Boghos, who was then minister of both commerce and foreign affairs, he was made second secre tary to Mehemet Ali. In 1845 he became first secretary to Ibra him Pasha, the heir apparent, and accompanied him on a special mission to Europe. Abbas Pasha, who succeeded Ibrahim in 1848, maintained Nubar in the same capacity, and sent him in 185o to London as his representative to resist the pretensions of the sul tan, who was seeking to evade the conditions of the treaty under which Egypt was secured to the family of Mehemet Ali. Here he was so completely successful that he was made a bey; in 1853 he was sent to Vienna on a similar mission, and remained there until the death of Abbas in July 1854. The new viceroy, Said, at once dismissed him from office, but two years afterwards ap pointed him his chief secretary, and later gave him charge of the important transport service through Egypt to India. Here Nubar was mainly instrumental in the completion of railway communi cation between Cairo and Suez. After a second time falling a victim to Said's caprice and being dismissed, he was again sent to Vienna, and returned as principal secretary to Said, a position he held till Said's death in January 1863.
On the accession of Ismail Pasha, Nubar Bey was in the prime of life. He was already on friendly terms with Ismail; he even claimed to have saved his life—at all events, it was a coincidence that the two had together refused to travel by the train the accident to which caused the death (on May 14, 1858) of the prince Ahmed, who would otherwise have succeeded Said. Ismail charged him with a mission to Constantinople, to notify his accession, and to smooth the way for various projects, notably the completion of the Suez Canal, the change in title to that of khedive and the change in the order of succession. The sultan, believing as little as every one else that the canal was anything more than a dream, gave his consent at a price the moderation of which he must afterwards have regretted. The gratified Ismail created Nubar a pasha, and the sultan himself, persuaded to visit Cairo, confirmed the title so rarely accorded to a Christian. Nubar
was sent to Paris to complete the arrangements, and to settle the differences between Egypt and the Canal Company.
On his return Nubar created the department of public works; but in 1866 he was made minister of foreign affairs, and at once went on a special mission to Constantinople, where he obtained the sultan's consent to the adoption by Ismail of the title of Khedive and the change in the law of succession. Nubar now had a harder task to undertake than ever before. The antiquated system of "capitulations" which had existed in the Ottoman em pire since the 15th century had grown in Egypt to be a practical creation of seventeen imperia in imperio. (See EGYPT : History.) That in spite of the jealousies of all the powers, in spite of the opposition of the Porte, he should have succeeded in replacing the seventeen consular courts by mixed international courts with a uniform code, puts him in the first rank of statesmen of his period.
The extravagant administration of Ismail, for which perhaps Nubar can hardly be held wholly responsible, had brought Egypt to the verge of bankruptcy, and Ismail's disregard of the judg ments of the Court at last compelled Great Britain and France to interfere. Under pressure, Ismail, who began to regret the establishment of the International Courts, assented to a mixed ministry under Nubar, with Rivers Wilson as minister of finance and de Blignieres as minister of public works. Nubar, finding himself supported by both Great Britain and France, tried to reduce Ismail to the position of a constitutional monarch, but he lost the support of Great Britain and France, and was dis missed. (See IsmAIL.) Nubar remained out of office until when he was induced to become premier as the instrument of British policy, but he presently found himself in disagreement with Lord Cromer, and was dismissed by the khedive Tewfik in 1888.
Riaz Pasha, who succeeded him, was, with one interval of eight months, prime minister until April 1894, when Nubar returned to office. By that time Cromer had more completely grasped the reins of administration as well as of government, and Nubar had realized more clearly the role which an Egyptian minister was called on to play : Lord Cromer was the real ruler of Egypt, and the death of Tewfik in 1890 had necessitated a more open exer cise of British authority. In 1895 Nubar completed his fifty years of service, and retired. He died in Paris in January 1899.