User:AsusUser1/Cairo University

Wealthy Egyptians began to independently pledge funds to the establishment of a university as early as 1905. Significant contributions were made by Princess Fatma Ismail (1853 - 1920). In the early 1900s, she donated land to the university as a part of her fundraising campaign for the establishment of Egypt’s first formal university. Following the Dinshaway incident, Mustafa Kamil al-Ghamrawi, a wealthy notable from Beni Suef, pledged 500 Egyptian pounds towards a university in September 1906. Mustafa Kamil published a call for supplementary funds, while Saad Zaghlul and Qasim Amin arranged a meeting attended by Muhammad Farid and 23 other prominent Egyptians. The members of the meeting founded a committee with Zaghlul as vice-president and Amin as secretary, and all but three pledged at least 100 Egyptian pounds towards the university. However, splinters quickly emerged between the Watanists, the disciples of Abduh and the Royalists, leaving the project in the hands of the Palace. By the time of its establishment in 1908, Prince Fuad I was the rector and only one of the men who had met in 1906 remained in the committee.