Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak governed Egypt for thirty years under an emergency law that was renewed every three years. He was an air force officer, commander of the air force in 1973, and is credited with the opening strike of the October war that crossed the canal — which gave him the standing that took him to the vice-presidency in 1975. He was sitting beside Sadat at the military parade in October 1981 when the assassins came off the truck, and was wounded in the hand. His presidency was defined by continuity. The peace with Israel was kept, the American aid that came with it continued at some 1.3 billion dollars a year, and Egypt was rehabilitated in the Arab world after the boycott. Internally, the emergency law suspended constitutional rights, permitted detention without charge, and referred civilians to military courts; the Muslim Brotherhood was banned and periodically tolerated, and elections returned his party with majorities nobody believed. The economy liberalised from the 1990s and produced growth, a class of well-connected businessmen around his son Gamal, and a large population for whom bread subsidies were the only visible benefit of the state. He survived at least six assassination attempts. The protests that began on 25 January 2011 lasted eighteen days, and the army declined to fire on Tahrir Square; he resigned on 11 February. He was tried, convicted, acquitted on appeal, and died in 2020 at ninety-one. His fall is also the fullest illustration of what the Arab uprisings did and did not change. The elected government that followed lasted a year, the army removed it in 2013, and Egypt is governed today under an emergency framework that would be recognisable to anyone who lived under his.
- Lived: 1928 CE – 2020 CE
- Nationality: Egyptian
- Roles: head_of_state, air_force_commander, military_leader
