ʿAlī Pasha Mubārak (1823 or 1824-93) was an Egyptian engineer, statesman, and man of letters. His life story must be seen in the light of the modernisation efforts conducted in Egypt from the time of Muḥammad ʿAlī (r. 1805-48), especially in the fields of education, administration, and infrastructure. ʿAlī Mubārak was born in 1239/1823-4 in a village in the Delta near Birinbāl al-Jadīda (al-Daqhaliyya province) into a family of the local elite. He began his schooling with a traditional Islamic education, studying the Qurʾān