Anwar al-Sadat

Anwar al-Sadat (1918-1981), Egyptian military leader and president (1970-1981), best remembered for his work toward peace in the Middle East, in the course of which he became the first Arab leader to recognize Israel.

Sadat was born on December 25, 1918, in the Nile delta village of Mīt Abū al Kawm. The son of a poor hospital clerk, he was chosen for the military academy, where he joined Gamal Abdel Nasser in plotting against the British-dominated Egyptian monarchy. He was jailed twice for contacts with Germans in World War II (1939-1945) and later tried and acquitted on charges of conspiring to assassinate a pro-British politician in 1946. Sadat took part in the coup of 1952, in which Nasser ousted King Faruk. He then held several public posts and was vice president in 1964-1966 and again in 1969-1970.

After Nasser’s death in 1970 Sadat was elected president, and he soon consolidated his hold on power. Smarting from the defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, he built up his military strength and in October 1973 launched the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. The Egyptian army quickly advanced across the Suez Canal, breaking Israel’s defenses and penetrating Israeli-occupied territory. Israel soon recovered and surrounded the Egyptian army. The fighting ended with Israel still in control of the areas it had occupied in 1967. Nevertheless, because Egypt had proven that Israeli forces were not invincible, Sadat managed to turn the war into a moral victory; he subsequently established close relations with the United States. In 1977, due to worsening economic conditions and the desire to regain the Sinai Peninsula for Egypt, Sadat boldly risked the ire of other Arab states by traveling to Jerusalem, where he offered recognition of Israel on certain conditions. His initiative eventually led to a peace treaty with Israel, signed in March 1979, and the gradual withdrawal by Israel from the entire Sinai Peninsula. For their leadership in the peace negotiations, Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. Bitterly opposed by many Arab leaders and hated by Islamic fundamentalists, Sadat was assassinated in Cairo by religious extremists within his own army on October 6, 1981.