Albania–Egypt relations

Relations became closer in Ottoman times when the Ottoman Empire took over Egypt in the early 16th century. Ottoman Albanians gave their contribution to the Ottoman conquest of Egypt, and many governors of this Ottoman province were Albanian. The Ottoman government in Egypt came to rely on Albanians to staff their government, and Albanians soon made up much of the military and special bashi-bazouk units. Several Albanians even rose to the office of governor, the most famous of which were  Dukakinzade Mehmed Pasha, Koca Sinan Pasha, Abdurrahman Abdi Arnavut Pasha, and Mere Hüseyin Pasha.[4]

Muhammad Ali, founder of Modern Egypt, was an Albanian. At the height of his rule, he controlled Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, Sudan and parts of Arabia and the entire Levant.

He was a military commander in an Albanian Ottoman force sent to recover Egypt from a French occupation under Napoleon. Following Napoleon's withdrawal, Muhammad Ali rose to power through a series of political maneuvers, and in 1805 he was named Wāli (viceroy) of Egypt and gained the rank of Pasha.

Amongst his army, fought hundreds of Albanian Bashi-bazouk, which would settle the first Albanian community in Egypt.

During the 19th century, the Albanian immigration to Egypt would continue to grow in Egypt, especially in Cairo. The economical prosperity attracted many emigrants from the Albanian lands, mainly from Korçë and Kolonjë regions. With some exceptions, most of the figures were educated members of the Orthodox community from south Albania.

The first Albanian society of Egypt was founded in 1875. It was named "Vëllazëria e Parë" (First Brotherhood) and was led by Thimi Mitko. Spiro Dine founded in 1881 the local branch of Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings in Shibin Al Kawm, a precursor and lobbyist for the Albanian education which started with the Albanian School of Korçë. Many newspapers and collections would come out, including the successful Shkopi ("The stick"), Rrufeja ("The lightning"), Belietta Sskiypetare ("The Albanian Bee") and so on. Many others would come out for a shorter time: Milo Duçi would publish the magazines Toska (The Tosk) during 1901–02, Besa-Besë (Pledge for a pledge) during 1904-05 together with Thoma Avrami, Besa (Besa) of 1905 which lasted for 6 issues and was printed by Al-Tawfik in Cairo, and newspapers Shqipëria(Albania) from October 1906 to February 1907, a daily of Cairo with the last two issues coming out in Maghagha, and the weekly Bisedimet (The discussions) of 1925–26 with 60 issues in total, which would be the last Albanian-language newspaper in Egypt. Aleksander Xhuvani published the newspaper Shkreptima (The lightning) in 1912 in Cairo. In 1922, Duçi established also the publishing company Shtëpia botonjëse shqiptare/Société Albanaise d'édition (Albanian Publishing House). Prominent Albanian organizations were: "Vëllazëria Shqiptare" (Albanian Fraternity) founded on 1 My 1894 in Beni-Suef, and "Bashkimi" (The union) which was found everywhere in Albanian populated areas and diaspora. It was an Albanian high official in Egypt, who sponsored the Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida in Khedivial Opera House in 1871.

The Albanian intellectual community in Egypt, would play an important role to Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912 and the funding of Albanian education.

In 1958, the countries established bilateral diplomatic relations, however the relations remained limited under Enver Hoxha’s absolute regime. They improved drastically after the Fall of communism.