Cairo University was founded in 1908. The emergence and development of Cairo University helped the Egyptian national movement in the early twenty-first century. It produced an elite group of national leaders and pioneers of the enlightenment movement and social thought in Egypt, such as Muhammad Abdo, Mustafa Kamel, Muhammad Farid, Qassem Amin, and Saad Zagloul. The rise of the university fulfilled a dream that has troubled the imagination of the people of this country for a long time. It is the establishment of a university that advances the country in all aspects of life, and that it be a beacon of freedom of thought and the scientific basis for the renaissance of the state and a bridge to the sources of modern science, and that it is a melting pot of necessity. Qualified cadres in all disciplines to share the world in scientific progress.

However, this hope found strong opposition from the British occupation authorities, especially from Lord Cromer, who realized that the establishment of the university in Egypt meant creating an educated class of Egyptians who would realize that independence is not just a liberation of the land, but a liberation of the land. It is the liberation of the Egyptian character itself. Despite the opposition, this did not dampen the enthusiasm for the idea. A committee of patriots quickly took over the matter through sacrifices and enduring difficulties until the idea appeared and became a reality.

The Egyptian University was inaugurated as a private university on December 21, 1908, in a solemn ceremony held in the Shura Council Chamber in the presence of Khedive Abbas II and some statesmen. On the evening of the opening day the study began at the university in the form of lectures, and since there was no permanent headquarters dedicated to lectures at that time, the lectures were received in the various halls that were announced in the daily newspapers such as; The Shura Council of Laws Hall, the High School Club, and the Newspaper House until the university was established in the Khwaja Nestor Janaklis Saray which is now occupied by the American University.


As a result of the financial difficulties experienced by the university during the First World War, the university building moved to Saray Mohamed Sedky, Al-Azhar Square, Al-Falaki Street, to save expenses. The university struggled to get back on its own two feet, and to be able to create a nucleus of its faculty by sending some outstanding students to universities in Europe, such as; Taha Hussein, Mansour Fahmy and Ahmed Deif.

The university also established a library that included precious books that were donated from inside and outside the country. As a result of the great hopes that the Ahlia University achieved, which expressed the aspirations of the Egyptians, the government thought in 1917 to establish a public university, and formed a committee for that, bringing together secondary schools to the satisfaction of the university. He joined the University's Faculty of Law and Medicine on 12/03/1923.