High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Alsayed Ali Ahmad Alshaykh (1759–1848) was born in Alexandria and trained in Al Azhar University as a physician. He traveled around Egypt, the Middle East and Central Europe. These years were crucial to shaping his thoughts. On his return, he began to gather students in Cairo before Napoleon`s French invasion of Egypt. He continued his work, while on the run, during the occupation from several cities and towns in Egypt and Syria and became one of Muhammad Ali’s confidants until his death from tuberculosis at the age of eighty-eight.