Anwar Sadat.

Anwar Sadat was born on December 25, 1918, in Mit Abu al-Kum, Egypt, to Sitt Al Barrein and Mohammed Sadati. He was one of 13 children in a modest household. Sadat attended the Egyptian Military College, where he developed the discipline and nationalist sentiment that would shape his political career.

Sadat became president of Egypt in 1970 after Gamal Abdel Nasser’s death. He launched the 1973 October War, which restored Egyptian pride and led to peace negotiations. In 1977, Sadat made an unprecedented visit to Israel, breaking decades of hostility. This culminated in the 1978 Camp David Accords, for which he was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Domestically, he introduced the Infitah economic opening. Sadat’s rule brought sweeping reforms and growing dissent.

Anwar Sadat married Ehsan Madi and later Jehan Raouf on May 29, 1949. He had seven children: Ruqayya, Rawia, Camilia, Lubna, Nukha, Jamal, and Jehan Anwar. He was a close friend of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran. On October 6, 1981, assassins shot him during a military parade in Cairo.

Sadat’s peace initiative reshaped Middle Eastern politics. He received the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Camp David Accords remain his signature achievement. Assassinated in 1981, his vision for peace between Egypt and Israel endures. Sadat won the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for that work.