Ismail al-Azhari (October 20, 1900 – August 26, 1969) () was a Sudanese nationalist and political figure. He served as the first Prime Minister of Sudan between 1954 and 1956, and as President of Sudan from 1965 until he was overthrown by Gaafar Nimeiry in 1969. He was president of the National Unionist Party (now the Democratic Unionist Party) when the unionist parties united under his leadership. In 1954 he was elected prime minister from within the parliament and under the influence of the growing sense of the need for independence of Sudan and before the union discussion with Egypt. With the support of the independent movement, he submitted the proposal to declare independence to parliament. He assumed the post of president of the Council of Sovereignty after the revolution of October 1964 during the Second Democracy. He was arrested during the May 1969 coup in Cooper's prison and when his health declined, he was admitted to the hospital, where he remained till his death. Early life Ismail al-Azhari was born in Omdurman. The son of a religious notable, he received his early education in Wad Madani. He joined the Gordon College in 1917 but he did not complete his education there. He worked at Atbara and Omdurman primary schools, then he went on to study at the American University of Beirut and he returned there in 1930. He was appointed by the Gordon College and he founded the Association of Arts and Correspondence. When the Graduates Conference was established he was elected as Secretary-General in 1937. He led several parties and civil rights movements, and one of the most important of those parties that had called for the Union with Egypt in the face of calls for independence of Sudan, the Umma Party. Entry into politics Al-Azhari and other educated Sudanese demanded greater participation in the administration of the country, and to promote their objectives they formed the Graduates' General Congress in 1938. Al-Azhari's election as secretary to the congress launched him into a career in politics. Although the congress at first had no political aspirations, in 1942 it asserted its claim to act as the spokesman for all Sudanese nationalists. When the wartime British administration rejected this claim, the congress split into two groups: the moderates, who were prepared to work with the British toward full independence, and a more extreme group, led by al-Azhari, which distrusted the