Sadat, Anwar el-

Sadat, (Muhammad) Anwar el-

(born Dec. 25, 1918, Mit Abu al-Kum, Egypt—died Oct. 6, 1981, Cairo) President of Egypt (1970–81). A graduate of the Cairo Military Academy, he joined Gamal Abdel Nasser's coup that deposed the monarchy in 1950 and later served as vice president (1964–66, 1969–70). He became president when Nasser died in 1970. He led Egypt during the Yom Kippur War (1973) against Israel. A military loss, the war was a political success for Sadat, bolstering his popularity through the Arab world. At home, he reversed many of Nasser's socialist policies and attempted to garner the support of the country's Islamists. In 1977 he went to Jerusalem to offer peace to Israel, and in 1979 he concluded a peace treaty, the Camp David Accords, with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. The two men shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for Peace. His popularity in the Arab world plummeted, and domestic support for his treaty with the Jewish state—especially among Islamists—evaporated. He was killed by a group of Muslim extremists led by Khalid al-Islambuli and associated with the Islamic Jihad Group. See also Arab-Israeli Wars; Hosni Mubarak.