The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Ismaïlia by Hassan al-Banna in March 1928. An underground paramilitary wing was established in the 1940s, primarily to fight British occupation forces. In the early 1950s, Ismaïlia hosted the British Military HQ and the Civilian Administration Centre of the Canal Zone. British suppression of an uprising by rebellious Egyptian police there on 25 January 1952 was a key event leading to the overthrow of King Farouk I later that year and the Egyptian Revolution that followed. British forces pulled out of Ismaïlia in 1954
