October 6, 1981

Anwar Sadat

Anwar Sadat assassinated at Cairo military parade

The attack began beneath the roar of Mirage jets performing overhead — and the assassins reached the reviewing stand in a vehicle taking part in the parade itself.

The eighth anniversary parade, 6 October 1981

Anwar Sadat was in Cairo on 6 October 1981 for the military parade marking eight years since Egypt’s opening attack and Suez Canal crossing in the October 1973 war.

As Mirage jets flew over, a military vehicle stopped in front of the reviewing stand and assailants attacked with grenades and automatic weapons. The squad was led by army First Lieutenant Khalid al-Islambuli and was connected to the militant al-Jihad movement.

Two hours at Maadi

Sadat was flown to Maadi Armed Forces Hospital in a coma. Doctors attempted transfusions, cardiac massage, electric shocks and chest surgery.

Eleven doctors signed the official bulletin recording that treatment. It declared him dead at 2:40 p.m.

The state the plotters wanted to topple did not fall

The conspirators aimed not merely to kill Sadat but to bring down the government and establish an Islamic order. Instead, People’s Assembly speaker Sufi Abu Taleb became acting president under the constitution and declared a state of emergency, and Vice President Hosni Mubarak emerged as the designated successor.

Motive is not reducible to the peace treaty with Israel. Scholarship identifies Sadat’s September 1981 mass arrests of religious and political opponents as a direct catalyst, alongside grievances over Islamic law and the character of his rule.

Egypt continued to observe the treaty; Israel’s final Sinai withdrawal under it came on 25 April 1982, after Sadat’s death.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited

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What the sources leave uncertain

Contemporary reports differed over the total number of other people killed and wounded, so no single casualty total is presented as settled here.
Sources variously associate the conspiracy with Tanzim al-Jihad/Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. They agree that al-Islambuli led the attacking squad, but organizational credit and planning responsibility remain debated.
Sources also vary in rendering Arabic names, including Islambuli/Islambouli and Sufi/Soufi Abu Taleb.