On November 30th 1854, Egypt's viceroy issued a firman (decree) granting his friend M. De Lesseps the exclusive power to form the Suez Canal Company, the world's first 'universal' company, owned by shareholders from different countries. The Company was granted a concession to cut through the Isthmus of Suez, bridge the Mediterranean and Red Sea by means of a maritime canal, and operate the canal for 99-years. A second, more detailed firman was issued in 1856, the ‘financial company’ was formed in Paris shortly afterwards, excavation began in 1859 and ten years (and thousands of perished workers) later, the canal was open for navigation. Notwithstanding its significance however, Sa‘?d Pasha’s concession was not first Ottoman firman stipulating the establishment of a maritime canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Almost three centuries earlier, and shortly after Egypt became an Ottoman province, Sultan Selim II (r. 1566-1574) issued a firman ordering his Egyptian vali to conduct necessary studies for a project that would bridge the Mediterranean and Red Sea by means of a maritime canal. The firman, issued on January 17th, 1573, was soon forgotten with the Sultan’s sudden death a year later. In one sense therefore, Sa‘?d was more fortunate, for unlike the Sultan, his passing did not bring the endeavor to an end. By the time he died in 1863, and despite the absence of Sultanic ratification for his firman, construction was already underway, and he even had a port city (Port-Said) named after him. This paper explores the genealogies of the Suez Canal Company’s founding firman, and examines the shifts in forms of legality that allowed for the rise of the Company