The German architect Julius Franz received his professional education in Vienna at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts), where he was presumably introduced to ideas on monument preservation by his professor Eduard van der Nüll, who was a member of the k.k. Centralcommission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale (Royal-Imperial Central Commission for the Exploration and Preservation of Historical Monuments) (Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz, 2013, p. 299).
Having had to leave Austria for Egypt due to illness, Franz started working as an engineer there in 1859 and became court architect to the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha. Among other buildings, he designed the Palace and Kiosk on Gezira island. In 1868, the Khedive awarded him the title ‘Bey’, and later that of ‘Pasha’. In addition to his activity as an architect, he worked in several other capacities: until 1888 as a professor at the Polytechnic Institute (later the École d’irrigation et d’architecture) in Cairo, teaching state-of-the-art architecture, and also, for example, as director of the Technical Waqf Department, responsible for the preservation of Islamic monuments in Egypt. He furthermore contributed to the founding and the activities of the Comité de conservation des monuments de l’art arabe and in 1880 was co-founder of the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo (Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz, 2013, pp. 298–301). After his retirement, Franz settled in Graz, Austria, and became honorary doctor at the University of Graz in 1904 (Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz, 2013, p. 308).
Franz was author of several publications on Islamic art and architecture, the most famous of which is Die Baukunst des Islam, first published in 1887 in the Handbuch der Architektur (Manual of Architecture) series.

Franz, J. (1887). Die Baukunst des Islam. Handbuch der Architektur II, 3, 2 (2nd ed. 1896). Arnold Bergsträsser.

Franz J. (1894). Studie über Namen und Entstehung der Kunst der Völker des Islam. Oesterreichische Monatsschrift für den Orient, 6–7, 73–80.

Franz J. (1898). Die Grab-Moschee des Sultans Kait-Bai. Die Baukunst 3. Spemann.

Franz, J. (1903), Kairo. Berühmte Kunststätten *21*. Verlag von E. A. Seemann.

Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz, E. (2003). Islamisierte Architektur in Kairo. Carl von Diebitsch und der Hofarchitekt Julius Franz. Preußisches Unternehmertum im Ägypten des 19. Jahrhunderts. Dissertation Universität Bonn.

Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz, E. (2013). Julius Franz-Pasha’s Die Baukunst des Islam (Islamic architecture) of 1887 as part of the Manual of Architecture. In M. Volait (Ed.), Le Caire dessiné et photographié au XIXe siècle (pp. 297–310). Picard.