Ottoman Egypt

• 1. Ottoman Conquest And Early Administration

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  The Ottoman Sultan Selim I left Egypt in 1517 after conquering the Mamluk state. Grand Vizier Yunus Pasha received the governorship of Egypt but soon created an extortion and bribery syndicate. The sultan replaced him with Hayır Bey, a former Mamluk governor of Aleppo who had helped win the Battle of Marj Dabiq. This marked the beginning of a power struggle between the Ottoman governors and the local Mamluks. The register by which land was held as fiefs remained unchanged, allowing the Mamluks to quickly return to positions of great influence. Six regiments were constituted by Selim for the protection of Egypt, and Suleiman the Magnificent added a seventh regiment of Circassians. The Sublime Porte changed the governor of Egypt at short intervals, often after only one year or less. The fourth governor, Hain Ahmed Pasha, heard that orders for his execution had come from Constantinople. He tried to make himself an independent ruler and struck coins in his own name. Two emirs whom he had imprisoned escaped and attacked him in his bath. Ahmed Pasha escaped wounded but was soon captured and executed by the Ottoman sultan's forces.

• 2. Mamluk Resurgence And Factional Strife

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  In 1604, governor Maktul Hacı Ibrahim Pasha was murdered by soldiers, and his head was set on the Bab Zuweila gate. The mutinies occurred because successive pashas attempted to stop the extortion called the tulbah, a forced payment exacted by troops from inhabitants. In 1609, a conflict broke out between the army and the pasha who had loyal regiments on his side and the Bedouins. The soldiers went so far as to choose a sultan and provisionally divide the regions of Cairo between them. They were defeated by the governor Kara Mehmed Pasha, who entered Cairo in triumph on the 5th of February 1610. He executed the ringleaders and banished others to Yemen, earning him the nickname Kul Kıran, meaning Slavebreaker. A great financial reform was then effected by Kara Mehmed Pasha, who readjusted the burdens imposed on different communities according to their means. By the end of the seventeenth century, two distinct factions within Egypt vied for power: the Faqari and the Qasimi. The Faqari had strong links to the Ottoman cavalry and wore white colors with a pomegranate symbol. Conversely, the Qasimi were aligned with native Egyptian troops and wore red with a disc-shaped banner. Between 1688 and 1755, Mamluk beys deposed at least thirty-four governors.

• 3. Ali Bey Al-Kabir Independence Attempt

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  In 1769, Ali Bey received a demand from the Porte for a force of 12,000 men to be employed in the Russo-Turkish War. He suspected that Constantinople intended to execute him and ordered his messenger waylaid and killed. Ali seized the despatches and read them before an assembly of beys, urging them to fight for their lives. His proposals were received with enthusiasm, and Egypt was declared independent. The pasha was given 48 hours to quit the country. Daher al-Umar, sheikh of Acre, promised aid and compelled an army sent by the pasha of Damascus to retreat. In six months, the greater part of the Arabian peninsula became subject to Ali Bey. He appointed a cousin as Sharif of Mecca, who bestowed on Ali the titles Sultan of Egypt and Khan of the Two Seas. In 1771, he struck coins in his own name and ordered his name mentioned in public worship. Abu-l-Dhahab, his son-in-law, marched on Cairo but deserted Ali at the Battle of Salihiyya Madrasa on the 19th of April 1773. Ali fled to Syria where he died seven days after being captured.

• 4. French Invasion And Napoleonic Rule

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  Napoleon Bonaparte entered Egypt in 1798 with the ostensible object of reinstating Ottoman authority and suppressing the Mamluks. After the Battle of Embabeh, also known as the Battle of the Pyramids, the forces of Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey were dispersed. A municipal council was established in Cairo consisting of persons from the ranks of sheiks, Mamluks, and Frenchmen. On the 22nd of October 1798, the introduction of a house tax sparked an insurrection in Cairo centered at the University of Azhar. The French general Dupuy, lieutenant-governor of Cairo, was killed during the uprising. Bonaparte returned from his Syrian expedition in June 1799 and defeated a Turkish army that had landed at Aboukir. He left Egypt shortly after appointing Kléber to govern. Kléber was assassinated by Suleiman al-Halabi on the 14th of June 1801. In March 1801, a British expeditionary force under Sir Ralph Abercromby landed at Abu Qir. On the 30th of May, Augustin Daniel Belliard agreed to evacuate Cairo and sail with his 13,734 remaining soldiers to France. Menou's force of 10,000 men left Alexandria for Europe in September 1801.

• 5. Muhammad Ali Modernization Campaigns

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  In 1805, Muhammad Ali Pasha seized power as an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt. He dispatched an army of 20,000 men including 2,000 horses under his son Tusun against the Saudis in 1811. By the end of 1811, Tusun captured Medina after a prolonged siege. The expedition captured Diriyah, the Saudi capital, in 1818. During his absence from Arabia, Muhammad Ali completed the confiscation of almost all lands belonging to private individuals beginning in 1808. He created state monopolies over chief products and set up factories. He began digging a new canal to Alexandria called the Mahmudiya in 1819. Cotton cultivation developed in the Delta starting in 1822. Steam engines were introduced to Egyptian industrial manufacturing during the early nineteenth century. In 1820, he ordered the conquest of eastern Libya and Sudan. Forces led by Ismail Kamil Pasha left Cairo in July 1820 with between 4,000 and 5,000 men. Nubia did not put up much fight, and Sennar was destroyed.

• 6. Turco-Egyptian Wars And European Intervention

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  Muhammad Ali went to war against the sultan on the pretext of chastising Abdullah Pasha of Acre for refusing to send back fugitives. The true reason was the refusal of Sultan Mahmud II to hand over Syria according to agreement. Ibrahim launched a campaign beginning with the storming of Acre on the 27th of May 1832. He culminated in the rout and capture of Reshid Mehmed Pasha at Konya on the 22nd of December. The Convention of Kütahya was signed on the 14th of May 1833, granting Muhammad Ali the pashaliks of Syria, Damascus, Aleppo, and Itcheli. In the spring of 1839, the sultan ordered his army to advance over the Syrian frontier. Ibrahim attacked it at Nezib on the 24th of June, routing the Ottomans once more. Six days later, before news reached Constantinople, Mahmud died. European powers intervened during the Oriental Crisis of 1840 and made short work of Muhammad Ali's army. The government of the pashalik of Egypt was made hereditary in the family of Muhammad Ali in 1841. Various restrictions were laid upon him, emphasizing his position as vassal. His army was not to exceed 18,000 men.

• 7. Khedivate Era And Financial Collapse

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  In 1866, Isma'il was granted a firman obtained on condition of increasing the tribute from £376,000 to £720,000. In 1867, another firman bestowed upon him the title of khedive in lieu of that of wali. When the Suez Canal finally opened, Isma'il held a festival of unprecedented scope inviting dignitaries from around the world. A national debt of over one hundred million pounds sterling had been incurred by the khedive. He sold his Suez Canal shares in 1875 to the British Government for only £3,976,582. Stephen Cave was sent out by the British government in December 1875 to inquire into the finances of Egypt. His report published in April 1876 advised that foreign Powers must interfere to restore credit. The Caisse de la Dette Publique was established as a result. On the 26th of June 1879, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II deposed Isma'il Pasha. Tewfik Pasha, Isma'il's son, became his successor. A large military demonstration in September 1881 forced the Khedive Tewfiq to dismiss his Prime Minister. France and Great Britain sent warships to Alexandria in April 1882. The British succeeded in defeating the Egyptian Army at Tell El Kebir in September 1882.