_Mehemets rise to power: Massacre of the Mamluks: Invasion of the
Morea: Battle of Navarino: Struggle with the Porte: Abbas Pasha,
Muhammed Said, and Ismail Pasha: Ismails lavish expenditure: Foreign
bondholders and the Dual Control._
From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the destiny of Egypt
was the destiny of one man; he aided the political movements, and
accelerated or retarded social activity; he swayed both commerce and
agriculture, and organised the army to his liking; he was the heart and
brain of this mysterious country. Under the watchful eyes of Europe,
attentive for more than forty years, this Macedonian soldier became the
personification of the nation under his authority, and, in the main, the
history of the country may be summed up in the biography of Mehemet Ali.
If we consider the events of his life, and the diverse roads by which
he reached the apogee of his fortunes, reviewing the scenes, now sombre,
now magnificent, of that remarkable fate, we obtain a complete picture
of Egypt itself, seen from the most intimate, real, and striking point
of view.
According to the most authentic accounts, Mehemet Ali was born in 1768
(a. h. 1182), at Cavala, a seaport in Turkey in Europe. He was yet
very young when he lost his father, Ibrahim Agha, and soon after this
misfortune, his uncle and sole remaining relative, Tussun-Agha, was
beheaded by order of the Porte. Left an orphan, Mehemet Ali was adopted
by the Tchorbadji of Praousta, an old friend of his father, who brought
him up with his own son. The boy spent his early youth in the discharge
of unimportant military duties, where, however, he frequently found
opportunity to display his intelligence and courage. He was even able to
render many services to his protector in the collecting of taxes, which
was always a difficult matter in Turkey, and occasionally necessitated a
regular military expedition.
Anxious to reward Mehemet for all his services, and also doubtless
desirous of a still closer connection, the aged Tchorbadji married him
to his daughter. This was the beginning of the young mans success; he
was then eighteen years old. Dealings with a French merchant of Cavala
had inspired him with a taste for commerce, and, devoting himself to it,
he speculated with much success, chiefly in tobacco, the richest product
of his country.
This period of his life was not without its influence upon Egypt, for we
know how strenuously the pasha endeavoured to develop the commercial and
manufacturing industries.
The French invasion surprised him in the midst of these peaceful
occupations. The Porte, having raised an army in Macedonia, ordered the
Tchorbadji to furnish a contingent of three hundred men, who entrusted
the command of this small force to his son Ali Agha, appointing Mehemet
Ali, whose merit and courage he fully appreciated, as his lieutenant.
The Macedonain recruits rejoined the forces of the pasha-captain, and
landed with the grand vizier at Abukir, where was fought that battle
which resulted in victory for France and the complete defeat of the
sultans army. Completely demoralised by this overthrow, Ali Agha left
Mehemet Ali in command of his troops, and quitted the army.
It is well to consider in a brief survey the state of the country at
the moment when the incapacity of General Menou compelled the French to
withdraw from Egypt. Arrayed against each other were the troops of the
sultan, numbering four thousand Albanians and those forces sent from
England under the command of Admiral Keith, on one side; and on the
other were the Mamluks striving for supremacy; and it was a question
whether this powerful force would once more rule Egypt as before the
French invasion, or whether the country would again fall under the
dominion of the Porte.
There was occasion for anxiety among the Mamluks themselves; their
two principal beys, Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi, instead of
strengthening their forces by acting in concert, as Murad Bey and
Ibrahim Bey had done before the French occupation, permitted their
rivalry for power so completely to absorb them that it was finally the
means of encompassing their ruin and that of their party.
The first pasha invested with the viceroyalty of Egypt after the
departure of the French troops was Muhammed Khusurf, who faithfully
served the Porte. His government was able and zealous, but the
measures he employed against his haughty antagonists lacked the lofty
intelligence indispensable to so difficult a task. Muhammed Khusurf,
whose rivalry with Mehemet Ali had for some years attracted European
attention, found himself at last face to face with his future opponent.
Mehemet Ali, by dint of hard work and the many important services
rendered to his country, had passed through successive stages of
promotion to the rank of serchime, which gave him the command of three
or four thousand Albanians. Foreseeing his opportunity, he had employed
himself in secretly strengthening his influence over his subordinates;
he allied himself with the Mam-luks, opened the gates of Cairo to them,
and, joining Osman-Bardisi, marched against Khusurf. He pursued the
viceroy to Damietta, taking possession of the town, conducted his
prisoner to Cairo, where he placed him in the custody of the aged
Ibrahim Bey, the Nestor of the Mamluks (1803).
At this moment, the second Mamluk bey, Muhammed el-Elfi, returned from
England, whither he had accompanied the British to demand protection
when they evacuated Alexandria in March of the same year, and landed
at Abukir. This arrival filled Bardisi with the gravest anxiety, for
Muhammed el-Elfi was his equal in station, and would share his power
even if he did not deprive him of the position he had recently acquired
through his own efforts. These fears were but too well founded. Whilst
Bardisi was securing his position by warfare, el-Elfi had gained the
protection of England, and, as its price, had pledged himself to much
that would compromise the future of Egypt.
Far from openly joining one or other of the rival parties, Mehemet Ali
contented himself with fanning the flame of their rivalry. The rank
of Albanian captain, which gave him the air of a subaltern, greatly
facilitated the part he intended to play. He worked quietly and with
unending perseverance. Flattering the ambitions of some, feeding
the resentment of others, winning the weak-minded with soft words,
overcoming the strong by his own strength; presiding over all the
revolutions in Cairo, upholding the cause of the pashas when the Mamluks
needed support, and, when the pasha had acquired a certain amount of
power, uniting himself with the Mamluk against his allies of yesterday;
above all, neglecting nothing which could secure him the support of the
people, and making use for this end of the sheikhs and Oulemas, whom
he conciliated, some by religious appearances, others by his apparent
desire for the public good, he thus maintained his position during the
numerous changes brought about by the respective parties.
At length, in the beginning of March, 1805, as the people were beginning
to weary of disturbances as violent as they were frequent, Mehemet Ali
promised the sheikhs to restore peace and order if they would assure him
their co-operation and influence. He then incited a revolt against the
Oulemas, besieged Kourshyd Pasha in the citadel, made himself master of
Cairo in the space of a few days, and finished his work by expelling
the Mamluks. The Albanians and Oulemas, completely carried away by his
valour and manouvres, proclaimed him pasha immediately. Always prudent,
and anxious to establish his claims upon the favour of the Porte,
Mehemet Ali feigned to refuse. After considerable hesitation, which
gave way before some costly gifts, or possibly on consideration of the
difficulties hitherto experienced in establishing the authority of the
pashas, the Turkish government determined to confirm the choice of
the Egyptian people. Mehemet Ali received, therefore, the firman of
investiture on July 9,1805; but during the ensuing seven months he
governed in Lower Egypt only, Alexandria still being under the authority
of an officer delegated by the sultan. As for Upper Egypt, it had
remained the appanage of the Mamluk beys, who had contrived to retain
possession of the Saïd.
Mehemet Ali had no sooner been proclaimed than Elfi, who had reorganised
his party in Upper Egypt, did all in his power to overthrow the
new pasha. He first offered to assist Kourshyd to regain his former
position; he promised his allegiance to the Porte on condition of the
dismissal of Mehemet Ali, and then turned his attention to England. He
found difficulty in obtaining her concurrence by promising to give up
the chief ports of Egypt. These negotiations, suspended the first time
by M. Dro-vetti, the French consul at Alexandria, co-operating with the
pasha, were again renewed some time after through the influence of
the English ambassador, who, in the name of his country, demanded the
re-establishment of the Mamluks, guaranteeing the fidelity of Elfi. The
Porte at once sent a fleet to Egypt bearing a firman, appointing Mehemet
Ali to the pashalic of Salonica. At this juncture, the viceroy, feeling
sure of the support of the sheikhs, who had assisted him to his present
position, only sought to temporise. He soon received the further
support of the Mamluk beys of Bardisis party, who forgot their personal
grievances in the desire to be revenged upon the common foe; at the same
time, twenty-five French Mamluks, urged thereto by M. Drovetti, deserted
the ranks of Elfis adherents and joined Mehemet Ali.
The Pasha of Egypt possessed a zealous partisan in the French ambassador
at Constantinople. The latter, perceiving that the secession of
the Mamluks made the regaining of their former power an absolute
impossibility, pleaded the cause of Mehemet Ali with the Porte, and
obtained a firman re-establishing his viceroyalty, on condition of his
payment of an annual tribute of about $1,000,000.
The power of Mehemet Ali was beginning to be more firmly established,
and the almost simultaneous deaths of Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi
(November, 1806, and January, 1807) seemed to promise a peaceful future,
when, on March 17th, the English, displeased at his reconciliation with
the Porte, arrived in Egypt. Their forces numbered some seven or eight
thousand men, and it was the intention to stir up the Mamluks and
render them every assistance. A detachment of the English forces, led
by General Fraser, took possession of Alexandria, which the English
occupied for six months without being able to attempt any other
enterprise. The remainder of the troops were cut to pieces at Rosetta by
a small contingent of Albanians: thus ended the expedition. The viceroy,
who at the beginning of the campaign had displayed really Oriental
cruelty, and sent more than a thousand heads of English soldiers to
Cairo to decorate Rumlieh, finished his operations by an act of European
generosity, and delivered up his prisoners without demanding ransom. The
plan of defence adopted by the pasha was the work of Drovetti, to whom,
consequently, is due some of the glory of this rapid triumph.
Mehemet Ali, having nothing further to fear from the English, who
evacuated Egypt in September, 1807, began to give scope to his ambitious
schemes, when the easily disturbed policy of the Porte saw fit to send
the wily pasha against the Wahabis, who threatened to invade the Holy
Places. Before obeying these injunctions, the viceroy deemed it wise,
previous to engaging in a campaign so perilous, to ensure Egypt against
the dangers with which, in the absence of the forces, she would be
menaced.
[Illustration: 151.jpg MOSQUE OF MEHEMIT ALI]
But Egypt had no more powerful enemies than the Mamluks, who, since
1808, had kept the country in a constant state of agitation. Mehemet Ali
therefore determined to put an end to this civil war, root and branch,
and to exterminate completely this formidable adversary. He did not
hesitate in the choice of means. War would not have succeeded; murder,
therefore, was the only alternative, and the viceroy adopted this
horrible means of accomplishing his designs. He invited the entire
Mam-luk corps to a banquet, which he proposed to give in the Citadel
Palace in honour of the departure of Tussun Pasha for Mecca. This palace
is built upon a rock, and is reached by perpendicular paths. On May 1st,
the day fixed upon for the festivity, Mehemet Ali received his guests
in great splendour and with a cordiality calculated to dispel any
suspicions the Mamluks might have entertained. At the conclusion of
the banquet, as they were returning home, they were fired upon in the
narrow pass, where retreat and resistance were perfectly impossible.
Thus, after having defeated the bravest troops in the world, they died
obscurely, ingloriously, and unable to defend themselves. Hassan Bey,
brother of the celebrated Elfi, spurred his horse to a gallop, rode over
the parapets, and fell, bruised and bleeding, at the foot of the walls,
where some Arabs saved him from certain death by aiding his flight. The
few who escaped massacre took refuge in Syria or Dongola.
Whilst this horrible drama was being enacted in Cairo, similar scenes
were taking place in those provinces whose governors had received
stringent commands to butcher every remaining Mamluk in Egypt. THUs
nearly all perished, and that famous corps was destroyed for ever.
Although Mehemet Ali had no doubt whatever as to the intentions which
had prompted the Porte to organise the expedition against the Wahabis,
he hastened to prepare for this lengthy war. Mehemet himself was in
command of an army in the Hedjaz when Latif Pasha arrived, bearing a
firman of investiture to the pashalic of Egypt. Luckily, Mehemet Ali on
his departure had left behind him, as vekyl, a trustworthy man devoted
to his interests, namely, Mehemet Bey. This faithful minister pretended
to favour the claims of Latif Pasha, and then arrested him, and had him
publicly executed.
From this moment the real reign of Mehemet Ali begins. Possessed of a
fertile country, he promptly began to consider the ways and means of
improving the deplorable state of its finances, and to grasp all the
resources which agriculture and commerce could yield for the realisation
of his ambitious schemes. Nothing must be neglected in the government of
a country for so many years the scene of incessant warfare; the labourer
must be made to return to the field he had deserted during the time
of trouble; political and civil order must be reestablished so as to
reassure the inhabitants, and secure the resumption of long abandoned
industries.
The most important matter was to restrain the depredations of the
Bedouins, and, to assure the obedience of these hitherto unsubdued
tribes, he kept their sheikhs as hostages: at the same time he checked
the delinquencies of the Kopts, in whose hands the government of the
territories had been from time immemorial. A sure and certain peace thus
having been ensured to the interior of the country, the pasha turned his
attention to another enterprise, the accomplishment of which is always
somewhat difficult after a lengthy crisis. He wished to encourage and
regulate the payment of taxes without hindering the financial operations
of private individuals. To this end, he re-established the custom of
receiving tribute in kind, and to support the payment of this tribute he
organised the export trade. A thousand vessels built at his own expense
ploughed the waters of the Nile in all directions, and conveyed Egyptian
produce to the shores of the Mediterranean, where huge warehouses stored
the goods destined for foreign countries.
Mehemet Ali preserved a continual intercourse with foreign merchants,
and the country owed many fortunate innovations to these relations:
agriculture was enriched by several productions hitherto unknown.
A Frenchman, M. Jumel, introduced improvements in the production of
cotton, whilst M. Drovetti, the pashas tried friend, helped to further
the establishment of manufactories by his advice and great experience of
men and things. Before long, cotton mills were built, cloth factories, a
sugar refinery, rum distillery, and saltpetre works erected. The foreign
trade despatched as much as seven million _ardebs_ of cereals every
year, and more than six hundred thousand bales of cotton. In return,
European gold flowed into the treasury of this industrious pasha, and
the revenues of Egypt, which hitherto had never exceeded $150,000,000,
were more than doubled in 1816.
The very slight success which Mehemet Ali had obtained when commanding
the irregular forces during the expedition against the Wahabis decided
him to put a long-cherished idea into execution, namely, to organise an
army on European lines. Henceforth this became the sole occupation of
the enterprising pasha and the exclusive goal of his perseverance.
The Nizam-Jedyd was proclaimed in the month of July, 1815, and all the
troops were ordered to model themselves after the pattern of the French
army.
This large undertaking, which in 1807 had cost Selim III. his life,
proved almost as fatal to Mehemet Ali. A terrible insurrection broke
out amongst the alien soldiers, who principally composed the army; the
infuriated troops rose against the tyrant and the unbeliever, the palace
was pillaged, and the pasha had scarcely time to seek the shelter of his
citadel. His only means of saving his life and recovering his authority
was solemnly to promise to abandon his plan. Mehemet Ali therefore
deferred his military schemes and awaited the opportunity to test its
success upon the natives, who would be far more easily managed than the
excitable strangers, brought up as they were on the old traditions of
the Okaz and the Mamluks. The war which still raged in Arabia gave
him the means of ridding himself of the most indomitable men, whom he
despatched to Hedjaz under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, his eldest son.
Now came success to console Mehemet Ali for the failure of his
reformatory plans. After a long series of disasters, Ibrahim succeeded,
in the year 1818, in taking Abd Allah Ibn-Sonud, the chief of the
Wahabis, prisoner. He sent him to the Great Pasha, a name often applied
to Mehemet Ali in Egypt, at Cairo, bearing a portion of the jewels
taken from the temple at Mecca. The unfortunate man was then taken
to Constantinople, where his punishment bore testimony to the victory
rather than the clemency of his conquerors.
In reward for his services, the sultan sent Ibrahim a mantle of honour
and named him Pasha of Egypt, which title conferred on him the highest
rank among the viziers and pashas, and even placed him above his own
father in the hierarchy of the dignitaries of the Turkish Empire. At the
same time Mehemet Ali was raised to the dignity of khan, an attribute
of the Ottomans, and the greatest distinction obtainable for a pasha,
inasmuch as it was formerly exclusively reserved for the sovereigns of
the Crimea.
[Illustration: 157.jpg THE COTTON PLANT]
After destroying Daryeh, the capital of Nedj, Mehemet Ali conceived
the idea of extending his possessions in the interior of Africa, and
of subduing the country of the negroes, where he hoped to find much
treasure. He accordingly sent his son, Ishmail Pasha, with five thousand
men, upon this expedition, which ended most disastrously with the murder
of Ishmail and his guard by Melek Nemr, and the destruction of the
remainder of his forces.
In the year 1824, Sultan Mahmud, realising the impossibility of putting
down the Greek insurrection by his own unaided forces, bent his pride
sufficiently to ask help of his vassal Mehemet Ali. Mehemet was now in
possession of a well-drilled army and a well-equipped fleet, which were
placed at the service of the sultan, who promised him in return the
sovereignty of Crete, the pashalic of Syria, and possibly the reversion
of Morea for his son Ibrahim. The Greeks, deceived by their easy
successes over the undisciplined Turkish hosts, failed to realise
the greatness of the danger which threatened them. The Egyptian fleet
managed, without serious opposition, to enter the Archipelago, and, in
December, 1824, Ibrahim, to whom Mehemet Ali had entrusted the supreme
command of the expedition, established his base in Crete, within
striking distance of the Greek mainland. The following February he
landed with four thousand regular infantry and five hundred cavalry at
Modon, in the south of Morea.
The Greeks were utterly unable to hold their own against the
well-disciplined fellaheen of Ibrahim Bey, and, before the end of
the year, the whole of the Peloponnesus, with the exception of a few
strongholds, was at the mercy of the invader, and the report was spread
that Ibrahim intended to deport the Greek population and re-people the
country with Moslem negroes and Arabs.
The only barrier opposed to the entire extinction of the Greek
population was their single stronghold of Missolonghi, which was now
besieged by Rashid Pasha and the Turks. If Ibrahim had joined his forces
with the besieging army of the Turks, Missolonghi could hardly have
resisted their combined attack, and the Greek race would have been in
danger of suffering annihilation.
Meanwhile the Great Powers of Europe were seriously concerned with
this threatened destruction of the Greeks. England proposed a joint
intervention in defence of Greece on the part of the Powers, but Russia
desired to act alone. A huge army was gradually concentrated upon the
Turkish frontier. The Greek leaders now offered to place Greece
under British protection, and the Duke of Wellington was sent to St.
Petersburg to arrange the terms of the proposed joint intervention. A
protocol was signed at St. Petersburg April 4, 1826, whereby England
and Russia pledged themselves to cooperate in preventing any further
Turco-Egyptian agression. A more definite agreement was reached in
September, aiming at the cutting off of Ibrahim in Morea by a united
European fleet, thus forcing the Turks and Egyptians to terms. On July
6,1827, a treaty was signed at London, between England, France, and
Russia, which empowered the French and English admirals at Smyrna to
part the combatants--by peaceful means if possible, and if not, by
force.
Admiral Codrington at once sailed to Nauplia. The Greeks were willing to
accept an armistice, but the Turks scorned the offer. At about this
time an Egyptian fleet of ninety-two vessels sailed from Alexandria and
joined the Ottoman fleet in the bay of Navarino (September 7th). Five
days later Admiral Codrington arrived and informed the Turkish admiral
that any attempt to leave the bay would be resisted by force. French
vessels had also arrived, and Ibrahim agreed not to leave the bay
without consulting the sultan. A Greek flotilla having destroyed a
Turkish flotilla, Ibrahim took this as a breach of the convention and
sailed out to sea, but Codrington succeeded in turning him back. Ibrahim
now received instructions from the Porte to the effect that he should
defy the Powers. A new ultimatum was at once presented and the
allied fleet of the European Powers entered the bay of Navarino. The
Turco-Egyptian fleet was disposed at the bottom of the bay in the form
of a crescent. Without further parleying, as the fleet of the English
and their allies approached, the Turks and Egyptians began to fire, and
a battle ensued, apparently without plan on either side: the conflict
soon became general, and Admiral Codrington in the _Asia_ opened a
broadside upon the Egyptian admiral, and quickly reduced his vessel to
a wreck. Other vessels in rapid succession shared the same fate, and the
conflict raged with great fury for four hours. When the smoke cleared
off, the Turks and Egyptians had disappeared, and the bay was strewn
with fragments of their ships.
[Illustration: 161.jpg A DISTINGUISHED EGYPTIAN JEW]
Admiral Codrington now made a demonstration before Alexandria, and
Mehemet Ali gladly withdrew his forces from co-operating with such a
dangerous ally as the sultan had proved himself to be. Before the French
expedition, bound for the Morea, had arrived, all the Egyptian forces
had been withdrawn from the Peloponnesus, and the French only arrived
after the Anglo-Egyptian treaty had been signed August 9, 1828.
Mehemet Alis chief ambition had always been to enlarge the circle
of regeneration in the East. In Morea he had failed through European
intervention. He felt that his nearer neighbour, Syria, which he had
long coveted, would be an easier conquest, and he made the punishment of
Abdullah Pasha of Acre, against whom he had many grievances, his excuse
to the Porte. In reality it was a case of attacking or being attacked.
Through a firman of the Divan of Constantinople, which had been
published officially to the European Powers, he knew that his secret
relations with Mustapha Pasha of Scodra had become known. He knew also
that letters had been intercepted in which he offered this pasha money,
troops, and ammunition, while engaging himself to march on the capital
of the empire, and that these letters were now in the hand of the Sultan
Mahmud. He wras also informed that the Porte was preparing to send a
formidable army to Egypt; and his sound instinct taught him what to do
in this position.
Ibrahim Pasha was appointed commander-in-chief of the invading army,
which was composed of six regiments of infantry, four of cavalry,
forty field-pieces, and many siege-pieces. Provisions, artillery, and
ammunition were on board the men-of-war. Thousands of baggage camels and
ambulances were being collected ready for departure when cholera broke
out. Coming from India, after having touched along the coasts of the
Persian Gulf, it had penetrated into the caravan to Mecca, where the
heat and dearth of water had given it fresh intensity. It raged in the
Holy Town, striking down twenty thousand victims, and touched at Jeddah
and Zambo, where its effects were very dire. Passing through Suez, it
decimated the population, and in August it reached Cairo and spread to
Upper and Lower Egypt. The army did not escape the common scourge, and
when about to invade Syria was overtaken by the epidemic. Five thousand
out of ninety thousand perished. All preparations for the expedition
were abandoned until a more temperate season improved the sanitary
conditions.
About the beginning of October, 1831, the viceroy gave orders to his son
to prepare for departure, and on November 2d the troops started for
El Arish, the general meeting-place of the army. Ibrahim Pasha went
to Alexandria, whence he embarked with his staff and some troops
for landing. Uniting at El Arish, the army marched on Gaza and took
possession of that town, dispersing some soldiers of the Pasha of Acre.
Thence it turned to Jaffa, where it met with no resistance, the Turkish
garrison having already evacuated the town.
At this time the army which had sailed from Alexandria was cruising
about the port of Jaffa, and Ibrahim Pasha landed there and took over
the command of the army, which advanced slowly on St. Jean dAcre,
seizing Caiffa to facilitate the anchoring of the fleet, which had
landed provisions, artillery, and all kinds of ammunition. After six
months siege and ten hours fighting, Ibrahim Pasha obtained possession
of St. Jean dAcre, under whose walls fell so many valiant crusaders,
and which, since the repulse of Napoleon, had passed for all but
impregnable. Abdullah Pasha evinced a desire to be taken to Egypt, and
he landed at Alexandria, where he was warmly welcomed by the viceroy,
who complimented him on his defence.
Hostile in everything to Mehemet Ali, the Porte seized every opportunity
of injuring him. When Sultan Mahmud learned of the victory of the
viceroys troops in Syria, he sent one of his first officers to enquire
the reason of this invasion. The viceroy alleged grievances against the
Pasha of Acre, to which his Highness replied that he alone had the right
to punish his subjects.
The eyes of Europe were now fixed upon the Levant, where a novel
struggle was going on between vassal and suzerain. Authority and liberty
were again opposing each other. The Powers watched the struggle with
intense interest. The viceroy protested against bearing the cost of
the war, and demanded the investiture of Syria. Mehemet Ali was then
declared a rebel, and a firman was issued against him, in support of
which excommunication an army of sixty thousand men advanced across Asia
Minor to the Syrian boundaries, while a squadron of twenty-five sail
stood in the Dardanelles ready to weigh anchor.
[Illustration: 165.jpg MOSQUE OF MUAD AT CAIRO]
The Porte forbade the ambassadors of the Powers to import ammunition
into Egypt, for it feared that the viceroy might find a support whose
strength it knew only too well. But the viceroy had no need of this,
for his former connections with Europe had put him in a position of
independence, whereas the Porte itself was obliged to fall back on this
support. Russia, the one of the three Great Powers whose disposition
it was to support the authority of the sultan, lent him twenty thousand
bayonets, whilst Ibrahim Pasha made his advance to the gates of
Constantinople.
Immediately after the taking of St. Jean dAcre Ibrahim Pasha, following
up his successes, had turned towards Damascus, which town he entered
without a blow being struck, the governor and the leading inhabitants
having taken flight. The commander-in-chief established his headquarters
under the walls of the conquered country, and then marched in three
columns on Horns. The battle of Horns (July 8, 1832) demonstrated the
vast superiority of the Egyptian troops. On both sides there were about
thirty thousand regular soldiers, but the Egyptians were the better
organised, the better disciplined, and the more practised in the arts of
war. When it is remembered that at Horns the Turks lost two thousand men
killed, and 2,500 taken prisoners, while the Egyptian casualties were
only 102 killed and 162 wounded, one is not astonished at the enthusiasm
with which Ibrahim Pasha wrote after the battle: I do not hesitate to
say that two or three hundred thousand of such troops would cause me no
anxiety.
It is not surprising that the beaten pashas were so struck with terror
that in their flight they abandoned sixteen more pieces of artillery and
all the ammunition they had managed to save from their defeat. They
fled as if they could not put sufficient distance between themselves and
their redoubtable enemy.
This battle foretold the result of the Syrian campaign. The population
of Syria seemed to call for the domination of the conqueror; the viceroy
protested his submission to the Porte and his desire for peace, and
meanwhile Ibrahim Pasha marched forward.
The Porte counted on its fleet to guard the Dardanelles, but it needed
an army and a commander to oppose Ibrahim Pasha, who again defeated the
Turks at Oulon-Kislak. He then advanced towards the plains of Anatolia,
where he met Rashid Pasha.
It was now December, 1830, and the atmosphere was heavy with a thick
fog. The armies opened fire on each other on December 21st, with the
town of Koniah in the background. The grand vizier was at the head of
close on sixty thousand men, while the Egyptian army only comprised
thirty thousand, including the Bedouins. The fighting had continued for
about six hours when Rashid Pasha was taken prisoner; the news of his
capture spread along the Turkish lines and threw them into disorder,
and the Egyptians remained masters of the field, with twenty pieces of
mounted cannon and some baggage: the Turks had lost only five hundred
men, while the Egyptian losses were but two hundred.
The battle of Koniah was the last act in the Syrian drama. The sultans
throne was shaken, and its fall might involve great changes in the
politics of the world. Ibrahim Pasha was only three days journey from
the Bosphorus, and the way was open to him, with no Turkish army to
fight and the whole population in his favour. In Constantinople itself
Mehemet Ali had a powerful party, and, if the West did not interfere,
the Ottoman Empire was at an end. However, European diplomacy considered
that, in spite of its weakness, it should still weigh in the balance of
the nations.
Trembling in the midst of his harem, Sultan Mahmud cried for help, and
Russia, his nearest neighbour, heard the call. This was the Power that,
either from sympathy or ambition, was the most inclined to come to his
aid. The Emperor Nicholas had offered assistance in a letter brought
to the sultan by the Russian General Mouravieff, and a Russian squadron
appeared in the Bosphorus with eight thousand men for disembarkment. The
Russians, however, agreed not to set foot on shore unless Mehemet
Ali should refuse the conditions that were being proposed to him. The
viceroy refused the conditions, which limited his possessions to
the pashalics of Acre, Tripoli, and Seyd, and which seemed to him
incompatible with the glory won by his arms.
The sultan did not wish to give up Syria, but that province was no
longer his. The sword of Ibrahim had severed the last bonds that
fastened it to him, and he was obliged to yield it, as well as the
district of Andama. On his side, the viceroy acknowledged himself a
vassal of the Porte, and agreed to make an annual payment of the monies
he received from the pashas of Syria. This peace was concluded on May
14, 1833, and was called the peace of Kutayeh, after the place where
Ibrahim signed it.
It was impossible that the convention of Kutayeh should be more than an
armistice. The pasha benefited by it too greatly not to desire further
advantages, and the sultan had lost so much that he must needs make
some attempt at recovery. Mahmuds annoyance was caused by the fact
and nature of the dispossession rather than by its material extent. The
descendant of the Os-manlis, ever implacable in his hatreds, who had
allowed Syria, the cradle of his race, to be wrested from him, now
awaited the hour of vengeance. Mehemet Ali knew himself to be strong
enough to carry a sceptre ably, and he realised that there would be no
need for his numerous pashalics to pass out of his family. Henceforth
his mind was filled with thoughts of independence and the rights of
succession.
[Illustration: 169.jpg A MUHAMMEDAN PRAYING PRIEST]
The viceroy and the sultan continued to strengthen their forces, and a
conflict occurred near Nezib on June 24, 1839. The Egyptians completely
routed their adversaries, despite the strenuous resistance of the
Imperial Guard, who, when called upon to surrender, cried in the same
words used at Waterloo, Khasse sultanem mamatenda darrhi tuffenguini
iere Koimas. (The guards of the sultan surrender arms only to death).
Greatly elated, Ibrahim flung himself into the arms of his companion in
glory, Suleiman Pasha. His prediction was verified: This time we will
go to Constantinople, or they shall come to Cairo. They set out
for Constantinople; but the viceroy was again generous. Through the
mediation of Captain Caillé, aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult, who, in the
name of France, demanded a cessation of hostilities, Mehemet Ali desired
his son not to proceed into Asia Minor; so the general halted before
Aintab, the scene of his victories, as he had done on a former occasion
before Kutayeh.
Consumptive and exhausted with his excesses, Mahmud, whose virtue lay
in his ardent love of reforms, died before his time, but this untimely
demise at least spared him the knowledge of the Nezib disaster and the
treason of his fleet, which passed into the hands of the viceroy. Hafiz
Pasha, routed by Ibrahim, was arraigned on his return to Constantinople
for leading the attack before receiving the official mandate; but the
Turkish general produced an autograph of his defunct master. The sultan
had been false to the last, and deceived both European ambassadors and
the ministers of the empire, by means of mysterious correspondence,
combined with his protestations for the maintenance of peace.
It was while Mehemet Ali was organising the national guard of Egypt,
and arranging the military training of the workmen employed in his many
factories, that the unlucky treaty of July 15, 1840, which gave the
whole of Syria to the Sublime Porte, was concluded. Four Western Powers
had secretly met in London and agreed to deprive the sovereign of the
Nile of his conquests, and fling him again at the foot of the throne,
which he had treated as a plaything. Mehemet Ali haughtily protested
against the desecration of his rights, and France, his faithful ally,
with hand on sword-hilt, threatened to draw it against whosoever should
touch Egypt. England and Austria covered the Syrian sea-coast with their
sails and guns. Beyrut, Latakia, Tortosa, Tripoli, Saida, Tyre, St. Jean
dAcre were bombarded and fell. This formidable coalition despatched
Lord Napier to Alexandria as negotiator. Mehemet Ali accepted the
overtures, and a convention guaranteed to him, as Pasha of Egypt,
rights of succession unknown to all other pashalics of the empire. The
hatti-sherif of January 12, 1841, consolidated this privilege, with,
however, certain restrictions which were regarded as inadmissible by
France, the viceroy, and the cabinets. A new act of investiture, passed
on June 1, 1841, confirmed the viceroy in the possession of Egypt,
transmissible to his male heirs, and also in the government of Nubia.
Mehemet Ali asked no more, France declared herself satisfied, and, to
prove it, became once more a member of the European league by the treaty
of July 15, 1841, which, without being directly connected with the
European question, dealing as it did with the claims of Turkey upon
the Dardanelles, implied, none the less, accordance upon the Eastern
situation. As a token of reconciliation, the Ottoman Porte soon raised
its former rival, Mehemet Ali, to the rank of sadrazam.
The political history of Mehemet Ali was now at an end. All the results,
good or bad, of his career, had reached fulfilment. As a vanquished
conqueror he had been able to remain firm in the midst of catastrophe;
his fatherly ideas and feelings had been his salvation. Had he been
absolutely heroic, he would have considered it a duty, for his courage
and his names sake, to carry the struggle on to the bitter end, and to
perish in the whirlpool he had raised. He showed that he desired to act
thus, but in his childrens interests he refrained, and this was, we
believe, the only influence of importance which made him give way. It
is true that there was not much difference between a throne crumbling to
ruins, or one built thereon; such as it was, however, it seemed
firmly secured to his children, and it was for them to strengthen the
foundations. The pasha considered this a fitting reward for his labours;
as for himself, he was over seventy years of age, and ready to lay down
his burdens.
[Illustration: 153.jpg EGYPTIAN HARMEM]
A man without learning and surrounded by barbarian soldiers, Mehemet Ali
appears before the world as nature made him. Dissimulation, diplomacy,
and deceit, coupled with capability, great courage, genius, and much
perseverance, brought him to the head of the government of Egypt. To
gain his ends he flattered the powerful Ulemas who were the nations
representatives to the sultan, but, once having obtained his object, he
dismissed them.
Though a clever politician, he was a bad administrator. Being
alternately blindly confident and extremely suspicious, he did not
choose well the men he employed as his auxiliaries, and, being a Turk
and a devout Mussulman, Mehemet Ali wished to give back to the Turks
the power they had lost. He only took account of the results of any
undertaking, without paying any attention to the difficulties surmounted
in its execution, and this characteristic made him commit many
injustices. It was his habit to treat men as levers, which he put aside
when he had no further use for them. He was quick of apprehension, and
of very superior intelligence, and his whole character was a mixture of
generosity and meanness, of greatness and littleness.
Mehemet Ali was an affable, an easy business man, and dominated by a
desire to talk. He enjoyed relating the incidents of his past life, and,
when not preoccupied by affairs of importance, his conversation was full
of charm. The foreigners who visited him were always much impressed with
his superiority, while his lively humour, his freedom, and that air of
good nature he knew so well how to adopt, all captivated his visitors.
The expression of his face was exceedingly mobile, and quickly
communicated itself to the men who surrounded him, who were in constant
observation of his moods, so that one could judge of the state of mind
of the viceroy by the calm or disturbed appearance of his servants.
When Mehemet Ali was anxious, his look became fierce, his forehead
wrinkled, and his eyes shone with anger, while his speech was broken
and his manner brusque and imperious. As regards those in his service,
Mehemet Ali was by turns severe or gentle, tolerant or impatient,
irascible, and surprisingly forbearing. He was jealous of the glory of
others, and desired all honours for himself. He was an enemy of all that
was slow. He liked to do everything, to decide everything, and worked
night and day. All letters, notices, and memoranda that referred to
his government, he read himself or had them read to him. Picked men
translated French and English political newspapers into Turkish, and
he encouraged discussion on all subjects of high interest, although
generally imposing his own opinion. He did not always keep strictly to
his word. He was a stoic, and great pain could not destroy his habitual
gaiety, and when very ill he would still speak affably to those around
him; but illnesses with him were rare, for his health was, as a rule,
excellent. He was very careful about his appearance, and was fond
of women without being their slave; in his youth his life had been
dissolute. He was above the prejudices of his nation, and prayed very
often, although a fatalist.
At the age of forty-five he learned to read, and he held European
learning in great esteem, confessing it superior to that of Turkey; but
he continued to regard European scientists and artists only as salaried
foreigners, whom he hastened to replace by natives as soon as he
considered the latter sufficiently enlightened. Mehemet Ali made one
great mistake, with which his nearest servants reproach him, and that
is with not having introduced into his family learned men from Europe,
picked men devoted to his cause, and well versed in the special things
of which his country was in need.
Had they been brought into a close contact with the viceroy, and
admitted unreservedly to all the privileges the Turks enjoyed, these men
would have adopted Egypt as their country. They would have spoken the
language and have become the sentinels and safeguards necessary for the
maintenance of useful institutions which the Turks either refused or did
not understand.
During the administration of Mehemet Ali, public hygiene was not
neglected, and a sanitary council watched over the health of the
country. Measures were taken to increase the cleanliness and sanitation
of the towns; military hospitals were built, and a lazarette was
established at Alexandria, whilst vaccine was widely used. In the
country the planting of many trees helped the atmosphere, and Egypt,
which Europeans had hitherto regarded as the seat of a permanent
plague epidemic, became more and more a healthy and pleasurable
resort. Mehemet, whose aims were always for the furthering of Egyptian
prosperity, profited by the leisure of peace to look after the
industrial works. Two great projects that occupied his attention were
the Nile dams and the construction of a railway from Suez to Cairo.
The actual condition of the canalisation of Egypt, while vastly improved
by the viceroy, was still far from complete. Canals, partial dams, and
embankments were attempted; fifty thousand draw-wells carried the
water up to a considerable height, but the system of irrigation was
insufficient.
The railway from Cairo to Suez was an easier, though not less important,
work. The road crossed neither mountain, river, nor forest, while a
series of little plains afforded a firm foundation, requiring very
few earthworks. Its two iron arms stretched out into the desert, and
steam-engines could traverse the distance from the Nile to the Red Sea
in three hours.
Suez would thus become a suburb of Cairo, and thus, being brought closer
to Egypt, would regain her trade. This enterprise, just as the former
one, gave promise of bringing to Egypt the two sources of national
wealth and prosperity: agriculture and trade.
[Illustration: 179.jpg HARBOR OF THE BULAK]
The agricultural unity which Mehemet Ali constituted enabled him to
bring about improvements which with private proprietorship would have
been impossible. The fellah, careless of to-morrow, did not sow for
future reaping, and made no progress, but when Mehemet Ali undertook
the control of agricultural labour in Egypt, the general aspect of
the country changed, though, in truth, the individual condition of the
fellah was not improved. Besides the work of irrigation by means of
canals, dykes, and banks, and the introduction of the cultivation of
indigo, cotton, opium, and silk, the viceroy had also planted thousands
of trees of various kinds, including 100,000 walnut-trees; he ordered
the maimours, or prefects, to open up the roads between the villages,
and to plant trees. He wished the villages, towns, and hamlets to be
ornamented, as in Europe, with large trees, under whose shelter the
tired traveller could rest.
In the various districts were vast tracts of land which for a long time
the plough had not touched. Concessions of these lands were made to
Franks, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians, which concessions were free, and
for a term of seven or eight years, while the guarantees were exempt
from taxes.
During the closing years of his life, between 1841 and 1849, Mehemet
occupied himself with improvements in Egypt. He continued to prosecute
his commercial speculations, and manufacturing, educational, and other
schemes. The barrage of the Nile, which has only been finished during
the British occupation, was begun under his direction. In 1847 he
visited Constantinople, and was received with the rank of a vizier. In
the year 1848 symptoms of imbecility appeared, and his son Ibrahim
was declared his successor. After a reign of only two months he died.
Mehemet Alis death occurred on the 3rd of August, 1849. His direct
successor was his grandson, Abbas Pasha, who held the sceptre of
Egypt as the direct heir of Ibrahim Pasha. This prince took but little
interest in the welfare of his country. He had in him no spark of the
noble ambition of his predecessor, and no trace of his genius, and he
showed no desire for progress or reforms. He was a real prince of the
ancient East, suspicious, sombre, and careless of the destiny of the
country entrusted to his care. He liked to withdraw to the privacy of
his palace, and, isolated in the midst of his guards, to live that life
of the distrustful and voluptuous despots of the East. The palace of
Bar-el-Beda, which he had built on the road to Suez in the open desert,
a palace without water, lifting its head in the solitude like a silent
witness of a useless life and tragic death, impresses the traveller with
astonishment and fear.
Abbas Pasha was weak in his negotiations with the European Powers, and
this was well for Egypt, as their representative was able to hold in
check his silent hostility to Western civilisation. Such guardianship
is useful when exercised over a prince like Abbas Pasha, but it tends
to become troublesome and baneful when it attempts to interfere with the
government of an active and enlightened sovereign animated by just and
generous intentions.
Muhammed Said, the successor of Abbas Pasha, was born in 1822, nine
years later than his nephew Abbas. He was brought up in Europe by French
professors, and M. Kornig, a distinguished Orientalist, remained with
his pupil and became his secretary. He not only instructed him in all
branches of knowledge becoming to his rank, but also developed in him
a love of European civilisation and noble sentiments, of which he gave
proof from the moment of his accession. He was imbued with liberal
principles, which in an Eastern potentate give proof of great moral
superiority, and in this respect Muhammed Said wras second to no prince
in Europe. He worked for the emancipation of his subjects and the
civilisation of Egypt, and was not content to produce that superficial
civilisation which consists in transplanting institutions that the mass
of the people could not understand. Said Pasha endeavoured to pursue his
fathers policy and to carry out his high aims. He had not, however,
the strength of character nor the health necessary to meet the serious
difficulties involved in such a task, and he will be chiefly remembered
by his abolition of the more grinding government monopolies, and for the
concession of the Suez Canal.
After his death Said Pasha was succeeded in the vice-royalty by his
nephew, Ismail Pasha, who was proclaimed viceroy without opposition
early in the year 1863. Ismail, the first who accepted the title of
khédive from the sultan, was born on December 31, 1830, being the second
of the three sons of Ibrahim, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. He had been
educated at the Ecole dEtat Major at Paris, and when Ahmed, the eldest
son of Ibrahim, died in 1858, Ismail became the heir to his uncle Said.
He had been employed, after his return to Egypt, on missions to the
sovereign pontiff; the emperor, Napoleon III.; and the Sultan of Turkey.
In the year 1861 he was despatched with an army of 18,000 men to
quell an insurrection in the Sudan, which undertaking he brought to a
successful conclusion. On ascending the throne he was much gratified
to find that, on account of the scarcity of cotton, resulting from the
Civil War in America, the revenues had very considerably increased from
the export of the Egyptian cotton. At this date the cotton crop was
worth $125,000,000, instead of $25,000,000, which was the normal value
of the Egyptian output. It was a very serious misfortune to Egypt that
during his sojourn abroad Ismail had learned many luxurious ways, and
had also discovered that European nations were accustomed to make
free use of their credit in raising sums of money for their immediate
advantage. From this moment Ismail started upon a career which gave to
Egypt, in the eyes of the world, a fictitious grandeur, and which made
him one of the most talked-of rulers among the cabinets and peoples of
the European countries. He began by transferring his own private debts
to the state, and thereafter looked upon Egypt merely as his private
estate, and himself as the sovereign landholder. Without any sense of
his responsibility to the Egyptians themselves, he increased his
own fame throughout Europe in the sumptuous fashion of a spendthrift
millionaire. He deemed it necessary for his fame that Egypt should
possess institutions modelled upon those of European countries, and he
applied himself with energy to achieve this, and without any stint of
expense. By burdening posterity for centuries to come, Ismail, during
the two decades subsequent to his accession, always had a supply of
ready money with which to dazzle European guests. During his entire
reign Egypt swarmed with financiers and schemers of every description,
to whom the complacent Ismail lent an only too willing ear.
In the year 1866, in return for an increase of tribute, he obtained from
the sultan a firman giving him the title of khédive (Turkish, _khidewi_,
a king), and changing the law of succession to that of direct descent
from father to-son; and in 1873 he obtained a new firman, purchased
again at an immense cost to his subjects, which rendered him practically
independent of the sultan. Ismail projected vast schemes of internal
reform. He remodelled the system of customs and the post-office,
stimulated commercial progress, and created the Egyptian sugar industry.
He introduced European improvements into Cairo and Alexandria; he
built vast palaces, entertained visitors with lavish generosity, and
maintained an opera and a theatre. By his order the distinguished
composer, Verdi, produced the famous opera Aïda for the entertainment
of his illustrious guests on the occasion of their visit to Egypt during
the festivities connected with the opening of the Suez Canal. On this
occasion Mariette Bey ransacked the tombs of the ancient Egyptian kings
in order to reproduce in a lifelike manner the costumes and scenery
appropriate for the occasion.
[Illustration: 185.jpg A FELLAH PLOWING]
The opening of this canal gave Ismail much prominence in the courts of
Europe. He was made a Grand Commander of the Bath, and the same year
visited Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and
welcomed by the lord mayor. In 1869 he again visited London. By his
great power of fascination and lavish expenditure he was ever able to
make a striking impression upon the foreign courts. During the opening
of the canal, when Ismail gave and received royal honours, treating
monarchs as equals, and being treated by them in like manner, the
jealousy of the sultan was aroused. Ismail, however, contrived
judiciously to appease the suspicions of his overlord, Abdul Aziz.
In the year 1876 the old system of consular jurisdiction for foreigners
was abolished, and the system of mixed courts was introduced, by which
European and native judges sat together to try all civil cases, without
respect to nationality.
In the year 1874 Darfur, a province in the Sudan west of Kordofan,
was annexed by Ismail. He also engaged in a disastrous war against the
Abyssinians, who had ever shown themselves capable of resisting the
inroads of Egyptians, Muhammedans, Arabs, and even of European invaders,
as was proven by the annihilation of a large Italian army of invasion,
and the abandonment of the campaign against Abyssinia by the Italians in
the closing years of the nineteenth century.
[Illustration: 187.jpg ARABS AT A DESERT SPRING]
It was true that Ismail had attempted to carry out the great schemes of
his grandfather for the regeneration of the Orient, and it is possible
that, if the jealousy of European Powers had not prevented the army of
Ibrahim Bej from controlling immense territories in Syria and Anatolia,
which they had won by conquest, that the regeneration of the Orient
might have been accomplished at least a century earlier. No people would
have benefited more by the success of Mehemet Alis policy than the
Christian people who to-day are under the rule of the barbarous Turks.
With the regeneration of the Orient, the trade of European nations in
the East would have been very largely increased.
The policy of regeneration, wisely begun by Mehemet Ali, was resumed
within Egypt itself in a spendthrift manner by his grandson Ismail.
Every act of his reign, with its ephemeral and hollow magnificence,
moved towards the one inevitable result of foreign intervention. The
price of all the transient splendour was the surrender by slow degrees
of the sovereignty and independence of Egypt itself. The European Powers
of late have withdrawn their interest in the betterment of the native
populations in the Asiatic dominions of the sultan, and have concerned
themselves exclusively with the immediate interests of commerce and the
enforcement of debts contracted to European bondholders. All progress in
the later history of Egypt has originated in the desire of the European
Powers to see Egypt in a position capable of meeting her indebtedness to
foreign bondholders.
In so far as the cry raised of Egypt for the Egyptians was a protest
against forcing the Egyptians to pay for an assumed indebtedness
which was at least four times greater than anything they had actually
received, no movement was ever more just and righteous than the protest
of the fellaheen against foreign control, a movement which has been
chiefly associated with the name of Arabi Pasha. The issue of Ismails
financial troubles was most ignominious and disastrous to Egypt,
after nearly a hundred years of heroic struggles to keep pace with the
progress of modern Europe. Had Ismail modelled his career upon that of
his illustrious grandfather, rather than that of Napoleon III.,
with which it shows many striking parallels, it is probable that the
advantage secured to Egypt through the British occupation might have
resulted in political and financial independence. When the crash came,
and the order for his deposition was sent by the sultan, Ismail resigned
the khedivate in complete submission; and, taking away with him a large
private fortune and a portion of the royal harem, he spent the remainder
of his life in retirement at Naples and Constantinople, and was buried
with solemn pomp in the royal cemetery at Cairo.
[Illustration: 190.jpg PART OF CAIRO, SHOWING THE MULQUFS ON THE HOUSES
OF MODERN EGYPT]
[Illustration: 191.jpg PAGE IMAGE]