Generalissimo Ibrahim Pasha

France was getting worryingly cosy with Egypt and British concerns over the land/sea route to India were growing around 1827. Not wishing to get in to any more expensive wars with the French, maintaining the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire seemed like a better way of preserving the peace. The British decided that supporting Greek claims for greater autonomy was the best solution, as neither the Ottomans nor Egypt were capable of retaining Greece on their own and it was already a drain on their resources.

On 27 October, 1827, the British and French allied fleet sank 78 Ottoman and Egyptian ships and killed over 1,000 Ottoman and Egyptian men. The Kingdom of Greece was established by France, Russia and Britain in London, May 1832. Muhammad 'Ali no longer sought Sultan Mahmud's favour after the defeat (which he blamed the sultan for) and would pursue his own objectives at the sultan's expense.

Muhammad 'Ali had had his eye on Syria since 1811 and the Porte reneged on irs promise to make him Governor in return for defending Greece against the allied fleet. In 1832 Muhammad lay siege to the unassailable city of Acre amidst terrible scenes of slaughter and the constant bellow of deafening artillery. It took six months to blast through the walls of the fortress of Acre and once breached the invasion was over quickly. Only 350 defenders survived to great the invaders.

Ibrahim Pasha then headed for Damascus. 10,000 civilians were press-ganged to defend the city, and knowing civilians would run at the first shot, the Egyptians fired over their heads and so it happened.

Ibrahim Pasha forbade looting and charged his army to respect the townspeople. Ibrahim Pasha then mearched 16,000 men, 43 cannons and 3,000 transport camels towards Homs. On 8 July, the Egyptians engaged the Ottoman army for the first time and gained a decisive victory. One day after the battle Ibrahim Pash marched on Aleppo to complete his conquest of Syria. The city surrender without resisting the Egyptian army. There was a another battle with the remainder of the Ottoman army which, although out-numbered, Ibrahim Pasha's forces won. The Egyptians made it to the port of Adana where Egyptian ships could resupply his exhausted army. It is impossible to imagine now the stamina, strength and valour of those fighting men.

On hearing of his son's victories, Muhammad 'Ali sought to validate his acquisitions. The Ottomans mobilized an army of 80,000 men to drive the Egyptians back where they came from. Ibrahim Pasha marched to the Anatolian Plateau to meet the Ottomans. Used to deserts, the snow and freezing temperatures put the Egyptians at a disadvantage. Even so, the unwilling conscripts of the Egyptian army were the more disciplined army and they secured total victory over the Ottoman troops in the Battle of Konya (21 December, 1832). As a result, the sultan capitulated to most of Muhammad 'Ali's demands.

The Anatolian Plateau as it is today.

In the space of a few years, Muhammad 'Ali had secured an empire to rival the Ottomans.

However, taxation and conscription and cultural change made the Syrians despise Egyptian rule. Further fighting followed when Europe supported the Turks after Muhammad 'Ali announced his intention to secede Syria from Ottoman rule, but the German trained Nizami were routed by Ibrahim Pasha's supposedly exhausted 'peasant army' of conscripts near Aleppo on 24 June, 1839. The Sultan died and was replaced by his adolescent son so admiral Ahmed Fevzi Pasha sailed across the Mediterranean to join Mumhammad 'Ali to stop his fleet falling into Russian hands.

Europe was worried the power vacuum would allow the Russians to seize the Bosporus and Dardanelles allowing its fleet access to the Mediterranean. The British and Austrians told Muhammad 'Ali to leave Syria in return for Damascus but he refused, counting on French support. Following a naval victory for the Europeans, Ibrahim Pasha withdrew from Syria to Egypt overland in January 1841.

After the the British Prie Minister Lord Palmerston effectively arranged four decades of protection against European designs on Ottoman territory in a secret appendix to the London Convention of 1940.

After nearly 40 years in power Egyptian coinage still bore the head of the Sultan. Muhammad 'Ali and his son Ibrahim Pasha were both dead by 1850 and Muhammad 'Ali's grandson Abbas came to power.

Challenges to their Empire made the Ottomans seek outside help from Europe but Europe had already become the dominant world power.

Napoleon in Egypt & the Crafty Albanian

On the morning of July 1 1798, after ignoring a warning from the British navy (Admiral Horatio Nelson) in June, Alexandria was invaded by Napoleon at the head of a massive invasion force.

Battle of the Pyramids where Napoleon's force of 25,000 fought off 100,00 Mamluks

Meeting no resistance, Napoleon secured Alexandria and headed for Cairo. The gallant Mamluk calvalry engaged the French with swords but were systematically mowed down by highly efficient French infantry men before they were even within striking distance. Egyptian eyewitnesses claim the battle was over in less than an hour.

The occupation of Cairo was a French 'civilising mission' which introduced the technology of the Industrial Revolution and Enlightenment in order to win Egyptiians over to the benefits of French rule.

Unfortunately, Egypt's Muslim majority rejected Napoleons exercise of human reason over revealed religion. When a Montgolfier hot-air balloon was launched it crashed causing still more sceptism in the natives about French superiority.

Napoleon's intentions were of course strategic. He wanted Egypt in order to stop England's land-sea route to India via Egypt and the Red Sea. By August, Nelson caught up with the French navy and destroyed it in the Battle of the Nile. The French lost 1,700 men.

Napoleon's flagship l'Orient explodes during the Battle of the Nile by William Lionel Wyllie

 20,000 French soldiers were stranded in Egypt, only to be abandoned by Napoleon who returned to France in August 1799 and seized power in November. Spotting a sitting duck, the English joined forces with the Ottomans and forced the French army to surrender in Cairo in June 1801. Ottoman and British ships then transported them home.

The English wanted a strong Egypt (to keep Napoleon out) which meant Mamluk rule while the Ottomans wanted to reassert their authority over the rebellious province of Egypt. Unfortunately, the Ottomans reneged on their promise to pardon the Mamluk beys and war broke out. Enter the Ottoman commander Muhammed 'Ali.

Muhammad 'Ali was an ethnic Albanian who headed a 6,000 man

Muhammad Ali by Auguste_Couder

contingent of the Ottoman army in Egypt. He was clever and ambitious and emerged as a king-maker in Cairo. But he wanted to be king himself!

In Arabia, the Ottomans were having trouble with the Wahhabi Islamic reformers who were imposing conditions on pilgrimage caravans to Mecca from Cairo and Damascus (they prohibited entry in 1806). The Sultan was supposed to be the guardian of Islam's holiest cities so he looked bad. 

Thinking he could crush the Wahhabi movement the Ottomans appointed Muhammad 'Ali governor of Hijaz. However, this meant instant promotion to the rank of pasha which in turn meant he was eligible to serve as governor in any Ottoman province. Thinking he could be made a puppet, the mob asked Muhammad 'Ali to be governor. After craftily declining, he allowed himself to be persuaded. Eventually Istanbul agreed to the appointment and on June 18, 1805, Muhammad 'Ali became master of Egypt.

Muhammad 'Ali established his mastery over the province like no one before or since. He built a powerful army and a bureaucratic state. His dynasty would rule Egypt until the 1952 revolution brought down the monarchy.

In his first six years, Muhammad 'Ali realised he needed money, so he taxed the land, taking revenue away from religious scholars and landed elite. With that done, he sent his son Tussun Pasha to sort out the Wahhabis. He invited the most powerful Mamluk beys to an investiture ceremony for Tussun but after the ceremony, he trapped them in a passage way and had his soldiers murder them. Only then did crafty Muhammad 'Ali feel secure enough to send his army to Arabia to earn the gratitude of the Sultan. 

Tussun's campaign was impossibly difficult and bloody. yet he secured Medina and Mecca. It had cost a fortune, 8,000 men and the Wahhabis weren't defeated, only biding their time and bound to return.

A truce was struck in 1815 and Tussun returned to Cairo where, ironically, he immediately died of plague. On hearing of Tussan's death the Wahhabi commander, Abdullah ibn Saud, broke his truce and attacked Egyptian positions. Muhammad 'Ali appointed his eldest son, Ibrahim as a replacement for Tussan and he emerged as Muhammad 'Ali's generalissimo.

Ibrahim seized the Red Sea province of Hijaz before driving the Wahhabis back to Najd in central Arabia. He then drove them to their capital of Dir'iyya, laid seige under terrible conditions and forced the Wahhabis to surrender in September 1818 or face destruction. Muhammad 'Ali destroyed the town and sent Abdullah ibn Saud and the other Wahhabi leaders on to Istanbul to face the Sultan's justice. Mahmud II beheaded them all with great ceremony and may have thought himself now the French and Wahhabi threats were no more. But the real threat to the ruling dynasty of the Ottoman Empire was Muhammad 'Ali. 

The Sultan rewarded Ibrahim with the rank of pasha and made him governor of Hijaz, including Jidda, a busy port and what was effectively the gateway to Mecca. The taxes alone made Muhammad 'Ali rich. It was the first addition to his empire. 

Muhammad 'Ali invaded Sudan in 1820 looking for gold and slave soldiers. It was a brutal campaign and thousands of Sudanese were killed. No gold was found. Sudan didn't regain its independence from Egypt until 1956, 136 years later. Unfortunately, 20 years of war had left Muhammad 'Ali's armies decimated and the remainder old. Slave soldiers were not forthcoming from the Caucasus as they knew he was ambitious and they European fronts to defend. So Muhammad decided on a national army. There was a military caste as peasant were considered too passive and dull to be soldiers. However, Sultan Selim formed a peasant army and trained them in European methods of warfare and deployed it to Egypt in 1801 where Muhammad 'Ali would have seen the discipline first hand. The Nizami forces, as they were known were a threat to the old order of Janissaries and so they mutinied and overthrew Selim III and disbanded the Nizami army, unwittingly providing Muhammad 'Ali with a model to replicate in Egypt.

In 1822 Muhammad 'Ali commissioned Colonel Seves - a French convert to Islam - to train a Nizami army. Within a year he had 30,000 troops. By the mid-1830s it was 130,000. The peasants were press-ganged into service, although they resisted strongly. Yet in 1821, the Greeks rose up in nationalist revolt against their Ottoman rulers and the Sultan turned to Muhammad 'Ali for assistance. The new Nizami proved its mettle and Ibrahim Pasha was made governor of Crete. Muhammad's empire had expanded to the Aegean and the Ottoman's now feared him even more. 

Christians were up in arms about Greek Christians being slaughtered by Muslim Turks and Egyptians. Lord Byron went to Greece to support Greek independence and died there.

Byron on his death bed in April 19, 1824, Missolonghi, Greece - by Joseph Denis Odevaere (1775–1830) 

*A new way of thinking at the heart of The French Revolution in which that rational thought begins with clearly stated principles, uses correct logic to arrive at conclusions, tests the conclusions against evidence, and then revises the principles in the light of the evidence.