At dawn on 5 September 1816, a new commander sets out.. from Cairo to Suez.. and from Suez.. he sails with the fleet's vessels, heading for the Hejaz.. and he anchors in the port of Yanbu, which was under the control of the Egyptian forces.. and he lands his soldiers to suppress the Wahhabi movement and put an end to it.
This commander was a very formidable military man.. and one of the best and strongest army commanders in the world in the nineteenth century.
"Ibrahim Muhammad Ali," the son of "Muhammad Ali Pasha".. or "Ibrahim Pasha" as we know him.. Ibrahim's movements, campaigns and plans are still studied in Europe, in history and military schools, to this day.
At the same time, "Ahmed Tosun Pasha" was moving to return home, aboard another ship.. he had been struck down by fever from his wound.. and he was utterly exhausted and drained, but as a military hero.. he entered Cairo in a great and majestic celebration.. and the Egyptians carried him on their shoulders.
And "Muhammad Ali" notices that "Ahmed Tosun" is in a bad state.. and the latter asks him that he go to Alexandria, which he adored.. so they go together. And they settle there.. following the news of "Ibrahim's" campaign.. whom "Muhammad Ali" had sent with a new plan to put an end to the Wahhabis.
And this plan was to strike the head of the snake itself.. the stronghold of Wahhabism.. the city of Diriyah.
And in Alexandria.. "Ahmed Tosun" relaxes.. and lays down his weapon for the first time in years.. and sees for the first time as well his son "Abbas".. whom he had left behind and gone off to fight before his birth.. and who had come back to him when he was two years old.
And in late September of the year 1816.. and days after the departure of his brother "Ibrahim Pasha".. "Ahmed Tosun's" wound worsens.. and he breathes his last in his father's arms to the quiet sound of the whispering waves.. which he had chosen to meet his end to their melodies.
Despite his crushing loss, and his terrible pain.. "Muhammad Ali" hides the news of the death of his son "Tosun" from his wounds.. and announces that he died of an attack of plague.. so as not to shake the morale of the army.
The news of "Tosun's" death reaches "Ibrahim," and he is struck by profound grief, which he turns into anger.. but a calm, rational anger, not a reckless, impulsive one. And under a cover of artillery, "Ibrahim Pasha" advances in the Arabian Peninsula.. the Wahhabis try to stand up to him.. but "Ibrahim" Pasha sets off with firm military plans.. and advances with a right flank, a center and a left flank.. in the famous squares formation that is so hard to break through.. and he secures the supply lines and the convoys so that no one can besiege him as happened with "Tosun".. and the governor of Basra, "Bakr Pasha," sends him, in the year 1817, 1500 camels, loaded with food and grain.
Despite this shipment.. food runs short again with "Ibrahim".. but he had learned from "Tosun's" mistakes and had secured navigation and his rear lines.. and unlike "Tosun".. he lost nothing of the lands he entered.. and with the food shortage.. in February of the year 1818.. the Emir of Medina comes forward.. and supplies "Ibrahim" with two hundred camels and several thousand head of sheep with a special convoy, loaded with gunpowder.
And on the first of March, in the year 1818.. "Ibrahim" reaches "Al-Mulqa".. on the outskirts of Diriyah.
And Diriyah contained all the remaining Wahhabis.. and they had fortified themselves in it and fortified it very well.. and it had five walls at once, adorned by a group of strong, fortified towers.. in addition to a chain of trenches, filled with soldiers.
And "Ibrahim Pasha" is surprised by a new weapon the Wahhabis had not possessed before and which had not been reckoned with.. the weapon of artillery.
England was supplying them with explosives and shells and ten cannons.. and this was half the artillery power of "Ibrahim" himself.. who had 20 cannons with him.
And Diriyah lay between two mountains.. on which its emir placed his cannons.. and fortified its walls.. and "Ibrahim" studies the situation.. and needs advice.. so he sends a letter to his father with the whole matter.. and he concludes it by saying that the Emir of Diriyah "has strengthened his barricades very seriously, in a manner through which the shells cannot penetrate."
And the Emir of Diriyah had dug a trench around it, to hinder the advance of the Egyptian army, and began shelling "Ibrahim's" forces with artillery.. so Ibrahim withdraws beyond the range of the Wahhabi artillery.. and digs a trench in front of it to hinder their advance.
And "Ibrahim" encamps at the edge of the range of Diriyah's artillery.. and lights his torches.. and before everyone's eyes "Ibrahim" and his men retire to their tents.
And Diriyah relaxes somewhat as it watches the Egyptian forces surrendering to sleep.. but in truth, the forces had not retired to sleep at all.
Without any prior warning.. a surprise attack takes place, by "Ibrahim" Pasha, who had feigned sleep and rest, and slipped away with his soldiers.. and then wheeled around Diriyah, and attacked its southern barricades with the cavalry, and took control of them.. and while Diriyah was busy defending the southern barricades.. the Egyptian tents suddenly fly up, and from beneath them the artillery pieces emerge, and they advance to the appropriate range and shell the towers and destroy most of them, with the infantry battalions moving, crawling to the mountain under the cover of darkness, and attacking the Wahhabi artillery, and wiping out most of it.
And at "Samha al-Nakhl," the highest point of Diriyah, the Wahhabis flee.. and "Ibrahim" occupies their positions.. and begins moving his artillery to win the high ground. And Diriyah is threatened from above.
And after the skirmishes calm down and the people of Diriyah withdraw to its heart.. "Ibrahim Pasha" settles.. and decides to resort to a new plan.
The plan of siege.
He besieges Diriyah and cuts off its resources.. and waits.
But Diriyah holds out against the siege for four months.. as if it were not besieged at all.. and Ibrahim notices that it is not suffering from a shortage of any resources.. so he investigates the matter.. and it becomes clear to him that the town of "Arqa" near Diriyah is secretly supplying it with what it needs.. so he attacks it and razes it to the ground.
And in a very clever move.. the Wahhabis obtain some of the clothing of "Ibrahim's" forces from the bodies of the dead he lost in one of the battles.. and one night, a group of Wahhabis slips stealthily under the cloak of night, wearing these clothes.. and they surprise the guards and kill them.. and set fire to the storehouse.
This incident was recorded by history under the name "the incident of the storehouse fire".. the army saves the storehouse.. and strikes Diriyah again in successive retaliatory operations.. but "Ibrahim Pasha" had lost in the fire a great deal of gunpowder and ammunition.
He sends to request reinforcements from "Muhammad Ali".. so he sends him 3000 fighters from Alexandria under the command of "Khalil Pasha".. and with their joining the campaign.. "Ibrahim" attacks Diriyah in September 1818.. and finally storms it and sweeps away the rest of the Wahhabi forces under the hooves of his horses. And its emir raises the white flag, and asks for safety.
The Egyptian army takes possession of Diriyah and grants safety to whoever lays down his weapon or did not carry one among its people.. and the leader of the Wahhabi movement at that time is seized; Prince "Abdullah".. and he is sent to Cairo as a prisoner.. and from there he is sent to Constantinople, where he was executed in the year 1818.
And this was the end of the Wahhabi movement.. until the United States and England decided to revive it after the World War, in 1947, to halt Soviet influence.. and to create a state like present-day "Afghanistan" a stone's throw from it.
"Ibrahim" returns to Cairo after extending his influence over the Arabian Peninsula.. and the Ottoman state grants him the title "Prince of Mecca".. and this raises him above all the governors of the Ottoman state.
And two and a half years later, the news reaches him of the killing of his brother "Ismail" in Sudan, and of "al-Daftardar's" revenge.. as we told in previous episodes.. and he becomes angry because he did not take part in avenging his brother.. and he waits impatiently for the first new rebellion in Sudan in the year 1821.. and he goes and launches a terrible punitive campaign.. after which no other rebellion ever took place there.
And "Muhammad Ali's" dream was to find gold and diamonds in Sudan.. so when he did not find them, or could not reach them.. he decided to exploit it in another way.. so he prepared its land and developed it and set up waterwheels and other things in it, and cultivated it as a food basket, and began shipping its sons to the military schools in Egypt, and producing soldiers from among them.. to help him in his conquests and ambitions.
And the Ottoman state had realized the strength of "Muhammad Ali" and his army, so it decided to assign him a mission in which the Ottoman army had failed.. an arduous and extremely dangerous mission.
And this mission we will talk about later.
And the conversation continues.
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