When "Ibrahim Pasha" reaches the walls of Acre.. its governor sends him a private letter.. a serious one.. but carrying a great deal of mockery.. telling him in it that Acre is impossible to breach.. he will not be able to enter it.. and to spare bloodshed; the six thousand cowardly peasants who fled conscription to Damascus and from there fortified themselves in Acre are subjects of the Ottoman Sultan.. and their presence in Acre is like their presence in Cairo.. so if he wishes.. he may take them and leave for Cairo.
So Ibrahim Pasha replies to him: "I have come to take the six thousand to Cairo, and one on top of them."
And by the one extra he meant the additional one who would be shipped to Cairo.. "Abdullah Pasha" himself.. the governor of Acre.
"Ibrahim Pasha" besieges Acre from all four directions, by land and sea, and prevents any supply from reaching it.. not a single fly passes to or from Acre at all.. and then he calls in the dangerous weapon in the Egyptian army.. which had no equal except in the armies of Europe.. the weapon which "Muhammad Ali" founded at the beginnings of building the army.. and strengthened and improved.
The engineering corps.
And during the siege of Acre and the study of its impregnable walls.. "Uthman Pasha," the governor of Aleppo, moves with the Ottoman forces.. so Ibrahim moves against him with part of the forces and they meet in the south of Homs.. and he defeats him, and after that.. he returns to the siege of Acre.
And during this battle the Egyptian engineering corps had studied the walls of Acre in depth.. and then they announce to Ibrahim Pasha a part of the eastern wall that is weaker than the rest.. and that if a breach is opened in this part.. by a simple geometric progression.. the fortified seaward part will accordingly weaken.
And on that basis Ibrahim assaults the eastern part of the wall with artillery in concentrated, successive fire.. and opens a breach in it.. and while the naval forces were opening the northern breach.. the Egyptian forces advanced by land led by "Ibrahim Pasha" himself at the front.. and he enters Acre by force on 28 May of the year 1832.. and occupies it.. and indeed takes its governor "Abdullah Pasha" prisoner and ships him off to Cairo.
The Ottoman state was struck with utter panic at the fall of Acre.. so a large army moves against the Egyptian army, under the command of "the Serasker Hussein Pasha".. and he has extremely dangerous orders.
To sweep away the Egyptian army.. and not to stop at recovering the Levant.
But rather to march on Cairo.
With Ottoman forces amounting to 4 times the number of the Egyptian forces, with enormous equipment.. the Serasker "Hussein Pasha" was to defeat "Ibrahim".. and march on Cairo.. and take "Muhammad Ali" himself prisoner.. and send him to Constantinople so that he might be executed.
"Ibrahim" sends a letter to "Hussein Pasha" asking him to pull back.. but the Serasker "Hussein Pasha" replies to him:
"My steed has not drunk water for some time.. and I cannot force him to drink water.. for he has resolved to quench his thirst from the water of the Nile."
And on 29 June of the year 1832, the strong, well-equipped forces of the Serasker "Hussein Pasha" meet the exhausted Egyptian forces at Homs.. and "Hussein Pasha's" steed does not drink from the Nile or anything else.. rather the Serasker is dealt a crushing defeat at the hands of the Egyptian army.. and in the wake of this defeat.. "Ibrahim" Pasha occupies Hama and Aleppo, and enters Damascus with his soldiers accompanied by the allied prince of Lebanon "Bashir al-Shihabi" and his men..
At this moment the Ottoman governor sends a letter to "Ibrahim Pasha".. informing him that he has issued a firman declaring him and his father traitors, renegades against the state, enemies of the Caliphate.. so "Ibrahim" replies to him with a terrifying letter.. of one line:
"I am coming with my brave men to answer you in Constantinople."
And the Serasker "Hussein Pasha" had withdrawn to Belen.. and the "Belen Pass" is a strait that connects the plain of Antioch and the Gulf of Alexandretta on the border of the "Taurus Mountains."
In short, this is the dividing line between the lands of the Levant and the borders of Turkey itself.
And "Hussein Pasha" had left with him 45,000 Ottoman soldiers.. of fighters from all arms.. with 160 cannons.. which he arrayed in impregnable high positions above the peaks of the Belen mountains.
Between two mountains bristling with artillery.. at the foot of whose slope, on the right, the center and the left, stand the Ottoman soldiers.. there was nothing but the pass. And it appeared that the surprise plan of "the Serasker Hussein" Pasha would bear fruit and hinder the advance of the Egyptian army.
But what was not in "Hussein Pasha's" reckoning.. was that the plan was not a surprise to Ibrahim at all.. because "Hussein Pasha" had left behind him a powerful weapon in Aleppo.. and this weapon fell into the grip of "Ibrahim" Pasha.
And this dangerous weapon was "Hussein Pasha's" military adviser.. the French officer "Thevenin".. who, with the disorderly withdrawal.. was left behind by the soldiers.. and "Ibrahim" takes him prisoner.. while "Hussein Pasha" imagined that he had died in the battle.
And after "Thevenin" is questioned by the grandfather of Farag from the film Al-Karnak.. he lays out the whole plan to Ibrahim Pasha.
And when "Ibrahim" had studied the plan.. he realized that "Hussein Pasha" had secured himself well from above and on the right, the center and the left.. but he had neglected the depth.
And on the morning of 29 July of the year 1832, the cavalry battalions of the Egyptian army, under the command of "Hassan Bey al-Monasterli," attack the right and left flanks of the Turkish forces.. while "Ibrahim" advances on the center.
And because he is an extremely valuable target.. as soon as "Ibrahim" Pasha advances.. the Turkish cannons open their fire on him.. and they are jammed.. and with the fall of the Turkish infantry and cavalry before the blows of "Hassan Bey al-Monasterli".. the Turkish artillery becomes without protection.. and the Egyptian infantry battalions climb the mountain, and wipe it out.. and occupy its positions.. and after that the Egyptian artillery batteries follow them, occupy the same position and open their fire on "Hussein Pasha's" forces from above.
And "Ibrahim" takes possession of the cannons and provisions and the enormous equipment of "Hussein Pasha".. and the strength of his fire rises from 60 cannons to 215 cannons at once.
And "Muhammad Ali" occupies the whole Levant.. including Alexandretta.. which Turkey is determined is Turkish, while it is a part they occupied from Syria.. and Ibrahim encamps on the borders of the Turkish state.
And "Muhammad Ali" was of the view that they should stop at this limit.. he had after all annexed the Levant and achieved his dream.
But a strange incident occurs that makes him revise his decision according to the new data.
"Ibrahim" leaves an Egyptian garrison on the border and returns to Aleppo with the rest of the army seeking rest.. so the governors of the Turkish "Diyarbakir" and "Urfa" move towards him.. when they learn that he has reached the border.. and defeated "Hussein Pasha".. and they arrive in Aleppo.. and they come in to "Ibrahim Pasha" carrying their shrouds in their hands.. and they declare the submission of their cities to "Muhammad Ali Pasha."
And these were the first Turkish cities to declare their submission to "Muhammad Ali" without a fight.. and this was a dangerous sign that Turkey was collapsing.. and that the Ottoman state was falling apart under the steel blows of "Muhammad Ali."
And "Ibrahim" sends his father a letter about what happened.. and he tells him to order the sheikhs in the pulpits to pray for "Muhammad Ali" from now on as the Sultan of the Muslims.
"Muhammad Ali" is delighted with the letter.. and he approves his son's advance into the interior of Turkish territory.. but he concludes it by saying:
"You say in your letter that you wish to strike the coin while it is still hot.. and this I approve for you.. and that you wish the sermon to be delivered in my name in all the mosques and places of worship, and this I do not approve for you...
Know, my son, that we have not reached the position we now occupy except by the power of gentleness and humbleness.. for it suffices me to bear the name (Muhammad Ali) pure of every rank and ornament.. for it is greater to me than all the titles of the Sultanate and kingship.. because this name alone is what granted me the honour that now envelops me.. so how can I, my son, abandon it for anything else? No, my son, I shall keep my name (Muhammad Ali) and you, my son, shall keep your name (Ibrahim); and upon you and in you be the mercy of God and His blessings."
And the letter arrives from the father to the son.. and the Egyptian army prepares to move from Syria, towards Turkish territory.
And this time the Ottoman state realizes that the battle has turned into a war of survival.. and accordingly it prepares an enormous army under the command of "the Grand Vizier Rashid Muhammad Khawja Pasha."
And it became clear to Ibrahim that the matter had likewise turned into a war of existence.. and that his defeat would mean the annihilation of the Egyptian state.. and it would never rise again.
And here the Egyptian army begins to move and matters take an extremely dangerous turn...
And this subject we will continue talking about later.
And the conversation continues.
------------
(Previous posts in the first comment)