With the death of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud, he is succeeded by the Sultan Abdulmejid, who hastens at once; to open the door of negotiations with Muhammad Ali Pasha.. and Muhammad Ali makes it a condition for peace that things return to the borders of the Convention of Kütahya.. and that rule over the lands he had entered in the Levant be hereditary for his family after him.

And to put pressure on the Ottoman state.. Ibrahim Pasha advances towards the gates of Constantinople.. and the Sultan Abdulmejid trembles, and he almost actually accepts Muhammad Ali's conditions.. had not a message reached the Ottoman Sultan from the European states assembled together - except France - that he should not agree.. and that they are committed to protecting the Ottoman Sultanate.

And at the same time, after Muhammad Ali's return to Alexandria and while awaiting the Sultan's reply.. strange, mysterious symptoms suddenly appear in him.. he is stricken with violent pains in his stomach and begins to vomit and lose weight.. and the doctors are baffled by the case.. and some of them diagnose it as gastroenteritis and others confirm it is dysentery.. so they begin treating him with silver nitrate.. without his health improving, for unknown reasons.

And at the same time, Europe had decided that it would not allow the strong Muhammad Ali to take the place of the frail Ottoman Sultan.. and a strong Egypt would not take the place of the Ottoman state.. the sick man.. ever.. and Muhammad Ali would remain in their midst in the heart of Europe, and would have the final say if a war broke out against Russia.. and on the other side.. Russia saw that he would have the final say if it decided to fight Europe.. and England saw that it was not acceptable for him to remain in power in Egypt at all.. because his existence threatened its influence and its shipping routes and its trade in India.. so in 1840 England invites the rest of the European states to London, and they hold a special conference to discuss the question they called the "Eastern Question".

France is the only one that continues to support Muhammad Ali.. and it thinks that it will thereby secure for itself an excellent position with a strong ally.. but the European states come out with a treaty called the "Treaty of the Quadruple Alliance, or the Treaty of London".. and in this treaty it stipulates the evacuation of Muhammad Ali from all the lands of the Levant, while he retains Acre for the rest of his life.. on the understanding that rule over Egypt and Sudan will be hereditary for him and his family.. and it gives him a deadline of ten days to reply.

But Muhammad Ali ignores the deadline completely.. and in fury.. the European states grant him another deadline, but they withdraw Acre from the offer. And this time they inform him that if he does not reply.. then the Ottoman Sultan will depose him from the governorship of Egypt.

And the new deadline passes without Muhammad Ali replying either.. so the European states cut off their relations with Egypt.. and ship their forces to Constantinople, whose walls Ibrahim Pasha is threatening.

And for the first time in the history of the world.. the states of the earth assemble, enemies and friends, in one alliance against one man.

And Ibrahim was determined to storm Constantinople.. and he disagrees sharply with his father on this subject.. but Muhammad Ali's symptoms had begun to develop in a strange, sudden way.. so his memory began to falter.. and for the first time the case appeared clear and easy to diagnose, with symptoms that appeared like the symptoms of poisoning with lead.. and he feels that his hour is drawing near.. and here he faces a harsh choice.

Either he pushes Ibrahim to fight all of Europe in Constantinople.. and that means that Ibrahim will face nearly five million horsemen.. and three million foot soldiers.. and more than 20 thousand cannon.. and if Muhammad Ali dies during that.. there will be no leader in Egypt and it will be attacked.

Or he accepts the European offer.

And Ibrahim sends a message to his father that he is determined to advance.. and capable of winning Constantinople and bringing down the Sultan.. even if that costs him his life during it or after it...

But Muhammad Ali was in turn determined to preserve Ibrahim's life in particular, by any means, for reasons we will know right away.

And during Muhammad Ali's deliberations and his messages with his son.. the European fleets move.. and cut the route between Egypt and Turkey.. and in this way the supply route between Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim is cut.. and all the fleets of the world set out from the heart of Europe.. towards the Egyptian ports.. in Syria, and Acre, and Lebanon, and Alexandria.

And suddenly a message reaches Muhammad Ali from France.. informing him that it will not be able to support him in a war against the whole world.

And Muhammad Ali had to choose.

And Muhammad Ali was determined to preserve the life of Ibrahim Pasha whatever the price.. because Ibrahim is the only strong man fit to rule Egypt after him.. after it had become clear to Muhammad Ali that Abbas ibn Ahmed Tusun.. is slack, lazy and weak.. and was completely at odds with the policy of his uncle and his grandfather.. to the point that he smuggled one of the brothers of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab of the Wahhabi movement out of the Egyptian prisons.. and when Muhammad Ali sent him to Ibrahim in the wars of the Levant.. Ibrahim sent him back to him once again and told him that he was useless and that there was no real benefit from him in the field.

And Abbas saw that we should hand over the administration of Egypt to the Sublime Porte and become obedient to its command and be done with all this misery. And build palaces and travel to enjoy ourselves in Europe.. and entrust the administration to foreigners.. and Muhammad Ali, who considered himself an Egyptian, refused for Egypt to return under foreign control or occupation once again at any price even after his death.. and with Abbas's point of view.. Muhammad Ali realises in a black moment.. that if Ibrahim dies.. then Egypt is lost.

And at Ras El-Tin in Alexandria.. the terrifying English fleet approaches, supported by the ships of Spain, Russia and Austria.

And Muhammad Ali had to choose at once between war or negotiations...

And for the first time in its history, the Alexandrian citadel lowers its artillery.. as a sign of no fighting.

And the strange thing is that this conduct alarms the commander of the English fleet greatly.. and he imagines that it is a trap.. so he raises the flag of negotiations.. and advances to the shore in a boat.. and meets Muhammad Ali.. and the Pasha was in an extremely poor state of health.. and he had already made his decision.. that he would lean towards peace.

And with the English admiral, Muhammad Ali signs an agreement stipulating that he will agree to the decision of the European states.. on condition that rule over Egypt be hereditary for his family.. and here the European fleets withdraw.. and Muhammad Ali returns the Ottoman fleet to Constantinople, and issues his order to Ibrahim Pasha to return.

But the Ottoman Sultan, emboldened by England.. rejects this agreement.. and decides that the deadline has ended.. and issues his decree in the year 1841, deposing Muhammad Ali from the rule of Egypt.

And here France confronts England.. and angrily declares to it.. that after it controlled the idiotic Ottoman Sultan.. it decided to run affairs in the Middle East to its own taste and for its own account.. without any regard for France or the rest of the states.. and England objects and Russia joins it - and it was an enemy of France after the Napoleonic Wars - and Austria understands France's position and takes its side.. and Prussia joins them.. and a frightening spectre appeared on the horizon, threatening the world with a world war.

And in order to avoid this war.. England, and after it Russia, yields to France's point of view.. and the Ottoman Sultan issues a decree making rule over Egypt hereditary for Muhammad Ali and his family and affirms him in the rule of Sudan on condition that he pay the Sultan what the governors pay in annual tribute.. and that the number of the Egyptian army's forces not exceed 18 thousand soldiers.. and the army had reached in Muhammad Ali's era nearly 250 thousand soldiers.

Muhammad Ali accepts and asks Ibrahim to return and be patient for a while.. while they think about how they will act in light of the new data..

But by the time Ibrahim arrives.. his father's mysterious condition had worsened.. and he no longer remembered his wives and his daughters.. in symptoms resembling the disease of "Alzheimer's".. and the only one he remembered when he saw him was Ibrahim.. his son and the friend of his life and his old comrade in arms.

The year 1843 begins.. a new year, during which Muhammad Ali tries to rebuild his fleet in secret.. and during that.. he sends his son Ibrahim to the Sublime Porte on a mission.. and it seems that this visit to the Sublime Porte was an unclean journey for whoever made it.. because Ibrahim Pasha returns from it likewise afflicted with lead poisoning.. and it concentrates in his joints and he becomes unable to move as he once did.. and in the year 1844 when he goes to the Sublime Porte on a second visit.. he returns coughing blood, for no comprehensible reason.. and his condition is diagnosed as a mysterious acute deterioration in immunity that led to his being stricken with pulmonary tuberculosis.

And Muhammad Ali realises that Ibrahim will not survive.. and Ibrahim's illness was in truth the crushing blow for Muhammad Ali.. and he realised that if Ibrahim died.. then Egypt is lost.. he was afraid for Egypt from Abbas Hilmi and his brothers among the sons he had fathered from his concubines.. and he said plainly that:

"My son is a sick old man, and Abbas is slack and lazy. Who can rule Egypt now but the boys, and how could these preserve it?" ..

And with the increase of Ibrahim's illness Muhammad Ali sends him in a desperate move to Italy for treatment of an illness that has no cure.. in the era before antibiotics... and immense grief takes hold of Muhammad Ali, and with it his condition worsens more and more.

Ibrahim returns from Italy and is surprised in the year 1848, that Abbas is exploiting his grandfather's illness and acting as he pleases.. and that he is the de facto ruler of Egypt.. so he restricts Abbas's residence.. and takes over the rule of the country himself.

And Muhammad Ali was residing in Alexandria under the care of his favourite daughter Ruqiya Hanem.. and Ibrahim was managing the affairs of the country from there from Ras El-Tin next to his father.. and visiting him in his chamber every night.. since he was the only one who remembered him.. and he would try to remind him of what they had done and tell him that they would try again.. and that Egypt would regain its glory once more.

And on one night of the warm nights of August, of the year 1849, Muhammad Ali comes down from the palace at Ras El-Tin.. and walks alone over the sands of the shore...

Nearly 6 months had passed since the last time his son Ibrahim visited him.. after which he stopped, for no reason.

And while standing on the sands of the sea, he began trying hard to recall his memories.. now he is not the young Muhammad Ali who arrived in the land of Egypt nearly half a century ago.. he is a decrepit old man on the threshold of eternity.. and because he remembers almost nothing, he was without worries.. and his features softened and he looked like an old child with a silver beard.. and at this moment the commander of the units securing the palace.. the chief of staff.. Suleiman Pasha the Frenchman.. his old friend of a lifetime.. approaches him.

They chat together.. and Muhammad Ali tells him that he does not remember or know who he is.. but since he is in his service.. he would like to ask him about his son Ibrahim.. and why he stopped visiting him.. and Suleiman informs him in deep sorrow while averting his gaze.. that Ibrahim met his fate because of illness on the last night he visited him.. on 10 November of the year 1848.. at the age of only sixty.. after ruling Egypt for only 6 months.. and that everyone had agreed to hide the news from Muhammad Ali.. given his health condition.

And Muhammad Ali receives the news of his son's death with extreme calm.. and asks Suleiman to tell him the bulk of the events that happened from the moment Suleiman arrived in Egypt.. up to that moment.

Suleiman begins to tell it from the beginning.. and the truth is that Muhammad Ali was not hearing him.. his heart was completely shattered by the news of Ibrahim's death even if he did not show it as he contemplated the waves of the sea in quiet calm.. and after a pleasant evening.. Muhammad Ali takes his leave of his friend and returns to the palace.. and meets his favourite daughter Ruqiya, and for the first time in years he calls her by her name.. and asks her for paper and an inkwell and his private seal.. and writes a private sealed letter.. and tells her not to open it except at his death.

Of course Ruqiya prays for him for long life and health, so he pats her hair and goes to sleep.. and she leaves him sleeping in calm, intending to inform her two brothers in the early morning, that their father had begun to recover and had gone back to remembering her name.

But Muhammad Ali died that same night.

His soul slipped slowly out of his body as he slept, in order to catch up with the soul of his son Ibrahim, leaving behind him thousands of schools and farms and factories and waterwheels and roads and lighthouses.. and hundreds of thousands of mulberry trees.. that were in the fields and schools and streets.. and that placed Egypt at the top of the world in silk production.. and dozens of sites and battles and wars.

Khurshid Pasha...

The Mamluks...

Fraser...

Omar Makram...

The Wahhabi War....

The wars of Sudan...

Greece...

The Sublime Porte...

The campaign of the Levant...

Lebanon...

Acre....

Damascus...

Anatolia...

Constantinople...

Kütahya..

And once again, the borders of Constantinople...

And in the end his soul ascends to its Creator in calm, leaving on his face a mysterious smile of relief, perhaps for a gentle dream, or unknown visions from another world that visited him in his final moments.

Unfortunately, "Egypt" is taken over after him.. or in effect from the moment of Ibrahim's death.. by Abbas Hilmi ibn Tusun.. and Muhammad Ali was right in his view of him.. so he holds a small funeral for his grandfather.. weak in ceremony.. because of the grudge he harboured against him for Muhammad Ali's constant reprimanding of him.. and his accusing him of weakness and slackness...

Abbas does not invite to the funeral any consul or diplomatic representative.. except the consul of England, who had become his personal friend.. and Abbas refuses to suspend government business.. and the funeral is officially modest.. but it was a colossal funeral popularly.. for business was suspended despite Abbas and the employees and the peasants and the craftsmen and the students came out behind Muhammad Ali.. even those who had been against his policy.. had begun to taste the bitterness in Abbas's era because of the shallowness of his thinking and his muddled decisions.. so they knew well the value of Muhammad Ali.. and the elders remembered the chaos and injustice and backwardness and disintegration they had been in before his arrival..and the order and development that had taken place after his coming.. even the young compared between his rule.. and the rule of his fickle, wavering predecessor who suddenly placed on their shoulders and the shoulders of the state, without any justification, a debt of nearly one hundred million francs.

Among the people who observed this meagre funeral and blamed Abbas for what he had done was the British consul in Egypt.. who recorded in a letter to the English Foreign Office:

"A general impression prevailed that Abbas Pasha is the one to blame, for he belittled his grandfather and his shining memory, and did not respect his funeral as it deserved.. Today I hear with my own ears all classes of Egyptians.. not hesitating to say that the prosperous, civilised Egypt died with Muhammad Ali...In truth, sir, we cannot, nor can anyone, deny that Muhammad Ali, despite his constant threatening of our country's interests, was a man of great standing."

And the contents of the sealed envelope that Muhammad Ali handed to his daughter Ruqiya was a will of a single line, that he be buried in his citadel in Cairo.. and indeed he is escorted there.. and he is buried in the mosque that he had built in the citadel of the city.

And the legend of Muhammad Ali ends after a harsh, clamorous life, leaving behind him weak progeny.. in whose era occurred what not a single state could dream of doing a quarter of in Muhammad's era.. and he enjoys at last some rest.. after he earned that title that was given to him after his death, and which he still retains, up to the moment of writing these lines.

The title of "Father of Modern Egypt".

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(References in the first comment)

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