Whenever the name "Muhammad Ali Pasha" comes up, you find the hangers-on of Ottomanism mocking him on the grounds that his father was a "tobacco merchant".. if the name "Abdel Nasser" comes up, they tell you "Ingi and the son of the gardener".. This lot are among the most racist groups in the history of the East in particular, and the world in general.. even though 90% of their own families are illegitimate children.. to "Abdel Hakim Abdeen".

"Muhammad Ali Pasha" was the son of the chief of the guard charged with policing the roads in his town of "Kavala".. its name is "Kavala", not "Qawla".. "Qawla" is an Ottoman Turkish word.. This town is in northern Greece.. When his parents died, he was 14 years old.. so the governor, his father's friend "Shorbagi Ismail", took him in.. and attached him to the army.

When "Muhammad Ali" arrived in Egypt, it enchanted and dazzled him.. despite the Ottomans' neglect and squalor.. and the poverty of the Egyptians and their suffering under their rule.. but poverty has nothing to do with cleanliness.. look at Nubia, its beauty and its cleanliness, even though it is a poor city.. so "Muhammad Ali" found clean streets in Egypt.. and a generosity in the people, even the poorest and neediest of them.. a man might split his only loaf of bread with you.. and he saw the architecture, the fortresses and the mosques, visited Al-Azhar and was dazzled by its architecture and cleanliness, and visited the Hanging Church. In the streets he found drinking fountains and water troughs for cats, dogs and birds.. the people had made them below their own fountains.. the water drips and overflows from what they drink, and pours into special vessels.. within reach of the animals.. and he saw the rich land and soil and fruit trees everywhere.. the meeting of the Nile with the sea and the fertile Delta.. at a time when Greece itself was nothing like this.

At a certain moment.. with the breeze playing on his face on the shore of Alexandria.. "Muhammad Ali" wished that he might settle in Egypt forever.. and rule it, and have it for himself and his sons after him.. and at once he began turning his wish into reality.. and set about carrying it out.

The first thing he demanded of his small troop was that it never harm the Egyptians in any way.. but look after their affairs and redress the grievances they suffered at the hands of the Ottomans.. so for example they would come across a father searching for a missing son and help him.. a woman quarrelling with a cheating vendor and they would give her justice.. and he went out of his way to court the men of religion and Al-Azhar and prayed behind them.. until they loved him and drew him close and he became famous.. and he became an acceptable face in the street for the Egyptian public at large.

This is a fundamental and essential difference between "Muhammad Ali Pasha" and "Ali Bey al-Kabir".. the latter leaned on the Russians and tried to secure their support and that of Venice.. and then the support of the governor of Acre.. and he failed.. whereas "Muhammad Ali", from the very first day.. leaned on the people alone.

The Mamluks were divided into two camps, as we said.. one camp on the side of the Ottomans led by "Ibrahim Bey" and one camp on the side of the English led by "al-Alfi Bey".. and both camps coveted power and were waiting for outside forces to install them.. so "Muhammad Ali" used his small troop.. and set about sowing ever more discord between the two camps.. thereby weakening them more and more.

In March 1804, a new Ottoman governor named "Ahmad Khurshid Pasha" was appointed.. and he was like all the Ottoman governors.. a thief and corrupt.. but he was clever and sharp-eyed.. so he realised at once.. that "Muhammad Ali Pasha" and his small troop, with their sweeping popularity.. represented a direct threat to him.. so he decided to send him to Upper Egypt to fight the Mamluks, him and his troop.. and that way be rid of them.. and at the same time he asked the Ottoman state to send him an army of horsemen.. to help him control matters.

As soon as this army arrived from Istanbul it began spreading corruption in Cairo.. attacking civilians and peaceful people, plundering them and violating the honour of women.. and whoever had a weapon, even a simple blade, carried it and attacked the horsemen of this army, and those horsemen attacked him.. and the matter began to take shape as a frightening street war, in which the word belonged to the rebels.. the head of the guild of the Ashraf, Sayyid "Omar Makram".. and he went to the Ottoman governor and demanded that he withdraw these barbaric forces at once.. and send them back to Turkey.. or else a mighty revolution would break out.. that would tear him out himself.

"Khurshid Pasha" did indeed order these forces to withdraw.. but they did not listen to him.. they did not even listen to the Sultan himself in Istanbul.. and whenever a sultan dies and another comes, they and the Janissaries spread corruption in the capital of the Ottoman state itself.

And here Sayyid "Omar Makram" led hundreds carrying sticks and clubs.. and they went to the house of "Muhammad Ali Pasha".. and besieged it.. so he came out to them.. and they told him that "Khurshid" was an unjust man.. and that they had deposed him.. and decided to appoint him in his place.

And this was exactly what "Muhammad Ali" aspired to.. so he agreed, and Sheikh "al-Sharqawi" presented him with a mantle and a robe.. and they sent word to "Khurshid" Pasha that they had deposed him.. and appointed "Muhammad Ali" in his place, once and for all.. Naturally "Khurshid" flew into a rage.. and told them angrily: "I am appointed by the Sultan, so I shall not be deposed by the rabble.. nor shall I come down from the citadel except by order of the Sublime Porte."

And two new parties entered the arena of conflict.. "Khurshid" and his forces against "Muhammad Ali" and his armed troop.. backed by the street.

And in the summer of the year 1799 AD.. France entered Egypt under the command of "Napoleon".. just like that, suddenly.. with forty thousand soldiers.. without a declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire or anything.. and "Napoleon" announced to the people that he was a friend of the Egyptian people.. and had come on the part of the Ottoman Sultan.. to save them from the injustice of the wicked governor!

And whoever controlled Egypt would control the world trade route to and from India.. so Russia and England moved at once.. and attacked the French in Egypt.. and England bombarded Napoleon's fleet and sank it at Abu Qir.. and suddenly the plague spread among "Bonaparte's" men.. so he decided to cancel the campaign.. and "Napoleon" wrote to the Ottoman Sultan.. asking him that they return to being friends.. so "Selim" agreed.. and restored his relations with France.. and began bringing in military experts from it and buying weapons.

This campaign had no benefit at all except that it left in Egypt the scholars who came with it.. and they were about 124 scholars.. among them a man named "Jean-François Champollion".. who solved the riddle of the Rosetta Stone, and deciphered the mysteries of the ancient Egyptian language for the first time.. to bring ancient Egyptian history out into the light.

In this period the Mamluks in Egypt split into two camps.. a camp on the side of the Ottomans led by "Ibrahim Bey" and a camp on the side of the English led by "al-Alfi Bey".. and the split turned into a conflict.. and plots and assassinations spread in the ranks of both sides, claiming the lives of more than one Ottoman governor.. and the situation became confused and the street tense.

But with the withdrawal of the French expedition, and specifically in the year 1801.. several Ottoman ships anchored in the port of "Abu Qir" in Alexandria.. carrying Ottoman soldiers to support the new Ottoman governor whom the street had not accepted at all.

And on one of these ships was a detachment of 300 soldiers.. coming from Albania.. in it was a man who boarded this boat by chance.. and led this detachment by chance.. when the original commander of the detachment decided to return as soon as they arrived in Egypt.. so he became the commander in his place.

And this man's name was "Muhammad Ali"...

At that time "Selim III" in the Porte — which is Istanbul itself — was taking a vital and important step.. ridding himself of the Janissary forces and their troubles.. so he began ignoring them completely, depriving them of arms and training and halting the recruitment of any new soldiers into their ranks.. and he separated the artillery forces from them.. and at the same time.. he began forming a new army for the Ottoman state, on the modern European system.. so the Janissary forces rose against him.. so he ordered the governor of Karaman, "Abdulrahman Pasha", to march with the Karaman army to Istanbul and crush the Janissary revolt.. and a frightening street war also broke out in Istanbul.. that almost developed into a civil war.. but "Selim" resolved it by appointing the Agha of the Janissaries as Grand Vizier.. so they calmed down and fell silent.. and the problem was resolved temporarily.

This revolution was in Turkey at the time.. so when this problem erupted in Egypt.. he discovered that it would hold him back a great deal and that he had no shortage of problems.. so he issued a firman deposing "Khurshid" and appointing "Muhammad Ali".. in the year 1805.. so that the latter could begin rebuilding the one thing that would strengthen Egypt and ward off from it the danger of the Turkish Mamluks.. and protect it... the army.

And one year later, in 1806.. "Muhammad Ali" began, with his small newborn army.. to fight the Mamluks in Egypt.. and "Muhammad Ali's" army, led by "Hassan Pasha", engaged "al-Alfi's" forces in Fayoum.. but "al-Alfi" prevailed over "Hassan Pasha's" small army.. so he withdrew to Beni Suef.. and from there to Minya.. and there.. the other Mamluk forces.. led by "Ibrahim Bey" and "al-Bardisi" were attacking Minya.. and in it was a garrison loyal to "Muhammad Ali".. but the arrival of "Hassan Pasha" with his small army reinforced the garrison.. and prevented them from entering Minya.. and halted their advance on Cairo there.

And here "Selim" decided to depose "Muhammad Ali".. and send him as governor of the province of "Salonika".. but "Muhammad Ali" turned to "Omar Makram".. so he and the sheikhs of Al-Azhar sent a long letter to the Ottoman Sultan asking that "Muhammad Ali" remain in power.. or else a revolution would break out in tandem with the Mamluk danger.. so the Sultan agreed on condition that "Muhammad Ali" pay him 4,000 purses of cash.. and send his son "Ibrahim" as a hostage to Istanbul.. until he paid off that sum.

And "al-Alfi", after his victory at Fayoum.. did not march on Cairo.. he went to Damanhur.. but its people defended it with fierce ferocity.. and "Muhammad Ali" sent him another small army from Cairo.. and after skirmishes and a siege.. al-Alfi withdrew.. and died during his withdrawal.. and "al-Bardisi" also died in Upper Egypt.. and the Mamluk forces began to scatter somewhat and their strength to diminish.

And at the same time.. England rushed into Russia's embrace for the first time.. asking for alliance and friendship.. to ward off the danger of its bitter enemy France.. which had set its eyes on Egypt.. as the gateway of trade to and from India.. especially since they had already cooperated against the French fleet.. but "Selim" was an ally of France.. so he opposed Russia and tried to prevent it from allying with the English.. and sent a threatening letter to England.. demanding that it dissolve its alliance with the Russians.. or else he would send the Ottoman fleet to pound it.

And England responded to "Selim's" letter.. and it was England that sent him the English fleet.. which crossed the Dardanelles strait.. and turned every Ottoman ship in it into burning matchsticks, floating on the surface of the water.. so "Selim" rushed in panic to "Napoleon", asking for help.. and "Napoleon" responded.. sending him forces that fortified Istanbul with modern French fortifications in the space of several days.. and arrayed French artillery batteries for him along the banks of the Bosphorus.. and provided his soldiers with new military uniforms and rifles and left him French battalions for protection and for training the Ottoman forces.. and here.. the commander of the English fleet realised that he would not be able to get past these fortifications.. so he withdrew to England.. which decided to tear from the Ottoman state the source of its strength.. so it directed the fleet to Egypt.. in the year 1807.

"Muhammad Ali" led the army himself and set out to fight the Mamluks in Asyut.. and did indeed defeat them there.. and encamped there.. and while that was happening.. news reached him of the English fleet's arrival at the shore of al-Ajami on 17 March 1807.. under the command of Lieutenant General "Alexander Mackenzie Fraser"...

After four days of fierce Alexandrian resistance.. the English forces entered Alexandria with almost no resistance.. after its treacherous Ottoman governor "Amin Agha" handed over to the occupying forces the gathering places of the resistance men and all the weapons and equipment they were fighting with.. and handed them the city and its map, so they kept him on as its governor.. and "Fraser" decided to occupy Rosetta and al-Rahmaniya.. in order to prevent any supplies from reaching Alexandria.

"Fraser" did indeed send a letter to the governor of Rosetta, "Ali Bey al-Salankli".. asking him to surrender in return for keeping him in his post.. and "Ali Bey" agreed to hand over the city.. and indeed the English forces entered it and found it empty and abandoned.. on 31 March of the same year.. but as soon as they penetrated its streets.. they discovered that "Ali Bey al-Salankli".. had lured and deceived them.. and laid a tight ambush for them.. when he began firing on them with his men and the townspeople from the rooftops of the houses and the windows.. so they withdrew in disorder.. and the people attacked them with axes and sticks.. and the English forces withdrew that day to Abu Qir in Alexandria.. after some of them had died and some had been taken prisoner.. and "Ali Bey al-Salankli" sent the prisoners and the heads of the dead to Cairo.. where a great celebration was held.. which raised the people's morale.

But the site of "Rosetta".. or "Rashid" was vital and important.. so "Fraser" sent another army to it.. and besieged it on 7 April.. and demanded that "al-Salankli" surrender.. and he refused.. so he began bombarding it with artillery.. and sent a force that occupied "al-Hamad".. which "al-Salankli" could not protect because he was besieged in Rosetta.

And Rosetta held out against the siege and the English artillery shells for about two weeks.. and on 20 April.. the dust of the horses of the Egyptian army forces under the command of "Muhammad Ali" himself appeared on the horizon.. so the English were forced to withdraw.. and he lifted the siege of al-Hamad.. and then he pursued the English forces to Alexandria and besieged them, until 15 September.. until the English surrendered and asked for a ceasefire.. and this was followed by a peace.. after which they departed from Alexandria.. on 25 September 1807.

Strange how the world turns.. for in Istanbul.. just as happened in Egypt long ago in the days of the Mamluks, when a fatwa was issued by stupid sheikhs that stalled the development of artillery.. a new mufti suddenly appeared in the Ottoman state after the death of its mufti.. and he went and told Sultan "Selim III" that French weapons were forbidden.. and that the uniforms of the French soldiers they used — which were advanced, with better places for carrying weapons and ammunition — were "imitation of the Christians".. and that alliance with the Franks was forbidden.. and that "Napoleon" was forbidden to begin with.. and that the messengers of God had won victories with swords and horses alone.. because they were supported by God.

This claim of the mufti found an echo, as always happens with every aberrant fatwa, among the ignorant and the riff-raff.. and it spread.. and penetrated among the people.. and began to shape public opinion against Sultan "Selim III".. and while his army was fighting Russia with French support.. the new mufti of the Ottoman state issued a public fatwa.. that any caliph who introduces Western systems and military methods into the state, and forces his subjects to follow them, is an imitation of the Christians, an unbeliever.. and unfit for rule, so the crowds fell upon "Selim".. and defeated his guard.. and took him prisoner.. and deposed him from power.. and put in his place his brother "Mustafa IV".

At the same time Russia made a truce with the Ottoman army led by "Mustafa Pasha al-Bayraqdar".. and as soon as the truce was signed.. he withdrew with a force of about twenty thousand soldiers.. and headed for Istanbul and fell upon the rebels, the followers of the mufti who had deposed "Selim".. and then he began to move to depose "Mustafa" himself.. and restore "Selim" to power.. and all the senior men of the Ottoman state supported "al-Bayraqdar".. but "Mustafa" stole the opportunity from him.. and killed his brother "Selim" and hung his body on the gate of the palace.. before "al-Bayraqdar" arrived.. imagining that this would settle the matter.. and then he decided to kill his other brother "Mahmoud".

Had this "Mahmoud" been killed.. the House of Osman would have ended and died out forever.. because he was the last surviving male left of this delightful family that has been killing one another since it first appeared.. but "Mahmoud" escaped from "Mustafa's" men.. and "al-Bayraqdar" arrived at the decisive moment.. and stormed the palace.. and killed "Mustafa".. and put in his place on the throne his brother "Mahmoud II".. in the year 1808.

And at the same time a new development occurred in Cairo.. which likewise held "Muhammad Ali" back from building and developing the army he dreamed of.. and delayed his plans for construction and development.. but the story of these events is a long one.. so we will continue our account of them later...

And there remains more to be said.

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- Previous posts are in the first comment.

- The image is of the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph, the prince of addicts, "Selim III".

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#The_Ottoman_Caliphate 33