been decisive. His naval superiority wrested from the Greeks the command of the sea, on which the fate of the insurrection ultimately depended, while on land the Greek irregular bands were everywhere routed by Ibrahim’s disciplined troops. The history of the events that led up to the battle of Navarino and the liberation of Greece is told elsewhere (see Navarino and Greek Independence, War of); the withdrawal of the Egyptians from the Morea was ultimately due to the action of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, who early in August 1828 appeared before Alexandria and induced the pasha, by no means sorry to have a reasonable excuse, by a threat of bombardment, to sign a convention undertaking to recall Ibrahim and his army.
Before the final establishment of the new kingdom of Greece, the Eastern question had late in 1831 entered into a new and more perilous phase, owing to the revolt of Mehemet Ali against the sultan on pretext of chastising the The Syrian campaigns. ex-slave Abdullah, pasha of Acre, for refusing to send back Egyptian fugitives from the effects of Mehemet Ali’s “reforms.” The true reason was the refusal of Sultan Mahmud to hand over Syria according to agreement, and Mehemet Ali’s determination to obtain at all hazards what had been from time immemorial an object of ambition to the rulers of Egypt. For ten years from this date the relations of sultan and pasha remained in the forefront of the questions which agitated the diplomatic world. It was not only the very existence of the Ottoman empire that seemed to be at stake, but Egypt itself had become more than ever an object of attention, to British statesmen especially, and in the issue of the struggle were involved the interests of Great Britain in the two routes to India by the Isthmus of Suez and the valley of the Euphrates. The diplomatic and military history of this period will be found sketched in the article on Mehemet Ali. Here it will suffice to say that the victorious career of Ibrahim, who once more commanded in his father’s name, beginning with the storming of Acre on the 27th of May 1832, and culminating in the rout and capture of Reshid Pasha at Konia on the 21st of December, was arrested by the intervention of Russia. As the result of endless discussions between the representatives of the powers, the Porte and the pasha, the convention of Kutaya was signed on the 14th of May 1833, by which the sultan agreed to bestow on Mehemet Ali the pashaliks of Syria, Damascus, Aleppo and Itcheli, together with the district of Adana. The announcement of the pasha’s appointment had already been made in the usual way in the annual firman issued on the 3rd of May. Adana, reserved for the moment, was bestowed on Ibrahim under the style of muhassil, or collector of the crown revenues, a few days later.
Mehemet Ali now ruled over a virtually independent empire, subject only to a moderate tribute, stretching from the Sudan to the Taurus Mountains. But though he was hailed, especially in France, as the pioneer of European civilization in the East, the unsound foundations of his authority were not long in revealing themselves. Scarcely a year from the signing of the convention of Kutaya the application by Ibrahim of Egyptian methods of government, notably of the monopolies and conscription, had driven Syrians, Druses and Arabs, who had welcomed him as a deliverer, into revolt. The unrest was suppressed by Mehemet Ali in person, and the Syrians were terrorized and disarmed. But their discontent encouraged Sultan Mahmud to hope for revenge, and a renewal of the conflict was only staved off by the anxious efforts of the powers. At last, in the spring of 1839, the sultan ordered his army, concentrated under Reshid in the border district of Bìr on the Euphrates, to advance over the Syrian frontier. Ibrahim, seeing his flank menaced, attacked it at Nezib on the 24th of June. Once more the Ottomans were utterly routed. Six days later, before the news reached Constantinople, Mahmud died. Once more the Ottoman empire lay at the feet of Mehemet Ali; but the powers were now more prepared to meet a contingency which had been long foreseen. Their intervention was prompt; and the dubious attitude of France, which led to her exclusion from the concert and encouraged Mehemet Ali to resist, only led to his obtaining less favourable terms. (See Mehemet Ali.)
The end was reached early in 1841. New firmans were issued
which confined the pasha’s authority to Egypt, the Sinai peninsula
and certain places on the Arabian side of the Red Sea,
and to the Sudan. The most important of these documents
are dated the 13th of February 1841. The government of the
pashalik of Egypt was made hereditary in the family of Mehemet
Ali.[1] A map showing the boundaries of Egypt accompanied
the firman granting Mehemet Ali the pashalik, a duplicate copy
being retained by the Porte. The Egyptian copy is supposed
to have been lost in a fire which destroyed a great part of the
Egyptian archives. The Turkish copy has never been produced
and its existence now appears doubtful. The point is of importance,
as in 1892 and again in 1906 boundary disputes arose
between Turkey and Egypt (see below). Various restrictions
were laid upon Mehemet Ali, emphasizing his position of vassalage.
Mehemet Ali’s authority confined
to Egypt.
He was forbidden to maintain a fleet, and his
army was not to exceed 18,000 men. The pasha was
no longer a figure in European politics, but he continued
to occupy himself with his improvements, real or
imaginary, in Egypt. The condition of the country
was deplorable; in 1842 a murrain of cattle was followed
by a destructive Nile flood; in 1843 there was a plague
of locusts, whole villages were depopulated. Meantime the
uttermost farthing was wrung from the wretched fellahin, while
they were forced to the building of magnificent public works
by unpaid labour. In 1844–1845 there was some improvement
in the condition of the country as a result of financial reforms
the pasha was compelled to execute. Mehemet Ali, who had
been granted the honorary rank of grand vizier in 1842, paid
a visit to Stamboul in 1846, where he became reconciled to his
old enemy Khosrev Pasha, whom he had not seen since he
spared his life at Cairo in 1803. In 1847 Mehemet Ali laid the
foundation stone of the great barrage across the Nile at the
beginning of the Delta. He was barely persuaded from ordering
the barrage to be built with stone from the pyramids! Towards
the end of 1847 the aged pasha’s mind began to give way, and
by the following June he was no longer capable of administering
the government. In September 1848 Ibrahim was acknowledged
by the Porte as ruler of the pashalik, but he died in the November
- ↑ The Dynasty of Mehemet Ali.
