Egyptian civil war
A three-way civil war between the Ottoman Empire, Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries, and Albanian bashi-bazouk mercenaries in Ottoman service, took place in Ottoman Egypt from 1803 to 1807. The conflict ended in victory for the Muhammad Ali, an Albanian bashi-bazouk commander. The struggle occurred following the French invasion of Egypt by Napoleon. After the French were defeated, a power vacuum was created in Egypt. The Mamluks had governed Egypt before the French invasion and still retained power in the region. However, Egypt was officially a part of the Ottoman Empire and many Ottoman troops who had been sent to evict the French were still present.
Tahir's rise and fall
In March 1803, the British evacuated Alexandria, leaving a power vacuum in Egypt. Muhammad Bey al-Alfi had accompanied the British to lobby them to help restore the power of the Mamluks. In their attempts to return to power, the Mamluks took Minia and interrupted communication between Upper and Lower Egypt. About six weeks later, Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, was unable to pay all the troops under his command, so he attempted to disband his Albanian bashi-bazouks without pay in order to be able to pay his regular Turkish soldiers. The Albanians refused to disband and instead surrounded the house of the defterdar, who appealed in vain to Hüsrev Pasha to satisfy their claims. Instead, the pasha commenced an artillery bombardment from batteries located in and near his palace on the insurgent soldiers who had taken the house of the defterdar, located in the Azbakeya. The citizens of Cairo, accustomed to such occurrences, immediately closed their shops and armed themselves. The tumult in the city continued all day, and the next morning, troops sent by Koca Hüsrev Pasha failed to quell it.The bashi-bazouk commander Tahir Pasha returned to the citadel of Cairo, gaining admittance through an embrasure, and from there bombarded the pasha's forces then went to Azbakeya and laid close siege to the governor's palace. The following day, Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha fled with his women, servants, and regular troops to Damietta along the Nile. Tahir then assumed control of the government, but within 23 days encountered trouble when he was unable to pay the Ottoman Turkic troops who in turn mutinied, burnt down the governor's palace and assassinated him. A desperate, prolonged, and confusing conflict then ensued between the Albanians and Turks, with the divided Mamluks oscillating between the two factions or attempting to regain power themselves.
Failure of Ottoman authority
Tahir was replaced as bashi-bazouk commander by Muhammad Ali, a contingent commander that had arrived in Egypt in 1801 supporting the British against the French. Fearing for his position with the Ottomans, he entered into an alliance with the Mamluk leaders Ibrahim Bey and Bardisi Bey. With Hüsrev Pasha fortifying himself at Damietta, the Turkish troops in the vicinity of Cairo acclaimed Muftizade Ahmed Pasha, the Ottoman mayor of Medina, as their new governor. Muhammad Ali, however, refused to surrender Cairo to him. In reordering his forces to meet the new threat, he also removed the Mamluks from Giza, where they had been invited by his predecessor, Tahir. Muftizade Ahmed Pasha established himself at the mosque of Baybars in Cairo, which the French had converted into a fortress, but was eventually besieged by Muhammad Ali in the citadel of Cairo and compelled to surrender. Among the prisoners, those Turkish troops who had been involved in the assassination of Tahir Pasha were put to death.Muhammad Ali gave control over the Cairo citadel to his Mamluk allies. Soon after, they marched against Koca Hüsrev Pasha, who had been joined by a considerable number of Turks in a well-fortified position at Damietta. The bashi-bazouks defeated Koca Hüsrev Pasha, sacked Damietta, and brought him to Cairo, where he was treated with respect. Days later, Trabluslu Ali Pasha landed at Alexandria with a firman from the Ottoman Porte appointing him the new governor of Egypt, and he assumed control of the remaining Turkish forces. He threatened the Mamluk beys, now virtual masters of Upper Egypt, as well as of the capital and nearly all of Lower Egypt. Muhammad Ali and his Mamluk ally Bardisi Bey therefore descended on Rosetta, which had fallen into the hands of a brother of Trabluslu Ali Pasha. The town and its commander were successfully captured by Bardisi, who then proposed to proceed against Alexandria; his troops, however, demanded back-pay which he was unable to provide. During this delay, Trabluslu Ali Pasha destroyed the dykes between the lakes of Aboukir and Mareotis, creating a moat around Alexandria. Unable to proceed with operations against Alexandria, Bardisi and Muhammad Ali returned to Cairo. The troubles of Egypt were exacerbated by an insufficient flood of the Nile, resulting in great scarcity, aggravated by the onerous taxation the Mamluk beys were forced to resort to in order to pay their troops. Riots and violence continued in the capital, with the bashi-bazouks under little or no control.
Meanwhile, Trabluslu Ali Pasha had been behaving with brutality towards the French in Alexandria. He received written instructions from the Ottoman sultan, which in an effort to sow dissension and mistrust between Muhammad Ali Pasha and his Mamluk allies, he sent to Cairo and caused to be circulated there. The Ottoman sultan announced that the Mamluk beys could live peacefully in Egypt with annual pensions of fifteen purses and other privileges, provided the government returned to the hands of the Ottoman governor, which many beys accepted, causing a rift with Muhammad Ali Pasha. The Mamluks had were suspicious of the bashi-bazouks as they had intercepted Trabluslu's letters to them endeavoring to win their alliance as well.
Trabluslu Ali Pasha advanced towards Cairo with 3,000 men to discuss his resumption of control. The forces of the beys still allied with Muhammad Ali Pasha advanced to meet Trabluslu Ali Pasha at Shelqan, forcing the Ottoman governor to fall back on a place called Zufeyta. At this point, the bashi-bazouks managed to seize Trabluslu Ali Pasha's transport boats, capturing soldiers, servants, ammunition, and baggage. They then demanded to know why he had brought such a large host with him, contrary to both custom and a prior warning to not do so. Finding his advance blocked, reluctant to retreat with his forces to Alexandria, and being surrounded by the enemy in any case, Trabluslu Ali Pasha attempted to fight, but his men refused, he thus abandoned his troops and went over to the Mamluk bey camp. His army was eventually allowed to retire to Ottoman Syria. With Trabluslu Ali Pasha in the hands of the beys, a cavalryman was seen to leave his tent one night at full gallop, and it was discovered that he bore a letter to Osman Bey Hasan, the governor of Küçükkünye. This gave the Mamluks a pretext to rid themselves of him. Trabluslu Ali Pasha was sent under an escort 45 men towards the Syrian frontier; about a week later, news was received that during a skirmish with some of his own soldiers, he had fallen mortally wounded.
Alfi Bey and Bardisi Bey
The death of Trabluslu Ali Pasha produced only temporary tranquility. On February 12, 1804, The Mamluk leader Alfi Bey returned from the United Kingdom, splitting the Mamluks into two parties, one gathered around Alfi and the other around Bardisi Bey, the latter having by then gained an ascendency among the Mamluks. The guns of the citadel and of the palace were fired three times each in Alfi's honor at news of his return, but preparations were simultaneously begun to oppose him before he arrived in Cairo.Alfi's partisans gathered opposite Cairo and held nearby Giza, when Husain Bey, one of Alfi's relatives, was assassinated by emissaries of Bardisi. Muhammad Ali Pasha seized upon this as a pretext to restore order, and took possession of Giza, which was given over to his troops to pillage. Unaware of these events, Alfi embarked at Rashid and made his way to Cairo. Encountering a party of Albanians south of the town of Manfif, he was surprised in an ambush and only escaped with difficulty. Alfi then made his way to the eastern branch of the Nile, but the region had become dangerous and he fled to the desert. There he had several close escapes and at last secreted himself among a tribe of Bedouin Arabs at Ras al-Wgdi.
In the meantime, the fortunes of Alfi's main Mamluk opponent, Bardisi, began to decline. In order to pay the Albanian troops, Bardisi taxed the citizens of Cairo which led to rebellion. The Albanians, alarmed for their safety, assured the populace that they would not allow the public order to collapse, and Muhammad Ali issued a proclamation to that effect and offered other concessions to calm the public. Although the Albanian demand of pay caused Bardisi's taxation, Muhammad Ali's proclamation and concessions resulted in the gaining of popularity at the expense of the Mamluks. The bashi-bazouks took advantage of this and three days later on 12 March 1804 attacked the houses of Bardisi and aged Mamluk leader Ibrahim Bey, with both barely managing to escape. Upon hearing of the attack, the Mamluks in the Cairo citadel bombarded the bashi-bazouk houses in Azbakeya, but then evacuated the citadel hearing of the flight of their chiefs. Muhammad Ali Pasha gained possession of the Cairo citadel and proclaimed Mahommed Khosrev Pasha governor of Egypt, but he was killed after only days by associates of Tahir Pasha. Cairo descended into chaos and the bashi-bazouks looted the Mamluk houses. The Albanians then invited Hurshid Ahmed Pasha to assume the reins of government, and he without delay proceeded from Alexandria to Cairo.
In the meantime, Bardisi's forces ravaged the countryside a few miles south of the capital and intercepted the river-borne corn supplies. Soon thereafter, they advanced to the north of Cairo and successively took Bilbeis and Kalyub, plundering both, destroying the crops, and slaughtering the livestock. Cairo was in a state of tumult, suffering severely from a scarcity of grain, as well as from the heavy taxes of the pasha to meet the demands of his troops, whose numbers had been augmented by a Turkish detachment. The shops were closed, and the unfortunate people assembled in great crowds.
Events were then further complicated by the reappearance of Alfi, who joined forces with Osman Bey Hasan. Both Alfi and Hasan had professed allegiance to the pasha, but they soon turned against him and advanced upon the capital from the south. Their forces clashed with those of Muhammad Ali Pasha, and managed to seize from him the two fortresses of Tur. Muhammad Ali managed to speedily retake the fortresses in a night assault utilizing 4,000 infantry and cavalry. However, he was then forced to turn his attention northward, where the other Mamluks on that side of Cairo attacked and penetrated into the capital's suburbs. They in turn were defeated a few days later in a battle fought at Shubra, with heavy loss on both sides. This double reverse temporarily united the two Mamluk parties of Bardisi and Alfi, although the two chiefs remained personally antagonistic.
Bardisi shifted his forces to the south of Cairo, and the Mamluks gradually retreated towards Upper Egypt. There, the governor sent against them three successive expeditions, and many inconclusive battles were fought without decisive result.
During this period another calamity befell Egypt; about 3,000 Kurdish deli light cavalry arrived in Cairo from Syria. These troops had been sent for by Hurshid Ahmed Pasha in order to strengthen himself against the Albanians, but their arrival resulted in the immediate return of Muhammad Ali and his Albanians from their campaign against the Mamluks in the south. The Delis, rather than aid Hurshid Ahmed Pasha, were the proximate cause of his overthrow. Cairo was ripe for revolt; Hurshid Ahmed Pasha was hated for his tyranny and extortion, and reviled for the misconduct of his troops, especially the Delis. The sheikhs enjoined the people to close their shops, and the soldiers clamored for pay. At this juncture a firman arrived from Constantinople conferring on Muhammad Ali the governorship of Jedda. Within a few days, however, he managed to seize Egypt instead.
Ousting of Hurshid Ahmed Pasha
On May 17, 1805, the sheikhs, with an immense concourse of the inhabitants, assembled in the vicinity of the governor's residence, and the ulema, amid the prayers and cries of the people, wrote a statement of the wrongs which they had endured under the administration of Hurshid Ahmed Pasha. The ulema intended to go to the citadel and present the statement to the governor, but they were apprised of intended treachery on Hurshid Ahmed Pasha's part. The following day, after holding another council, they proceeded to Muhammad Ali and informed him that the people would no longer submit to Hurshid Ahmed Pasha. As related by Muhammad Ali, when asked whom they would have, they replied that they would accept Muhammad Ali Pasha himself to govern them according to the laws; for they saw in his countenance that he was possessed of justice and goodness. Muhammad Ali seemed to hesitate, and then complied, and was at once invested.On this a bloody struggle began between the two pashas. Hurshid Ahmed Pasha, being informed of the insurrection, immediately prepared to withstand a siege in the Cairo citadel. Two chiefs of the Albanians deserted Muhammad Ali and joined Hurshid Ahmed Pasha's party, while many of his soldiers deserted him and went over to Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali's strength lay in the popular support of the citizens of Cairo, who looked on him as a savior from their afflictions; and great numbers armed themselves, and with the sayyid Omar and the sheikhs at their head, commenced to patrol and guarding the city at night.
On the 19th of the same month Muhammad Ali commenced a siege of Hurshid Ahmed Pasha in the citadel. A few days later, Hurshid Ahmed Pasha gave orders to cannonade and bombard the city. For six days the bombardment continued, while the citadel itself was subject to counter bombardment in turn from batteries located in nearby hills.
Muhammad Ali's position at this time became very precarious. His troops grew mutinous due to arrears in their pay; a lieutenant of Hurshid Ahmed Pasha, his silahdar, who had commanded one of the expeditions against the Mamluks, advanced to the relief of his commander; and the latter ordered the Delis to march to his assistance. The firing ceased on Friday, but began again on the eve of Saturday and lasted until the next Friday.
On the following day, news came of the arrival at Alexandria of a messenger from Istanbul. That night in Cairo presented a curious spectacle; many of the inhabitants, believing that this envoy would put an end to their miseries, fired off their weapons as they paraded the streets with bands of music. The silahdar, imagining the noise to be a battle, marched in haste towards the citadel, while its garrison sallied forth and began throwing up entrenchments in the quarter of Arab al-Yesgr, but were repulsed by the armed inhabitants and the Albanian soldiers stationed there. During this time the cannonade and bombardment from the citadel, and on it from the batteries on nearby hills, continued unabated.
The envoy brought a firman confirming Muhammad Ali Pasha as governor of Egypt, and ordering Hurshid Ahmed Pasha to go to Alexandria, there to await further orders; but this he refused to do, on the ground that he had been appointed by a Hatt-i Sharif. The artillery ceased firing on the following day, but the troubles of the citizenry were increased rather than lessened, for law and order suffered a near total breakdown. Murders and robberies were daily committed by the soldiery, the shops were all shut and some of the streets barricaded.
While these scenes were being enacted in Cairo, Alfi Bey and his Mamluks were besieging Damanhur, and the other Mamluk beys were marching towards Cairo, Hurshid Ahmed Pasha having called them to his assistance. However, Muhammad Ali Pasha intercepted their advance and forced them to retreat.
Soon thereafter, a squadron under the command of the Turkish high admiral arrived at Aboukir Bay, with dispatches from the Ottoman sultan confirming the former envoy's firman, and authorizing Muhammad Ali Pasha to continue to discharge the functions of governor of Egypt. Hurshid Ahmed Pasha at first refused to yield; but at length, on condition that his troops be paid, he evacuated the Cairo citadel and embarked for Rosetta.
Defeat of the Mamluks
The authority of Muhammad Ali was disputed beyond Cairo by the Mamluk beys, joined by the army of the silahdar of Hurshid Pasha and bashi-bazouk deserters. The Mamluks north of Cairo were tricked into attacking Muhammad Ali by the Cairo dam on 17 August 1805, then entered Cairo where they were received with joy by the citizens, until fired upon from surrounding houses by forces loyal to Muhammad Ali Pasha after the Bab Zuweyla gate. The streets were blocked and the Mamluks were caught between two fires at Bain al-Kasrain. Some sought refuge at the Barkukia mosque while the abandoned their horses and escaped over the city-wall on foot. The Mamluk faction at Al-Azhar Mosque was alarmed and escaped by the eastern gate of Bib al-Ghoraib. Those at Barkukia surrendered, were stripped naked, and 50 were executed. A captured bey, one of four, attempted to kill Muhammad Ali but failed and was killed. One bey and two soldiers paid ransom and were released, while the rest were tortured and put to death. 83 heads, including those of Frenchmen and Albanians, were stuffed and sent to Constantinople, with a boast that the Mamluks were utterly destroyed.Most of the remaining Mamluk beys retreated to Upper Egypt, from where attempts at compromise failed. Alfi Bey offered his submission on the condition of the cession of the Fayum and other provinces, but this was refused, and he subsequently had two indecisive victories over Muhammad Ali Pasha's troops, many of whom deserted to the Mamluks. After British protests and Alfi's promise of 1,500 purses, the Ottoman Porte consented to the reinstating of 24 Mamluk beys and Alfi as their leader. Muhammad Ali protested, as well as a majority of Mamluks, who preferred their present condition under Bardisi rather than putting themselves under Alfi. The Porte sent a naval squadron under Salih Pasha, recently appointed high admiral, which arrived at Alexandria on 1 July 1806 with 3,000 regular troops and a successor to Muhammad Ali, who was to instead receive the pashalik of Salonika. Muhammad Ali claimed to obey the commands of the Porte, but stated that he owed vast payment to his troops who thus opposed his departure. He induced the ulema to sign a letter, praying the sultan to revoke the command for reinstating the Mamluk beys, persuaded the Albanian bashi-bazouk commanders to swear personal allegiance to him, and sent 2,000 purses contributed by them to Istanbul.
Alfi Bey was at that time besieging Damanhur, and he gained a signal victory over the Pasha's troops; but the dissensions of the Mamluk beys squandered their last chance at regaining power. Alfi and his partisans failed to raise the sum promised to the Porte; Salih Pasha received plenipotentiary powers from Istanbul, but in consequence of the letter from the ulema; and, on the condition of Muhammad Ali's paying 4,000 purses to the Porte, it was decided that he should continue in his post as governor of Egypt, and the reinstatement of the beys was abandoned. Fortune continued to favor Muhammad Ali, for in the following month Bardisi died; and soon after, a scarcity of provisions caused Alfi's troops to revolt and mutiny. They reluctantly raised the siege of Damanhur, being in daily expectation of the arrival of a British army; and at the village of Shubra-ment, Alfi was struck by a sudden illness, and died on January 30, 1807, at the age of fifty-five. Thus was Muhammad Ali relieved of his two most formidable enemies; and shortly after he defeated Shahin Bey, with the loss to the latter of his artillery and baggage and 300 men killed or taken prisoners.
Aftermath and legacy
Fraser campaign
On March 17, 1807, a British fleet appeared off Alexandria, with nearly 5,000 troops, under the command of General Alexander Mackenzie-Fraser, and commenced the Alexandria expedition of 1807. The people of Alexandria, being disaffected towards Muhammad Ali, opened the city's gates to the British. Here they first heard of the death of Alfi Bey, upon whose cooperation the expedition had counted for its success.The British immediately dispatched messengers to Alfi's successor and to the other Mamluk beys, inviting them to Alexandria. The British resident, Major Missett, having urged the importance of taking Rosetta and Rahmaniya in order to secure supplies for Alexandria, General Fraser, with the concurrence of the admiral, Sir John Thomas Duckworth, detached the 31st regiment and the Chasseurs Britanniques, accompanied by some field artillery under Major-General Wauchope and Brigadier-General Meade. Those troops entered Rosetta without opposition; but as soon as they had dispersed among the narrow streets, the local garrison opened a deadly fire on them from the latticed windows and the roofs of the houses. The British retreated towards Aboukir and Alexandria, with 185 killed and 281 wounded, General Wauchope and three officers being among the former, and General Meade and nineteen officers among the latter. The heads of the slain were fixed on stakes on each side of the road crossing the Azbakeya in Cairo.
Muhammad Ali, meanwhile, had been conducting an expedition against the Mamluk beys in Upper Egypt, and after defeating them near Asyut, he heard of the arrival of the British. Alarmed lest the surviving Mamluk beys should join the British, especially as they were already far north of his position, he immediately sent messengers to his rivals, promising to comply with all their demands if they should join him in expelling the invaders. His proposal being agreed to, both armies marched northwards towards Cairo on opposite sides of the river.
The possession of Rosetta being deemed indispensable, brigadier-generals William Stewart and John Oswald were sent there with 4,000 men. For thirteen days the town was bombarded without effect; and on April 20, news arrived from an advance guard at Al Hamed of sizeable reinforcements en route to rescue the besieged town. General Stewart was compelled to retreat, and a dragoon was dispatched to lieutenant-colonel Macleod, commanding at Al Hamed, with orders to fall back. However, the messenger was unable to penetrate the cordon around the British advance guard, by then besieged in Hamad, and the message was not delivered. The advance guard in Hamad, consisting of a detachment of the 31st, two companies of the 78th, one of the 35th, and De Rolls regiment, with a picquet of dragoons, the whole mustering 733 men, was surrounded and, after a gallant resistance, the survivors, who had expended all their ammunition, became prisoners of war. General Stewart managed to regain Alexandria with the remainder of his force, having lost nearly 900 men. Some hundreds of British heads were now exposed on stakes in Cairo, and the prisoners were marched between the mutilated remains of their countrymen.