Research Paper on Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt

Introduction

Muhammad Ali was born in Kavala, in the modern day Greece in March 1769. He was linked with Ottoman Empire as he was born to Albanian Family with their origin in Korce. In his familial lineage, he was the second born of Ibrahim Agha who was a tobacco and a shipping merchant. His father also served as ottoman commander in a small unit of Kavalla just as his son Muhammad. The historical contexts value the study of Muhammad Ali due to his unique leadership characters accompanied by Reforms. Muhammad Ali of Egypt was a commander in the Ottoman Empire and he was considered to be the founder of Egypt due to the various reforms that he introduced in Egypt.

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Muhammad Ali Rise of Power

Muhammad Ali Rise of Power was a long process. Ali's Seizure of power was considered to be sparked by the war between Ottoman Turks, Albanian Mercenaries and Egyptian Mamluks. It took 4 years (1803-1807) with Ali delightful of full control of Egypt until 1805 when his position was approved by Ottoman Sultan (Abugideiri 57). Subsequently, Ali was made the unquestionable chief of Egypt with his exertions focused on the desire to maintain his practice for independence. Muhammad Ali arrived in Egypt as a junior commander in the Albanian force in the year 1803 and had recently become the commander of Egyptian Ottoman viceroy. Muhammad Ali had good leadership qualities that led him to be named the Father of modern Egypt. (Abugideiri 64). There was tremendous effectiveness of Muhammad's leadership qualities where he consolidated his action in Egypt to defeat Mamluks and bring Upper Egypt under his control.

Egypt Under Control of Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali took control of Egypt in 1805 after defeating the French and the Ottomans a. The Campaign against the Saudis

The war between ottoman and Saudi was fought in 1811-1818 under the reign of Muhammad Ali. Wahhabis of Najd had conquered Hejaz which was under Ottomans (Holt and Dally 104). Afterward, Muhammad was ordered to start to move to conquer mecca for the respect of Ottoman Empire. He was against the Saudis in the Ottoman-Saudi war.

First Arabian Campaign

Due to the sovereignty of Ottoman sultan and the commands made by Ottoman Porte, Muhammad Ali made and dispatched an army of 20,000 men and made commands under his son Tusun. This marked the first Arabian campaign (Holt and Dally 104). Later the force underwent a repulsion with the Battle of Al-Safra and retreated to Yanbu. Tusun captured Medina after a prolonged siege.

Second Arabian Campaign

After hearing of the military revolt in Cairo, Tusun returned to Egypt where he died in 1816 aged 20. Muhammad was against the treaty made by the Saudis and then he sent another group of the army to the Arabian so that he can be satisfied with the clauses he had passed. It is the expedition that was under his firstborn son Ibrahim Pasha which left the autumn in 1816 characterized by long wars (Pasha 70). Despite the long wars, Ibrahim captured the capital city of Saudi in 1818. Abdullah I who was the chief and treasurer was made a prisoner and later their office assistant was referred to Istanbul where he was sentenced to death despite safety promises by Muhammad Ali. Later, Ibrahim returned having subdued the Arabian position.

Administrative and Economic Reforms

Reinventing Egypt along European lines was done to complete reforms. Reforms were made successful and strong during Muhammad Ali due to the economy and strong military forces. These Reforms included.

Military Reforms

Muhammad organized a strong army to conquer the states. The army consisted more trained soldiers and had superior weapons. This made Muhammad remain in power for long period. Recruitment of the soldiers was easy since they used captives as their source to train soldiers for war preparation.

Cultural Reforms

The ottoman culture made the rule of Muhammad to last for long period. Most of them were Muslims and believed on holy war. This culture made ottoman organize strong armies to defend their empire and win the ottoman- Saudi war (Holt and Dally 106). Cultural reforms were important in the Ottoman sultan and organized a massive group of armies.

Economy Reforms

Strong economic power made the rule of Muhammad to be strong. During his reign, Egypt was the largest producer of cotton material. This made the rule efficient as the cotton was used to finance the war. Engineering and Textile industry also led to the development of strong activities during the rule of Muhammad.

Invasion of Libya and Sudan

Attempts of Expansion

During the era of Muhammad Ali, in 1820, he gave commands to start overthrowing the eastern part of Libya. He commenced the mission by sending an expedition westwards which conquered the oasis of Siwa and annexed it. His intention to invade Sudan was based on the fact that he wanted to extend boundaries and rule in the southward part in order to obtain valuable minerals like gold (Tignor 53). The Gold mines he wanted to secure believing that there existed Sennar. The mission was accomplished since he used superior weapons with disaffected troops who were obtained from the sufficient captives.

To make the service complete and efficient, his youngest son Ismail led the forces. The troops consisted of 4000 and 5000 men wherein some were Arabs while others were Turks. The journey started when they left Cairo in 1820 (Holt and Dally 106). The fight began when Nubia submitted the Shaigiya tribe and the tribe was defeated in the province of Dangola. Later on, the remnants of the Mamluks dispersed reducing sennar without a battle.

Muhammad Ali's Rule Comes to an End

Causes of Ali's Fall of Ali

Ali rule came to an end as it was sparked by several factors. One of the factors that led to the decline of Ali's Rule was a disease that weakened his supremacy leading to death. Furthermore, the restrictions laid upon Muhammad Ali led to his fall. This happened because rules were set forbidding him from maintaining a fleet. Moreover, restrictions were made and he was restricted not to exceed his army by 18000 men (Clark 370). This meant that he could not win tough battles hence his power declined. Long wars accompanied by Murrain of cattle in 1842 also geared towards Muhammad end of the rule. Ali fall was also speeded up by the Nile flood that destructed everything leaving the country empty.

Successors of Ali Muhammad

After the death of Ali in 1848, he was succeeded by several leaders. Immediately, after his death Egyptian government fall under Abbas who was his nephew. It is Abbas who brought to an end the issue of commercial monopolies. Abbas only reigned for six years and he was murdered in 1854.

His uncle Said Pasha succeeded him, the favorite son of Muhammad Ali. His rule was put under pressure by French which later saw him granting French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps a concession of forming a company that lasted for 99 years (Tignor 47). The concession was opposed by many leaders. After ruling for 9 years, Pasha died In January 1863. He was then succeeded by his nephew Ismail, son to Ibrahim Pasha.

Works Cited

Pasha, Mohammad Ali. "CHAPTER THIRD: Political and Administrative Reforms of." MOHAMMAD ALI PASHA AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE MODERNISATION OF EGYPT (2014): 70.

Abugideiri, Hibba. "Muhammad Ali's Egypt: e Rise of Modern Medicine." Gender and the Making of Modern Medicine in Colonial Egypt. Routledge, 2016. 35-66.

Clark, Kelly James. "The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times." Journal of Markets & Morality 20.2 (2017): 368-371.

Tignor, Robert L. Modernization and British colonial rule in Egypt, 1882-1914. Princeton University Press, 2015.

Holt, Peter Malcolm, and Martin W. Daly. A history of Sudan: from the coming of Islam to the present day. Routledge, 2014.