Ahmed Urabi

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Ahmed ʻUrabi Pasha
ʻUrabi in 1906
Prime Minister of Egypt
In office
1 July 1882 – 13 September 1882
MonarchTewfik Pasha
Preceded byRaghib Pasha
Succeeded byMohamed Sherif Pasha
Personal details
Born(1841-03-31)March 31, 1841
ʻUrabi revolt
Anglo-Egyptian War

Ahmed ʻUrabi (

invasion which led to the capture of ʻUrabi and his allies and the imposition of British control in Egypt. ʻUrabi and his allies were sentenced by Tewfik into exile far away in British Ceylon, as a form of punishment.[6]

Early life

He was born in 1841

Isma'il, who had done much to eliminate the barriers between the bulk of the Egyptian populace and the ruling elite, who were drawn largely from the military castes that had ruled Egypt for centuries. Isma'il abolished the exclusive access to the Egyptian and Sudanese military ranks by Egyptians of Balkan, Circassian, and Turkish origin. Isma'il conscripted soldiers and recruited students from throughout Egypt and Sudan regardless of class and ethnic backgrounds in order to form a "modern" and "national" Egyptian military and bureaucratic elite class. Without these reforms, ʻUrabi's rise through the ranks of the military would likely have been far more restricted.[citation needed
]

ʻUrabi served during the

Ethiopian-Egyptian War (1874-1876) in a support role on the Egyptian Army's lines of communication. He is said to have returned from the war - which Egypt lost - "incensed at the way in which it had been mismanaged", and the experience turned him towards politics and decisively against the Khedive.[9]

Protest against Tewfik

He was a galvanizing speaker. Because of his peasant origins, he was at the time, and is still today, viewed as an authentic voice of the Egyptian people. Indeed, he was known by his followers as 'El Wahid' (the Only One), and when the British poet and explorer

Wilfrid Blunt went to meet him, he found the entrance of ʻUrabi's house was blocked with supplicants. When Khedive Tewfik issued a new law preventing peasants from becoming officers, ʻUrabi led the group protesting the preference shown to aristocratic officers (again, largely Egyptians of foreign descent). ʻUrabi repeatedly condemned severe prevalent racial discrimination of ethnic Egyptians in the army.[10]
He and his followers, who included most of the army, were successful and the law was repealed. In 1879 they formed the Egyptian Nationalist Party in the hopes of fostering a stronger national identity.

He and his allies in the army joined with the reformers in February 1882 to demand change. This revolt, also known as the

ʻUrabi revolt, was primarily inspired by his desire for social justice for the Egyptians based on equal standing before the law. With the support of the peasants as well, he launched a broader effort to try to wrest Egypt and Sudan from foreign control, and also to end the absolutist regime of the Khedive, who was himself subject to European influence under the rules of the Caisse de la Dette Publique. The Arab-Egyptian deputies demanded a constitution that granted the state parliamentary power.[10] The revolt then spread to express resentment of the undue influence of foreigners, including the predominantly Turko-Circassian
aristocracy from other parts of the Ottoman Empire.

Parliament planning

ʻUrabi was first promoted to

Ottoman Sultan, to whom Egypt and Sudan still owed technical fealty. The Sublime Porte
hesitated in responding to the request.

British intervention

ʻUrabi surrenders to Drury Drury-Lowe

The British were especially concerned that ʻUrabi would default on Egypt's massive debt and that he might try to gain control of the

anti-Christian riots to break out in Alexandria on 12 June 1882. The French fleet was recalled to France, while the Royal Navy warships in the harbor opened fire on the city's artillery emplacements after the Egyptians ignored an ultimatum from Admiral Seymour
to remove them.

The Battle of Kassassin was fought at the

Sweet Water Canal, when on August 28, 1882, the British force was attacked by the Egyptians, led by 'Urabi.[11] They needed to carve a passage through Ismailia and the cultivated Delta. Both attacks were repulsed. The Household Cavalry under the command of General Drury Drury-Lowe led the "Moonlight Charge", consisting of the Royal Horse Guards and 7th Dragoon Guards galloping at full tilt into enemy rifle fire. Their ranks were whittled down from the saddle, but still they charged headlong, ever forward. Sir Baker Russell commanded 7th on the right; whereas the Household was led by Colonel Ewart, c/o of the Life Guards. They captured 11 Egyptian guns. Despite only half a dozen casualties, Wolseley was so concerned about the quality of his men that he wrote Cambridge for reforms to recruiting. Nonetheless, these were the elite of the British army and, these skirmishes were costly.[12][13] Legend and a poem "At Kassassin", say the battle began as it was getting dark.[11]

On September 9, Urabi seized what he considered his last chance to attack the British position. A fierce battle ensued on the railway line at 7 am. General Willis sallied out from emplacements to drive back the Egyptians, who at 12 pm returned to their trenches. Thereupon Sir Garnet Wolseley arrived with the main force, while the Household Cavalry guarded his flank from a force at Salanieh. A total force of 634 officers and 16,767 NCOs and men were stationed at Kassassin before they marched on September 13, 1882, towards the main objective at Tell El Kebir where another battle was fought, the Battle of Tell El Kebir.[13]

In September a British army landed in Alexandria but failed to reach Cairo after being checked at the

Sir Garnet Wolseley, landed in the Canal Zone and on 13 September 1882 they defeated ʻUrabi's army at the Battle of Tell El Kebir
. From there, the British force advanced on Cairo which surrendered without a shot being fired, as did ʻUrabi and the other nationalist leaders.

Exile and return

ʻUrabi was tried by the restored

Isma'il the Magnificent, and remained deeply opposed to British influence in Egypt. ʻUrabi returned on 1 October 1901, and remained in Egypt until his death on 21 September 1911.[18]

Legacy

While the British intervention was meant to be a temporary state of affairs, British forces continued to occupy Egypt for decades afterwards. In 1914, fearing that the nationalist Khedive Abbas II would form an alliance with the

Egyptian Revolution of 1919
, prompting the British to formally recognise Egypt as an independent sovereign state in 1922.

ʻUrabi's revolt had a profound and long-lasting impact on Egypt, surpassing even the efforts of resistance hero

political activists living in Ceylon.[19]

Tributes

Egypt

Abroad

  • Arabi, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, was named in honour of 'Urabi as the residents of the suburb felt a sense of solidarity with him due to the fact that they were a part of New Orleans which sought to separate from the city.
  • The Gaza Strip has a coastal road named Ahmed Orabi Street.
  • Colombo'a , Sri Lanka, has an Orabi Pasha Street in its central district.
  • Kandy, Sri Lanka, is home to the Orabi Pasha Cultural Centre.[20]

Quotes

Notes

References

  1. ^ Royle, Charles (1900). The Egyptian Campaigns (1882–1885). London: Hurst and Blackett, Ltd. pp. 601). Retrieved June 27, 2021.
  2. ^ Portrait of "'Uraby Pasha" by Luigi Fiorillo, from album showing Alexandria after the British naval bombardment of the city (1882). American University in Cairo website, accessed 27 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b "ʿUrābī Pasha". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  4. ^ Wallace, Donald M.; Cana, Frank R. (1911). "Egypt § History" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 114. Among the mutinous soldiers on that occasion was a fellah officer calling himself Ahmed Ourabi the Egyptian.}
  5. JSTOR 2139362
    .
  6. ^ Buzpinar, S. Tufan. "The Repercussions of the British Occupation of Egypt on Syria, 1882–83". Middle Eastern Studies. 36.
  7. ^ Blunt, Wilfred S. (1922). The Secret History of the English Occupation in Egypt. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  8. ^ McGrath, Cam (October 2004). "Far and Away". Egypt Today. Archived from the original on January 8, 2011.
  9. ^ Blunt, Secret History, p.101
  10. ^ a b c Thompson, Elizabeth. "Ahmad Urabi and Nazem al- Islam Kermani: Constitutional Justice in Egypt and Iran," Justice Interrupted (Harvard, 2013), 61–88.
  11. ^ a b "The Battle of Kassassin, Egyptian War". UK National Army Museum. Archived from the original on October 25, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  12. ^ Arthur, Sir George (1909). The story of the Household Cavalry. London,: A. Constable. pp. 676–679. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  13. ^
    ISBN 9781473815001
    . Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  14. ^ Obituary for Richard Eve in The Sphere, 11 July 1900, pg 93
  15. ^ Thompson, Elizabeth. Justice Interrupted: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in the Middle East. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. 69.
  16. ^ Baring, Evelyn (1908). Modern Egypt. Vol. 1. London: Macmillan. p. 336.
  17. ^ de Soysa, Rupa. The Desoyas of Alfred House. Karunaratne & Sons. p. 34.
  18. ^ Egypt state information Archived May 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Udumbara, Udugama (March 2, 2008). "That exile from Egypt who inspired many". Kandy Times.
  20. ^ That exile from Egypt who inspired many Sri Lankans, Kandy Times, March 2008. Accessed 17 June 2021.
  21. ^ Kanz ul Amaal, Volume No. 4, Page No. 455

Further reading

  • Huffaker, Shauna. "Representations of Ahmed Urabi: Hegemony, Imperialism, and the British Press, 1881–1882." Victorian Periodicals Review 45.4 (2012): 375-405.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Isma'il Raghib Pasha
 Prime Minister of Egypt
(in rebellion) 		Succeeded by
Muhammad Sharif Pasha
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