Let’s talk Egypt 1801-1805 (ish) in a thread about a really understudied period of Egyptian history. This is likely a result of the overshadowing period of French Occupation (1798-1801) and the rule of Muhammad/ Mehmet (not fighting about this) Ali starting c. 1805-a It long..

Do you know (I didn’t) Napoleon left Egypt almost immediately because things didn’t really go as planned and he moved in to Syria before returning to France-taking the opportunity to seize real power in the final days of the Revolution. The French finally left in 1801.

After a lot of chaos and bloodshed the French left!. If you really want to understand many of the local/ international dimensions of what followed the French evacuation please read this text. It offers the most comprehensive look at this extremely turbulent period.

Surprise surprise-part of the evacuation of the French was facilitated by the British who really wanted the restoration of Mamluke rule because according to Napoleon’s soldier’s memoir (below) the Mamlukes and the British had a really strong trading relationship. Seems likely...

Because in October of 1800, The British government with the support of the East India Company attempted to oust the French with 15,000 British troops, 7,000 Ottomans, 25,000 from Gaza and 6,000 (Sepoys employed by the East India Company). Source...

The situation became really complicated in 1801 when Murad Bey (Mamluke leader) died of the plague that swept through Cairo in 1801 which killed about 2% of the estimated population. Also, Pavel I the Russian Czar was killed by one of his men-temporarily shifting alliances.

This was great for the British because the Russians had previously rejected the evacuation plan against the French. In typical British fashion-they did it anyway.

So back at it- in 1801 the British General Abercromby (below) returned with the Kapudan Pasha (head of the Ottoman Navy) to re-instate the Mamlukes. They were sent to take Rashid/ Rosetta. Instead in typical Ottoman fashion- the Mamlukes were betrayed and the Pasha returned home.

He was met with a beheading by the sultan and so began the chaos of Egypt’s governance. Muhammad Khosrev became Egypt’s first governor in the 19th century but like all of the Ottoman governors that was short lived. See he angered the Albanian regiment because he didn’t pay them..

when he used them to (try) to defeat Mamlukes in Damanhour. Instead the Mamlukes won and the guns and ammo fell to them. Whoops! This created a major rift between the leadership and Albanian troops. The Albanian troops seized his palace and he ran to Damietta.

The alliance between some Mamlukes and some Albanians captured him (he didn’t die) but also imposed Tahir Pasha as the leader of Egypt. He lost his head about 23 days later. An angry Janissary beheaded him because he couldn’t put them. This was the second Janissary intervention.

The first is when the plotted with the Mufti Ahmed Pasha and made him governor of Egypt for one day- but Tahir then took power. Simultaneously (yep you read that correctly) the US was entering into the first Barbary War! And in 1803 Egypt would be (somewhat) dragged into it.

The Barbary conflict-with an amazing reading list has been compiled by T.Jefferson’s public archive and public history project. It really helped me understand the conflict and Egypt’s role in it. https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/first-barbary-war

Quickly- the US conspired either Hamit the Barbary leader’s brother to return him to his position and impose him as the leader (after the death/killing of his brother). The problem with this plan was that he was in Egypt when the conflict started and took an extended vacation.

Instead the US helped the ex-pasha put together a collection of a few hundred armed Arabs and Greeks, mostly mercenaries under a handful of disparate leaders. Eaton, Hamet, and several marines marched their "army" nearly 500 miles through the desert...

along the southern shore of the Mediterranean and, on April 27, 1805, they captured the town of Derne, some miles east of Benghazi...” so rich and so much there. #1stbenghazimishap

Meanwhile...back in Cairo...Egypt had four more leaders between 1803 and 1805. First up Ibrahim Bey attempted to reclaim the grandeur of his joint rule with Murad (prior to the French campaign) to no avail. The surviving Mamluke Beys specifically al-Bardisi

Had split the Mamluke vote. At this point Selim III was pretty much over all of it and sent Trablusu Ali Pasha to take leadership from Ibrahim Bey who had been ruling defacto-but quickly learned that Muhammad Ali was really ruling with the support of an Albanian/Mamluk alliance.

Selim III recognized that the Mamluke/M. Ali alliance was problematic for Ottoman authority in Egypt. He promised pensions and peace to the Mamlukes if they accepted Ali’s rule. What happened next was super intense...

Muhammad Ali and al-Bardisi (remember him) refused to recognize him-so he fled to Alexandria- in a joint effort-M.Ali descended on Rashid/Rosetta and attacked Ali’s brother. All of this conflict was worsened by a weak flood and heavily imposed taxes.

Also the Mamlukes were becoming increasingly suspicious of the Albanian troops.Trabluslu Ali retired to his Mamluke allies (different group) and was escorted out of Cairo but died in a skirmish with his troops. The Sultan, relentlessly attempting to restore order imposed Khurshid

But M. Ali refused to accept the former mayor of Alexandria/ friend of the British. Calling in some Ottoman Calvary from Syria M. Ali declared himself leader of Egypt. Of course-there was intense conflict and rich details-for another thread I suppose

But it should be noted that the Sultan only conceded this when the Cairo ulema recognized M.Ali as their leader after years of fitna/ fawda. Sadly I have hobbled together this information from scant sourcing and a rich group of photographs from Wikipedia.

This period of history 1801-1805 has not been covered (as far as I can tell) in great detail by many scholars. Although @khaledfahmy11 covers M.Ali’s period with great detail and @jricole piece on Napoleon is of great use as well. I’d love more sources for this period-

Fill in any gaps/ correct errors/ This is part of a larger book project on Modern Egypt and this process really helps me. Big ups and special shout outs to the @khowaga and the @historian_misr for their support. Thanks for reading! Please correct errors if you see any-it’s cool!

Also! I don’t have Ottoman so I’m sure there is a rich literature that I don’t have access to-but I have Arabic so if there are any Arabic language sources on this period-please send them through. I note this also because the Arabized version of the Ottoman names isn’t political

I should also note that the British left in 1803 with Alfy Bey to recoup. This departure and subsequent return of Alfi Bey further split the Mamluk Beys...His fate was sealed when M.Ali killed him.