Early Ottoman period After the conquest of Egypt in 1517, the Ottoman Sultan
Selim I left the country.
Grand Vizier Yunus Pasha was awarded the
governorship of Egypt. However, the sultan soon discovered that Yunus Pasha had created an extortion and bribery syndicate, and gave the office to
Hayır Bey, the former
Mamluk governor of
Aleppo, who had contributed to the Ottoman victory at the
Battle of Marj Dabiq. The history of early Ottoman Egypt is a competition for power between the Mamluks and the representatives of the
Ottoman Sultan. The register by which a great portion of the land was a
fief of the Mamluks was left unchanged, allowing the Mamluks to quickly return to positions of great influence. The Mamluk
emirs were to be retained in office as heads of 12
sanjaks, into which Egypt was divided; and under the next sultan,
Suleiman the Magnificent, two chambers were created, called the Greater Divan and Lesser Divan, in which both the army and the ecclesiastical authorities were represented, to aid the pasha by their deliberations. Six regiments were constituted by the conqueror Selim for the protection of Egypt; to those Suleiman added a seventh, of
Circassians.
1527 to 1610 In 1527, the first survey of Egypt under the Ottomans was made, after the official copy of the former registers had perished by fire; this new survey did not come into use until 1605. Egyptian lands were divided into four classes: the sultan's domain, fiefs, land for the maintenance of the army, and lands settled on religious foundations. A great financial reform was then effected by Kara Mehmed Pasha, who readjusted the burdens imposed on the different communities of Egypt in accordance with their means. The governors appointed thence came to be treated by the Egyptians with continually decreasing respect. In July 1623, an order came from the Porte dismissing
Kara Mustafa Pasha, and appointing Çeşteci Ali Pasha governor in his place. The officers met the deputy of the newly appointed governor and demanded from him the customary gratuity; when the deputy refused, they sent letters to the Porte declaring that they wished to have Kara Mustafa Pasha, and not Çeşteci Ali Pasha, as governor. Meanwhile, Çeşteci Ali Pasha had arrived at
Alexandria and was met by a deputation from
Cairo telling him that he was not wanted. He returned a mild answer; when a rejoinder came in the same style as the first message, he had the leader of the deputation arrested and imprisoned. The garrison of Alexandria then attacked the castle and rescued the prisoner, whereupon Çeşteci Ali Pasha was compelled to reembark on his ship and escape. Shortly thereafter, a
rescript arrived from Constantinople confirming Kara Mustafa Pasha in the governorship. Thus Ridwan Bey, a Mamluk
emir, was able to exercise
de facto authority over Egypt from 1631 to 1656. By the end of the Century these factions were well established and wielded a significant amount of influence over Ottoman governors. Between 1688 and 1755, Mamluk beys, allied with Bedouin and factions within the Ottoman garrison, deposed at least thirty-four governors.
Later Ottoman period 1707 to 1755 By the 18th century, the importance of the pasha was superseded by that of the Mameluk beys; two offices, those of Shaykh al-Balad and
Amir al-hajj—which were held by Mamluks—represented the real headship of the community. The process by which this came about is obscure, owing to the want of good chronicles for the Turkish period of Egyptian history. In 1707, the shaykh al-balad, Qasim Iywaz, was the head of one of two Mameluke factions, the Qasimites and the Fiqarites, between whom the seeds of enmity were sown by the pasha of the time, with the result that a fight took place between the factions outside Cairo, lasting eighty days. At the end of that time, Qasim Iywaz was killed and the office which he had held was given to his son Ismail. Ismail held this office for 16 years, while the pashas were constantly being changed, and succeeded in reconciling the two factions of Mamelukes. In 1724, Ismail was assassinated through the machinations of the pasha, and Shirkas Bey—of the opposing faction—was elevated to the office of Sheikh al-Balad in his place. He was soon driven from his post by one of his own faction called
Dhu-'l-Fiqar, and fled to
Upper Egypt. After a short time, he returned at the head of an army, and in the last of the ensuing battles Shirkas Bey met his end by drowning. Dhu-'l-Fiqar was himself assassinated in 1730. His place was filled by Othman Bey, who had served as his general in this war. Two Ottoman era Mamluks, Iwaz Bey's Mamluk Yusuf Bey al-Jazzar and
Jazzar Pasha were known for massacring Bedouins and given the name "butcher" (al-Jazzar) for it. After Muhammad Ali defeated the Mamluks and Bedouin, the Bedouin went on a destructive rampage against the Egyptian fellahin peasantry, destroying and looting crops and massacred 200 townsmen in
Belbeis in
Al-Sharqiya province and also rampaging through
al-Qaliubiyya province.
Campaign against the Saudis (1811–1818) Acknowledging the sovereignty of the Ottoman sultan and at his command, Muhammad Ali dispatched an army of 20,000 men (including 2,000 horses) under the command of his son
Tusun, a youth of sixteen, against the
Saudis in the
Ottoman–Saudi War. By the end of 1811, Tusun had received reinforcements and captured
Medina after a prolonged siege. He next took
Jeddah and
Mecca, defeating the Saudi beyond the latter and capturing their general. After the death of the Saudi leader
Saud, Muhammad Ali concluded a treaty with Saud's son and successor,
Abdullah I in 1815. The industry was initially driven by machinery that relied on traditional energy sources, such as
animal power,
water wheels, and
windmills, which were also the principle energy sources in Western Europe up until around 1870. While
steam power had been experimented with in Ottoman Egypt by engineer
Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf in 1551, when he invented a
steam jack driven by a rudimentary
steam turbine, it was under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century that
steam engines were introduced to Egyptian industrial manufacturing. After the Egyptians withdrew from the Yemeni seaboard in 1841,
Haj Ali Shermerki, a successful and ambitious Somali merchant, purchased from them executive rights over Zeila. Shermerki's governorship had an instant effect on the city, as he maneuvered to monopolize as much of the regional trade as possible, with his sights set as far as
Harar and the
Ogaden. In 1845, Shermerki deployed a few matchlock men to wrest control of neighboring
Berbera from that town's then feuding Somali authorities. This alarmed the
Harari emir of Harar, who, having already been at loggerheads with Shermerki over fiscal matters, was concerned about the ramifications that these movements might ultimately have on his own city's commerce. The emir consequently urged Berbera's leaders to reconcile and mount a resistance against Shermerki's troops. Shermerki was later succeeded as Governor of Zeila by Abu Bakr Pasha, a local Afar statesman. In 1874–75, the Egyptians obtained a
firman from the Ottomans by which they secured claims over the city. At the same time, the Egyptians received British recognition of their nominal jurisdiction as far east as
Cape Guardafui. marking the end of Egypt as a formal Ottoman province. Isma'il ruled the Khedivate of Egypt until his deposition in 1879. His rule is closely connected to the building of the Suez Canal. On his accession, he refused to ratify the concessions to the
Canal company made by Sa'id, and the question was referred in 1864 to the arbitration of
Napoleon III, who awarded £3,800,000 to the company as compensation for their losses. When the canal finally opened, Isma'il held a festival of unprecedented scope, inviting dignitaries from around the world. These developments, together with the
costly war against
Yohannes IV of Ethiopia, left Egypt in deep debt to the European powers. A national debt of over one hundred million pounds sterling (as opposed to three millions when he became viceroy) had been incurred by the khedive, whose fundamental idea of liquidating his borrowings was to borrow at increased interest. When he could raise no more loans, he sold his Suez Canal shares (in 1875) to the British Government for only £3,976,582; this was immediately followed by the beginning of foreign intervention. In December 1875, Stephen Cave was sent out by the British government to inquire into the finances of Egypt, and in April 1876 his report was published, advising that in view of the waste and extravagance it was necessary for foreign Powers to interfere in order to restore credit. The result was the establishment of the
Caisse de la Dette Publique. With the country becoming increasingly lawless, the British and French governments pressured the Ottoman Sultan
Abdul Hamid II to depose Isma'il Pasha, and this was done on 26 June 1879. The more pliable
Tewfik Pasha, Isma'il's son, was made his successor. A large military demonstration in September 1881 forced the Khedive Tewfiq to dismiss his Prime Minister. In April 1882
France and
Great Britain sent warships to Alexandria to bolster the khedive amidst a turbulent climate. Tewfik moved to Alexandria for fear of his own safety as army officers led by
Ahmed Urabi began to take control of the government. By June Egypt was in the hands of nationalists opposed to European domination of the country. A British naval
Bombardment of Alexandria had little effect on the opposition which led to the
Anglo-Egyptian War. The British succeeded in defeating the Egyptian Army at
Tell El Kebir in September 1882 and took control of the country putting Tewfik back in control. The Khedivate of Egypt remained under British military occupation until the establishment of the
Sultanate of Egypt in 1914. == Historiography ==