Muhammad Ali of Egypt

Lore & Background

Muhammad Ali was born in a village in Albania to ethnic Albanian parents from the Korça region. When he was young he moved with his family to the Sanjak of Kavala in the Rumelia Eyalet. He was the second son of Ibrahim Agha, a Bektashi Albanian tobacco and shipping merchant who also served as an Ottoman commander of a small unit in Kavala. His mother was Zaynab Hanim, daughter of Çorbaci Husain Agha, another Muslim Albanian notable in Kavala. After his father died, Muhammad was taken and raised by his uncle Husain Agha with his cousins. As a reward for his hard work, his uncle gave him the rank of 'Bolukbashi' for collecting taxes in Kavala. Muhammad Ali later married his cousin Amina Hanim, a wealthy widow, daughter of Nusretli Ali Agha, the governor of Kavala, and Kadriye. After success in tax collection, he earned the rank of Second Commander under his cousin Sarechesme Halil Agha in the Kavala Volunteer Contingent of Albanian mercenaries sent to re-occupy Egypt after Napoleon's withdrawal. In 1801, his unit landed at Aboukir. One of his trusted commanders was Miralay Mustafa Bey, who married Muhammad's sister Zubayda. The French withdrawal left a power vacuum. Muhammad Ali used his loyal Albanian troops to work with both Ottoman forces and Mamluks, gaining power. In 1801, he allied with Egyptian leader Umar Makram and Egypt's Grand Imam of al-Azhar. In 1805, a group of prominent Egyptians led by the ulama demanded the replacement of Wāli Hurshid Pasha by Muhammad Ali, and the Ottomans yielded. In 1809, Ali exiled Makram to Damietta after Makram discovered Ali's intentions to seize power. Sultan Selim III could not oppose his ascension. To eliminate the Mamluk threat, Muhammad Ali invited Mamluk leaders to a celebration at the Cairo Citadel on 1 March 1811. When they gathered, they were surrounded and killed by his troops. He then dispatched his army to rout the remaining Mamluk forces. He summed up his vision: 'I am well aware that the (Ottoman) Empire is heading by the day toward destruction... On its ruins I will build a vast kingdom... up to the Euphrates and the Tigris.'

Reader's Guide

Muhammad Ali's significance lies in his transformation of Egypt from a weak Ottoman province into a regional power and the establishment of a hereditary dynasty that ruled for over a century. He implemented dramatic reforms in the military, economic, and cultural spheres. His first task was securing revenue: he 'nationalized' all iltizam lands of Egypt by raising taxes on tax-farmers until they could not pay, then confiscated their properties. He also created a new tax on waqf endowments, previously tax-free, weakening local elites and funding his military. His land reform amounted to a state monopoly on trade—all producers had to sell to the state, which resold goods and retained the surplus. This proved very profitable with long staple cotton, a new cash crop. He expanded agricultural land and overhauled irrigation, largely by corvée (forced peasant labor), and average wages increased fourfold. He built an industrial base focused on weapons: factories in Cairo produced muskets and cannons, and a shipyard in Alexandria built a navy. By the end of the 1830s, Egypt's war industries had constructed nine 100-gun warships and turned out 1,600 muskets a month. He also established a textile industry and used concessions to build cheap infrastructure—dams and railroads—where foreign companies raised capital and built projects in exchange for operating revenue. He granted Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin permission to build technical schools modeled after the Ecole Polytechnique. By hiring European managers, he introduced industrial techniques. Militarily, he recaptured Arabian territories for the sultan and conquered Sudan of his own accord. His attempt to suppress the Greek rebellion failed decisively after European intervention at Navarino. In 1831, he waged war against the sultan, capturing Syria and crossing into Anatolia, but European powers forced him to retreat. After a failed Ottoman invasion of Syria in 1839, he launched another invasion in 1840, defeating the Ottomans again and opening the way toward Constantinople. Faced with another European intervention, he accepted a brokered peace in 1842 and withdrew from the Levant; in return, he and his descendants were granted hereditary rule over Egypt and Sudan. His dynasty ruled Egypt for over a century until the 1952 revolution when King Farouk was overthrown by the Free Officers Movement led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, establishing the Republic of Egypt.

Did You Know?

• Muhammad Ali was born on 4 March 1769 and died on 2 August 1849.
• He was the second son of a Bektashi Albanian tobacco and shipping merchant named Ibrahim Agha.
• At the celebration on 1 March 1811, Muhammad Ali had the Mamluk leaders surrounded and killed at the Cairo Citadel.
• By the end of the 1830s, Egypt's war industries were turning out 1,600 muskets a month.
• His dynasty ruled Egypt for over a century, until King Farouk was overthrown in the 1952 revolution.