| ʻUrabi revolt | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Portrayal of the revolt byThe Illustrated London News | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |  ʻUrabilist forces | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Tewfik PashaGarnet WolseleyBeauchamp Seymour | Ahmed ʻUrabiMahmoud FehmyMahmoud el-Baroudi | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 36,000 (1879) 40,560 (1882) |
| ||||||
TheʻUrabi revolt, also known as theʻUrabi Revolution (Arabic:الثورة العرابية), was anationalist uprising in theKhedivate of Egypt from 1879 to 1882. It was led by and named for ColonelAhmed Urabi and sought to depose thekhedive,Tewfik Pasha, and endBritish andFrench influence over the country.
The uprising was ended by theAnglo-Egyptian War and the British takeover of the country, beginning thehistory of Egypt under the British.[2][3]
Egypt in the 1870s was under foreign influence, corruption, misgovernment, and in a state of financial ruin. Huge debts rung up by its rulerIsmaʻil Pasha could no longer be repaid, and under pressure from the European banks that held the debt, the country's finances were being controlled by representatives of France and Britain via theCaisse de la Dette Publique. When Ismaʻil tried to rouse theEgyptian people against this foreign intervention, he was deposed by the British and replaced by his more pliable sonTewfik Pasha.
The upper ranks of the civil service, the army and the business world had become dominated by Europeans, who were paid more than native Egyptians. Within Egypt, a parallel legal system for suing Europeans separately from the natives was set up. This angered educated and ambitious Egyptians in the military and civil service who felt that the European domination of top positions was preventing their own advancement. The heavily taxed Egyptian peasants were also discontented by their taxes going to Europeans who lived in relative wealth.
Egyptians resented not onlyWestern European domination but also theTurks,Circassians andAlbanians, who controlled most other elite positions in the government and military. Albanian troops had come to Egypt along withMuhammad Ali and helped him to take control of the country and were highly favoured by the Khedive.Ottoman Turkish was still the official language of the army and Turks were more likely to be promoted. In the ruling cabinet under Khedive Tewfiq, every member was a Turco-Circassian. The growingfiscal crisis in the country forced the Khedive to drastically cut the army. From a height of 94,000 troops in 1874, its strength was cut to 36,000 in 1879, with plans to shrink it even more. This created a large class of unemployed and disaffected army officers within the country. The disastrouswar with the Ethiopian Empire of 1875–1876 also angered the officers, who felt that the government had sent them unwisely into the conflict.
A public consciousness was developing in Egypt during this period, literacy was spreading, and more periodicals were being published in the 1870s and 1880s, such as the influential magazineAbu Naddara (أبو نظارة 'guy with the glasses'). Published byYaʿqūb Ṣanūʿ, a Jew ofItalian andEgyptian origins, this Paris-based publication was a political satire magazine that often mocked the establishment under European control, and it increasingly irritated the ruling powers as well as the Europeans as it favoured reform and revolutionary movements,[4][5] and Ṣanūʿ is credited with having coined and introduced the anti-colonial slogan "Egypt for the Egyptians" (مصر للمصريين).[4][5]Abu Naddara had a wide reach since, unlike many other publications,Abu Naddara was written inEgyptian Arabic rather thanModern Standard Arabic, making its satire and political pieces understandable to the masses, not just the educated elite. Yaʿqūb Ṣanūʿ claimed that his magazine reached a circulation of 10,000, which was a huge number in those days.[6]
During this time, Ahmed ʻUrabi, anative non-European army officer, had risen to the rank of colonel. Because of his peasant upbringing and traditional training, he came to be viewed by many as the authentic voice of the people of Egypt. To them, he represented a peasant population frustrated with tax-exempt foreigners and wealthy local landlords. ʻUrabi commanded the respect and support of not only the peasantry but also a large portion of the Egyptian army.[7]
Tension built over the summer of 1881 as both the Khedive and the Egyptian officers, now led by ʻUrabi, searched for supporters and gathered allies. In September the Khedive ordered ʻUrabi's regiment to leave Cairo. He refused and ordered the dismissal of the Turco-Circassian generals and the creation of an elected government. Unable to oppose the revolt, Tewfiq agreed and a new chamber of deputies and government were established containing a number of ʻUrabi's allies.
On January 8, 1882, the French and British sent a joint note that asserted the primacy of the Khedive's authority. The note infuriated the parliamentarians and ʻUrabi. The government collapsed; a new one with ʻUrabi as Minister of War was created. This new government threatened the positions of Europeans in the government and also began laying off large numbers of Turco-Circassian officers.
This broad effort at reform was opposed by European interests, many of the large landowners, the Turkish and Circassian elite, the high-rankingulama (Muslim clergy),Syrian Christians, and most of the wealthiest members of society. In contrast, it had the support of most of the population, including lower-level ulama, the officer corps, and local leaders.
Copts were divided: their close affiliation with Europeans angered many and sometimes made them a target, but the deep rivalry between Coptic and Syrian Christians led many to align with rebels. TheCoptic Patriarch lent his support to the revolt when it was at its peak, but later claimed that he was pressured into doing so. ʻUrabi and other leaders of the revolt acknowledged the Copts as potential allies and worked to prevent any targeting of the minority by nationalist Muslims, but were not always successful.
An effort to court the Ottoman SultanAbdul Hamid II began.Tewfik Pasha called on the sultan to quell the revolt, but theSublime Porte hesitated to employ troops against Muslims who opposed foreign colonial rule. ʻUrabi asked the Sultan to depose Tewfiq, but again the Sultan hesitated.
On the afternoon of June 11, 1882 the political turmoil exploded into violence on the streets ofAlexandria. Rioters attackedGreek,Maltese andItalian businesses and battles broke out in the streets. About fifty Europeans and 250 Egyptians were killed. The exact cause of the revolt is uncertain; both theKhedive and ʻUrabi have been blamed for starting it, but there is no proof of either allegation.
As the city's garrison was maintaining the coastal defence batteries, an ultimatum was sent demanding the batteries be dismantled under threat of bombardment. The ultimatum was ignored, and the British fleet off Alexandria under AdmiralBeauchamp Seymour, 1st Baron Alcesterbombarded the city. The coastal batteries returned fire. The French fleet, also at Alexandria, refused to participate. A large British naval force then tried to capture the city. Despite encountering heavy resistance, the British forces succeeded, forcing the Egyptians to withdraw.
As revolts spread across Egypt, the BritishHouse of Commons voted in favour of a larger intervention. TheBritish army launched a probing/scouting attack at theBattle of Kafr El Dawwar to determine whether or not Cairo could be advanced on from Alexandria, However the British concluded that the Egyptian defences were too strong, so in September of that year a British army was landed in the Canal Zone. The motivation for the British intervention is still disputed. The British were especially concerned that ʻUrabi would default on Egypt's massive debt and that he might try to gain control of theSuez Canal. On September 13, 1882, the British forces defeated ʻUrabi's army at theBattle of Tell El Kebir. ʻUrabi was captured and eventually exiled to the British colony of Ceylon (nowSri Lanka).
While the British intervention was meant to be short-term, it persisted until 1956. Egypt was effectively made a colony until 1952. Both the British and the Khedival government did their best to discredit ʻUrabi's name and the revolution, although among the common people ʻUrabi remained a popular figure. The government used the state media and educational system to denounce him as a traitor, and the revolution as merely a military mutiny. Egyptian historian Mohammed Rif'at was one of the first to call the events athawrah, or "revolution," but he claimed that it lacked popular support. Other historians in Egypt supported this thesis, and even expanded on it, sometimes suffering government censure. During the last years of the monarchy, authors became more critical of the old establishment and especially of the British, and ʻUrabi is sometimes portrayed as a hero of freedom and constitutionalism.
ʻUrabi's Revolt had a long-lasting significance as the first instance of Egyptian anti-colonial nationalism, which would later play a major role inEgyptian history. Especially underGamal Abdel Nasser, the revolt would be regarded as a "glorious struggle" against foreign occupation. The ʻUrabi Revolution was seen by theFree Officers movement as a precursor to the1952 revolution, and both Nasser andMuhammad Neguib were likened to ʻUrabi. Nasserist textbooks called the ʻUrabi Revolt a "national revolution," but ʻUrabi was seen as making great strategic mistakes and not being as much of a man of the people as Nasser. During Nasser's experiment withArab socialism, the ʻUrabi revolt was also sometimes put in a Marxist context. Also during PresidentAnwar Sadat'sinfitah (economic liberalisation) period, in which there was growing, controlled,economic liberalization and growing ties with the Western European bloc, the government played up the desire of the ʻUrabists to draft a constitution and have democratic elections. After the 1952 revolution, the image of ʻUrabi, at least officially, has generally improved, with a number of streets and a square in Cairo bearing his name, indicating the honored position he has in the official history.[6]
Historians have in general been divided, with one group seeing the revolt as a push for liberalism and freedom on the model of theFrench Revolution and others arguing that it was little more than a military coup, similar to those made about the 1952 movement. Among Western European historians, especially British, there was a traditional view that the ʻUrabi revolution was nothing more than a "revolt" or "insurrection" and not a real social revolution. By far the most influential Englishman in Egypt,Lord Cromer, wrote a scathing assessment of the ʻUrabists in hisModern Egypt. While this view is still held by many, there has been a growing trend to call the ʻUrabi uprising a real revolution, especially amongst newer historians who tend to emphasize social and economic history and to examine native, rather than European, sources.[6]
The earliest published work ofAugusta, Lady Gregory—later to embraceIrish nationalism and have an important role in the cultural life of Ireland—wasArabi and His Household (1882), a pamphlet (originally a letter toThe Times newspaper) in support of Ahmed ʻUrabi and his revolt.[citation needed]
Historians have also been divided over the reasons for the British invasion, with some arguing that it was to protect theSuez Canal and prevent "anarchy", while others argue that it was to protect the interests of British investors with assets in Egypt (seeAnglo-Egyptian War).
| Major events before 2010 | |
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| Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014) | |
| 2017–present | |
