Product Code Database
The ʻUrabi revolt, also known as the ʻUrabi Revolution (), was a nationalism uprising in the Khedivate of Egypt from 1879 to 1882. It was led by and named for Colonel Ahmed Urabi and sought to depose the khedive, Tewfik Pasha, and end British Empire and French influence over the country.
The uprising was ended by the Anglo-Egyptian War and the British takeover of the country, beginning the history of Egypt under the British.Thomas Mayer, The Changing Past: Egyptian Historiography of the Urabi Revolt, 1882-1982 (University Presses of Florida, 1988).Donald Malcolm Reid. "The Urabi revolution and the British conquest, 1879-1882." in M. W. Daly, ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt (Volume 2) (1999) pp 217-238.
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 only domination but also the Turkish people, Circassians and Albanians, who controlled most other elite positions in the government and military. Albanian troops had come to Egypt along with Muhammad 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-Circassians. The growing fiscal 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 disastrous war 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 newspapers were being published in the 1870s and 1880s, such as the influential Abu Naddara. Published by Yaqub Sanu, a Jew of Italian Jews and Egyptian origins also known as "James Sanua", 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. It had a wide reach since, unlike many other publications, Abu Naddara was written in Egyptian Arabic rather than Modern Standard Arabic, making its satire and political pieces understandable to the masses, not just the educated elite. Yaʻqūb Ṣanūʻ claimed that his magazine reached a circulation of 10,000, which was a huge number in those days.
During this time, Ahmed ʻUrabi, a native 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.Cleveland, William L & Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East: 4th Edition, Westview Press: 2009, p. 92.
This broad effort at reform was opposed by European interests, many of the large landowners, the Turkish and Circassian elite, the high-ranking ulama (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. The Coptic 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 Sultan Abdul Hamid II began. Tewfik Pasha called on the sultan to quell the revolt, but the Sublime Porte hesitated to employ troops against Muslims who opposed foreign colonial rule. ʻUrabi asked the Sultan to depose Tewfiq, but again the Sultan hesitated.
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 Admiral Beauchamp Seymour, 1st Baron Alcester bombarded 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 British House of Commons voted in favour of a larger intervention. The British army launched a probing/scouting attack at the Battle 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 the Suez Canal. On September 13, 1882, the British forces defeated ʻUrabi's army at the Battle of Tell El Kebir. ʻUrabi was captured and eventually exiled to the British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
ʻUrabi's Revolt had a long-lasting significance as the first instance of Egyptian anti-colonial nationalism, which would later play a major role in Egyptian history. Especially under Gamal Abdel Nasser, the revolt would be regarded as a "glorious struggle" against foreign occupation. The ʻUrabi Revolution was seen by the Free Officers movement as a precursor to the 1952 revolution, and both Nasser and Muhammad 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 with Arab socialism, the ʻUrabi revolt was also sometimes put in a Marxist context. Also during President Anwar Sadat's infitah (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.
The earliest published work of Augusta, Lady Gregory—later to embrace Irish nationalism and have an important role in the cultural life of Ireland—was Arabi and His Household (1882), a pamphlet (originally a letter to The Times newspaper) in support of Ahmed ʻUrabi and his revolt.
Historians have also been divided over the reasons for the British invasion, with some arguing that it was to protect the Suez Canal and prevent "anarchy", while others argue that it was to protect the interests of British investors with assets in Egypt (see Anglo-Egyptian War).
|
|
