The era of Muḥammad ʿAlī

The French occupation of Egypt (1798–1801) was the first military incursion by an industrialising and aggressively expansionist Europe in the central Middle East, and it ushered in the modern era of Western hegemony. Napoleon’s view of Egypt as a stepping-stone to India underlined its strategic position. Since then a succession of powers has sought influence if not dominance in Egypt and the greater Middle East, considering it too important to be left alone. Anglo-French competition was superseded by a British invasion and occupation in 1882. After the last of Britain’s garrison withdrew in 1956, two decades of Soviet–American rivalry ended in the present American hegemony. Foreign dominance demarcates the political history of modern Egypt from previous eras.

The ‘Mamlūk’ households that had ruled for most of the previous century were too weak and divided to regain supremacy after the French withdrew, enabling Muḥammad ʿAlī to manoeuvre himself into the viceroyalty. Muḥammad ʿAlī (in Turkish, Mehmed Ali) came to Egypt in 1801 with an Ottoman expedition sent against the French. A native of Kavalla, in what is now Greece, he was an officer in the Albanian unit, becoming their commander when his superior was killed, and waging war against the Mamlūk factions while ingratiating himself with Cairo’s notables. In an unusual move the ʿulamāʾ of Cairo requested his appointment as viceroy, and thus he was appointed and awarded the title of pasha by Sultan Selim III (r. 1789–1807) in June 1805.