| At
the exile of Khedive Ismail and the appointment of his son Tawfik,
Mohammad
Cherif Pasha submitted the resignation of his Cabinet to the new Khedive,
as was the tradition. After his typical hesitation and tergiversation,
Tawfik
asked Cherif to form a new Cabinet, on
July 5, 1879, expressing
his desire to see the new Cabinet working hard on ameliorating the financial
situation of Egypt, which would reduce the interference of the Foreign
Powers in the internal affairs of the Country. Cherif formed
his Second Cabinet keeping for himself the two important Nizarats
of Foreign Affairs and Interior Affairs. It was to be a short one
since, on August 18, 1879, the Khedive decided to rule directly,
as his ancestors did, and dismissed the Second Cherif
Cabinet.
In
spite of its short term, the Cabinet adopted some important financial decisions.
It reduced to 360,000 Pounds a year the salaries allocated to the
Khedivial Family including 80,000 to the Khedive and 50,000
to his father, the deposed Khedive Ismail. The Cabinet decided
to give the Governor of Alexandria a monthly salary of 100 pounds,
because of the growing commercial importance of that Port City. The
Cabinet also refused to give an extra payment for any Government Employee
requested to do a second Government task. Most importantly the Cabinet
submitted to the Khedive a Constitutional Project giving the Egyptians
more say in the Affairs of the Country!!!
On
August 18, 1879, Tawfik issued a decree abolishing of the position
of Prime Minister and ordered each Nazer (Minister)
to carry on with his Nizarat (Ministry) and to report to
a Committee headed and appointed by the Khedive. On August 23,
1879, the Khedive met with the Ministers and announced his decision
to appoint Sir Evelyn Baring (later to become Lord Cromer)
as an Inspector General of the Country Finances and Monsieur De Bligniere
as
a Supervisor of the Egyptian National Debt. He also announced that
the Cherif Pasha Constitutional Project would not be implemented
because it was a kind of “theatrical décor” and because
a system of Representation is not suitable to the Egyptians!!!
Tawfik‘s
direct rule was to be of short duration, 27 days all in all.
But during these few days, He managed to re-establish the dual control
of the two (then) “Great Powers”, England and France, over the Finances
of The Country. He also issued the order to exile, from Egypt, Gamal
El Dine Al Afghani on the charge of forming and leading a “Secret
Society” of Egyptian Youth that would certainly corrupt Islam and the
Egyptian Society.
To
trim the new Khedive of his re-discovered power, The Great Powers
pressured him to re-consider his decision of direct rule and re-appoint
a prime Minister, responsible to lead the Cabinet and to report to the
Khedive. On September 21, 1879, he invited Mustafa Ryad
Pasha to form a new Cabinet.
Born
to a Turkish family, in 1834, he received a military education (in
Egypt) and was appointed to a clerical post in the Financial “Diwan”.
He then became the Aide De Camp (ADC) of Khedive Abbas the
First. After reaching the rank of “Amiralay” (Brigadier
General), he was appointed to the Governorship of the of the Giza Province.
He became a Minister in the First Nubar Cabinet. He
did not believe in the Constitutional right of the Egyptians and he was
a supporter of the Foreign Powers. Needless to say that they returned
his support. He was the father of Safya Hanem Zaghloul (Um
Al Misryeene) who married Saad Zaghloul Pasha in
1896.
One
of the first decision of the Ryad‘ s Cabinet was to give the Consuls
of England and France the right to appoint a representative each, within
the Egyptian Cabinet, with a salary (paid by Egypt) much higher than that
of the Cabinet Members. The choice of those appointees was strictly
confined to the two Consuls.
To
be fair, I have to admit that Ryad Pasha (1)
took over the Premiership at a time when the Egyptian Finances were facing
a disastrous situation, but along with his Cabinet, he re-established order
in the Finances and managed somehow to balance the Budget. The pro-European
policy of his Cabinet and the appointment of Osman Rifqi Pasha to
the Ministry of the Army (Nizarat Al Jihadya) were the two
main reasons for the birth of a strong Nationalist Movement in Egypt!
Osman
Rifqi was a fanatical Cherkess who strongly supported
the promotion of the Officers, belonging to his own ethnic background,
while freezing the promotions of the genuinely Egyptian Officers.
He also promulgated a law according to which no non-commissioned officers
would be promoted to officers ranks which should strictly be confined to
graduates of Military colleges (most of them if not all of them being from
Turkish Ottoman descent), thus stopping the promotion of Egyptians to the
ranks of officers. As a result of that action, a wave of unrest (not
mutiny) shook the Army and it was decided to send a letter of protest to
Ryad
Pasha. That letter bore the signature of three superior officers
bearing the rank of “Amiralay”: Ahmad Orabi
the Commanding Officer of the Abbasya Sector, Ali Fahmi the Commanding
Officer of the Khedivial Guards and Abdel A’al Helmi the Commanding
Officer of the Turah Sector. Rifqi planned a plot to arrest
the three petitioners and court marshal them. They were arrested
and taken to the Jihadya Ministry at the Qasr El Nile
but
the Khedivial guards rescued them. What started as a protest turned
into a mutiny and the Khedive fired Rifqi and appointed
Mahmoud
Sami Al Baroudi Pasha, the then Nazer Al Awqaf (Minister
of Religious Affair) and a favorite of the Army, to run the Jihadya
Ministry.
As a gesture of good will he met with the Officers at the Abdine Palace
and he formed a Committee to look into raising the soldiers and officers
salaries and modernizing the military laws and regulations. He also
appointed Orabi to that Committee.
Deep
in his heart, the Khedive was very reluctant to implement the steps
mentioned above and he concentrated his displeasure, not to say hatred,
on Mahmoud Sami Al Baroudi and he soon fired him from the Cabinet!!!
At this point the mutiny turned into a large scale Revolution, better known
in history as the Orabi Revolution.
Before ending my
narration of the Ryad Cabinet, I have to admit that it adopted several
steps that were very beneficial to Egypt:
- The creation of
the “Al Mahakem Al Shari’ia” (Islamic Courts)
- The creation of
a Council for the promotion of education and the building of new schools.
- A new law
prohibiting the export of Egyptian Archeological artifacts was decreed.
This decision was agreed upon as a result of the Alexandria obelisk, sent
for display in New York, at the order of the Khedive during the
Cherif
Cabinet, and that was never returned (it is still there).
- The installation
of telegraphic lines in Cairo, Alexandria and their suburbs, along with
the introduction of tramways lines.
- Military
salaries were revised with a maximum of eighty Pounds a month for the highest
rank and thirty Piastres for the lowest.
- The cancellation
of the salt tax. |
( To be continued)
Kamal K. Katba
Khedivial
residence at Hada'iq Mamiysh nearby al-Muniyrah district.
The area was later renamed: Garden City.
(1)
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