As
mentioned in the previous chapter, Mahmoud Sami al Baroudy Pasha submitted
the resignation of his Cabinet to Khedive Tawfik, on May 26,
1882, and the Khedive promptly accepted it. He called
in Mohammad Cherif Pasha and asked him to form a new Cabinet. Cherif
refused claiming that he could not accept the offer under the conditions
then prevailing (the power exercised by the Orabi led Army).
Tawfik decided then to rule the country directly.
At
the announcement of the Cabinet resignation including Ahmad Orabi Pasha,
the Officers Corp informed Tawfik that the Army would not be responsible
by the chaos that would result from the Orabi resignation, which
forced the hand of the Khedive to give back the portfolio of the
Army and Navy to Orabi. From May 26 to June 18, 1882,Egypt
faced an unusual situation, living under the rule of a weak
Khedive
running the policies of all the Civilian Ministries, leaving the day to
day administrative matters to be handled by the Undersecretaries, while
the Military matters were run by Orabi. Lots of clouds were
at the horizon and feelings of apprehension and imminent danger prevailed
all over the country.
On
June
11, 1882, bloody disturbances emerged in Alexandria, which caused
the death of a large number of foreigners and Egyptian alike!! These
events were a severe blow to the (until then) peaceful Orabi Revolution
and, like the Cairo riots and burnings of January 26, 1952,
nobody really knew who were the instigators.
On
June
18, 1882, Tawfik was given 24 hours by the Foreign Powers
(read England and France) to form a new Cabinet whose main
objective would be to reestablish order in the Country. Tawfik
called upon Ismail Ragheb Pasha
(1) to form a new Cabinet. Orabi
remained at his Cabinet post after promising a full obedience to the Khedive.
On
Tuesday, July 11, 1882, after a British ultimatum to cease the re-
enforcement of Alexandria's forts and the destruction of the existing
ones, the British fleet bombarded the city. The Cabinet met and announced
to the people that Egypt was at war with Great Britain.
After an honorable resistance, Orabi withdrew the Army to Kafr
El Douwar while the Khedive and the Ragheb Cabinet remained
in Alexandria. The Cabinet fired Orabi replacing him
with Omar Lutfi Pasha and announced to the Brits that the resistance
in Alexandria was carried on by Orabi against the express
wishes and orders of the Khedive and the Prime Minister!!
Meanwhile,
Orabi
called for a meeting of a "MAJLIS ORFI" representing all the Governorates
to study the situation. The Majlis met at the Ministry of
interior under the presidency of Yaacoub Sami Pasha
and declared
that both the Khedive and the Ragheb (2)Cabinet,
who remained in Alexandria under the protection of the Brits, were
now irrelevant.
Because
of the importance of those events in the Modern History of Egypt,
I will describe the sad situation and its dramatic ending in more details
as follows:
The
British invasion of Egypt in 1882 bears a striking resemblance
to the abortive Anglo-French Suez campaign in 1956 except
that the first adventure was more successful. In 1882 as in
1956
the cry of "Egypt for the Egyptians" was raised, and Colonel
Orabi, like Colonel Nasser, emerged from the obscurity of the
Army to become the leader of the Nation against the Western Invader.
Then as later, Britain was divided against herself except for a
short time when the hostilities started. In similar circumstances
too, pride became quickly involved. It was the familiar pattern;
all at once the national blood mounts up on both sides, the national honor
is engaged, and a thousand reasons are discovered for military action.
In Egypt the Brits became bullying monsters, while in England
the
Egyptians are described as "terrorists" who break all pledges
and Treaties, and so the crises sweeps on from riots to ultimatums, and
finally to wars.
On
July
10, 1882, Admiral Seymour, the Commanding Officer of the British Mediterranean
Fleet sent an ultimatum to the commandant of the Egyptian Garrison in
Alexandria ordering him to dismount the shore batteries the following
morning. The Egyptians replied that they were prepared to make a
partial demolition. Seymour was not satisfied with the answer,
and at 7 a.m. on July 11 ordered the bombardment to commence.
It ended at 5p.m. in the evening. The Egyptian batteries were by
then silenced though they have managed to get about seventy-five
direct hits!!! Orabi decided to defend Cairo by digging
his army in just North of Kafr El Douwar thinking that the British
invading army would land in Alexandria prior to its advance towards
Cairo.
But it was not to be as he calculated. The British landed in Ismailya
an army of over twenty thousands men, led by
Lt. General Sir Garnet
Wolseley and armed with the most modern equipment, particularly the
deadly Gatling Guns and machine guns. In its advance
towards Cairo, an Egyptian Army poorly equipped and physically exhausted
after its rapid withdrawal from the North Western Delta met the
British at Tel El Kebir, on September13, 1882. The
battle lasted a little less than two hours. On September 14 Wolseley
resumed his advance towards Cairo. The Majis Al Orfi
and Orabi Decided to surrender.
The
Khedive
wanted to have Orabi sentenced to death for treason, by a Military
Court but the Brits sentenced him to exile for life in the island of Ceylon
(Sri-Lanka).
Thus
started the British occupation of Egypt, which ended in the summer
of 1956.
I would
like to end this sad and short description of the war with the following
story: While in exile in Ceylon, Orabi was befriended
by the famous tea merchant, Thomas Lipton. Lipton scandalized
the whole British colony of Colombo by inviting the Egyptian exile
to all his parties and they were both seen quite often on the veranda of
the Grand Oriental Hotel. But, with Lipton, nothing
comes free; he somehow managed to get Orabi to endorse his coffee
and chicory blend, saying he had never tasted better coffee. It was
Lipton's close friendship with the Prince of Wales that helped
secure Orabi's freedom and his return to his homeland, Egypt,
in 1901, where he lived blind and in total obscurity until his death
on September 21, 1911 (he was born on April 1, 1841).
During
all the events mentioned above, the Khedive and the Cabinet remained
in Alexandria under British protection. On August 21, 1882,
the Khedive requested Mohammad Cherif Pasha to form a new
Cabinet, his fourth. The choice of Cherif was a shrewd move
to counter the popularity of Orabi by appointing a very popular Prime Minister.
(To be continued)
Kamal K. Katba
(1)
(2)
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( To be continued)
After
the battle of Tall al-Kabiyr in the late summer of 1882 , British
soldiers took residence at al-Isma`iyliyah barracks overlooking
the Nile at Qasr al-Niyl, Cairo. The British occupation would last
until 1954. The evacuation would be completed in June 18, 1956
(Painting by Ishinan)
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