Infobits

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Mehmet Ali: Albanian Founder of Modern Egypt
Date posted: Friday, August 6, 2004
Author: Edwin E. Jacques, McFarland & Co.

MehmetMehmet Ali (1769-1849) established a dynasty in Egypt which endured for over a century. He was born of Albanian parentage in Cavalla, a small Macedonian seaport. This Albanian soldier of fortune led an Albanian contingent accompanying a Turkish expedition in 1798 to expel Napolean Bonaparte's troops from Egypt, then a Turkish province. After the French withdrawal in 1801, prolonged factional struggle led Cairo to ask this Albanian adventurer to serve as governor of Egypt, and Constantinople confirmed the appointment in 1804.

Mehmet Ali improved Egyptian manufacturing and commerce. He built a canal between Alexandria and the Nile. For his military successes against the Greek rebellion of 1821, Mehmet Ali expected to acquire the Peleponnesus as a reward. But the combined navies of Great Britain, France and Russia destroyed his fleet at the battle of Navarino in 1827, virtually assuring the freedom of Greece. In 1839 he even rebelled against the Ottoman empire and might have captured Constantinople itself (1840) but for the intervention of Britain, France and Russia.

Thereafter, Mehmet Ali occupied himself with the development of Egypt as a modern state. He built the first dam across the Nile for irrigation purposes. He introduced the cultivation of hemp and cotton for which Egypt became famous. He built textile and steel mills. He had a high regard for the civilization of Europe and invited European educators to teach in a network of institutes, sending his best students abroad for higher study. His military skills were equaled by his governing skills. The new constitution of Egypt was his creation, as were the new army and navy, the tax system, the systemization of imports and exports, health legislation, schools, colleges, and publishing houses,

Mehmet Ali was far ahead of his countrymen, while his moral character, enlightened mind and distinguished ability qualified him for the title Founder of Modern Egypt. Because of his Albanian origin, Albanians were regarded with special favor in Egypt and welcomed as immigrants. Mehmet Ali was surely among the great men of his epoch.

An equally enlightened grandson, Ismail Pasha, improved the adminstration, the courts, the post office system and public works, notably the railways, telegraph nework, ligjhthouses, breakwaters and harbors. He also suppressed human slavery, and he completed the 92-mile Suez Canal joining the Mediterranean with the Red Sea in 1869.

All in all, the Mehmet Ali dynasty inroduced a new era to Egypt lasting from 1805 to 1952. The last king of Egypt, Farouk I, was reportedly of Albanian blood, which might explain the cordial welcome he extended to the exiled Albanian King Zog in 1939. (Farouk's) reign extended from 1936 until his abdication in 1952. That year marked the close of this famous Albanian dynasty.

PP 331-332, The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present, Edwin E. Jacques, McFarland & Co., Jefferson, North Carolina 28640

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