192 • 12 THE RISE OF NATIONALISM
Ahmad Urabi
U
rabi (1841-1911) was an Egyptian military officer and national hero.
Born to a relatively well-to-do peasant family in the village of Qaryat
Rizqa, his father was a village shaykh who made sure that his son received a
strong traditional Islamic education. He entered the Egyptian army as a teen¬
ager and moved up through the ranks quickly, achieving the rank of lieu¬
tenant colonel by the age of twenty. His charismatic personality and excellent
speaking ability would aid him in his later achievements.
Several problems afflicted Egypt during Urabi's time. The Egyptian army
was more a patronage bureaucracy than a true fighting force, and its officer
corps was divided into competing ethnic groups. Native Egyptians faced dis¬
criminatory treatment in the army by officers of Circassian and Turkish ori¬
gin. In addition, the mounting indebtedness of the khédives, combined with
the strategic importance of Egypt and the Suez Canal, caused a great deal of
concern among Europe's imperial powers, particularly Great Britain. Appre¬
hension about Egypt's mounting financial distress and fears of losing key
strategic assets would eventually lead to European intervention in Egypt.
Urabi acted out of both personal interests and patriotism. When Khedive
Tawfiq, acting under the influence of Turkish officers in the army, passed a
law prohibiting peasants from becoming officers, Urabi, reacting out of self-
interest, organized resistance among the Egyptian soldiers and forced the law's
repeal. He also forged an alliance between the army officers and Egyptian na¬
tionalists seeking to limit the growing influence of Europeans in Egyptian af¬
fairs. Additional pressure on the khédive (who may have encouraged the
nationalists) brought Urabi into the government as war minister. It is from
this position that he and other nationalists contested the Anglo-French Dual
Financial Control's authority to control Egypt's budget.
In the end, Europe's power overwhelmed Urabi and those who sought inde¬
pendence for Egypt. The British were not willing to risk losing their invest¬
ments or control of the Suez Canal by supporting Egyptian nationalism.
When they invaded Egypt in 1882, Urabi's charismatic leadership was no
match for Britain's Gatling guns. Urabi's forces were defeated in the Battle of
Tel al-Kebir, and Urabi fled to Cairo, where he eventually surrendered. By this
time, the khédive had switched sides, thrown in his lot with the British, de¬
clared Urabi a rebel, and called for his execution. The British high commis¬
sioner in Cairo, Lord Dufferin, recognizing that Urabi's death would make
him a martyr, had the sentence commuted to permanent exile in Ceylon.
Long disdained by civilian nationalists, Colonel Urabi has now become a
national hero in Egypt. His resistance against foreign invasion was an impor¬
tant milestone in Egyptian national history.