76 ISLAM AT WAR
Ibn Rashid declared himself Caliph of all Islam. The SaÛuds and the Wah-
habis considered this a sacrilege and began a renewed military campaign.
In December 1925 Ibn SaÛud completed the military defeat of the Rashids
and of the Arabian peninsula. He was declared King of the Hijaz in the
Holy Mosque of Mecca on 18 January 1928. Founded in the fundamen-
talism of Wahhabism and the sword, thus began the rule of the House of
SaÛud, which continues to this day.
Thus Mehmet Ali had an interesting part in the beginnings of modern
Saudi Arabia, and also at the birth of modern Greece. In this sense, Egyp-
tian forces were used as the Ottoman “fire brigade,” shifting from one
emergency to the next. Fortunately for both countries, the able Egyptian
lacked the weight to decisively hinder either of the new nations.
In 1821 a revolution broke out in Greece. Much of the instigation for
this revolution was traceable to Russia, which had a policy of inciting
Greek Christians to revolt against their Ottoman oppressors. This policy
was traceable back to the reign of Czarina Anna, but Catherine II brought
it forward with a passion. Her “favorite,” Admiral Orlov, moved into the
Aegean Sea with a fleet of Russian ships in 1769, landed in the Morea,
and organized a revolt. This revolt failed, Orlov reembarked, and the
Greeks he left behind were subjected to terrible massacres at Tripolitza,
Lemnos, and elsewhere. The Albanians, also Muslims, completed what
the Turks began in the way of savage repressions. The Treaty of Kutchuk-
Kainarj (1744) granted Russia a vaguely defined protectorate over the
Ottomans’ Orthodox Greek subjects and gave Greek traders the right to
sail under the Russian flag.
Like oppressed people in many parts of the world, the ideals of the
French Revolution inspired the Greeks to seek relief from their oppressors.
Revolutionary groups were organized and once again received support
from the Russians.
In 1820 Ali Pasha of Yannina, the Muslim governor of Greece, revolted
against the authority of the sultan. Earlier Ali Pasha had ruthlessly op-
pressed and slaughtered Greeks by the hundreds, but now he declared
himself their friend and joined “The Friendly Society.” In March 1821
Alexander Ypsilanti led an abortive attack by an armed band in an effort
to liberate Greece. That same month, Archbishop Germanos of Patras
raised the standard of revolt in Hagia Lavra, near Kalavryta, in Morea.
The Greek Revolution had begun, and soon it was going badly for the
Sublime Porte.
When the revolution began the Ottomans had plenty of warning, but
were entirely unprepared. The bulk of the Ottoman army had been fully
occupied in crushing Ali Pasha in Iannina. The Greeks, with their history