Abbas I (Egypt)

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Abbas I.

Abbas Hilmi I. ( Arabic عباس حلمي, DMG ʿAbbās Ḥilmī ; * July 1, 1813 in Jeddah ; † July 13, 1854 in Banha ) was 1849-1854 Wali of Egypt , which at that time officially belonged to the Ottoman Empire , but had gained relative independence under the dynasty of Muhammad Ali .

Life

Abbas Hilmi I was a son of Ahmad Tusun, who died young in 1816, and an Arab Bedouin, and was the grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha . He was born in Jeddah in 1813, where his father was staying to take part in Ibrahim Pasha's campaign against the Wahhabis . Raised in Cairo , thanks to the favor of his grandfather, he received various high administrative offices at a young age. He became Inspector General of the Provinces and soon after became First Minister and President of the Cairo Council. In this post, which he held for eight years, he won the general respect of both Egyptians and European consuls. During the war of 1841 in Syria, he commanded a division of the Egyptian army.

When Muhammad Ali Pasha fell ill, his son Ibrahim Pasha first became regent in July 1848. After Ibrahim died shortly afterwards before his father on November 10, 1848, his nephew Abbas Hilmi I followed according to the order of the seniorate. He was then on a pilgrimage to Mecca , came back to Alexandria towards the end of November and stopped after on December 7th the confirmation Ferman had been read publicly, on December 24th 1848 his solemn entry into Cairo. The personal enfeoffment with Egypt took place in Constantinople on January 13, 1849 , and he received the rank of Grand Vizier, because during the lifetime of Muhammad Ali Pasha the Sultan did not want to give the Egyptian regent the title of Wali. Abbas only received this dignity after Muhammad Ali Pasha died on August 2, 1849.

The often strained image that Abbas was a cruel, reactionary and voluptuous despot could be traced back to deliberately exaggerated reports by political opponents. Under him, some of Muhammad Ali Pasha's European reforms were reversed and many of the expensive factories and schools opened by him were closed. Abbas did not continue the expansive policy of his predecessors and renounced conquests by armed force. He reduced the army and navy, abolished the trade monopoly, abolished poll tax for Christians and Jews, favored the agriculture industry and lowered the salaries of high officials. The fact that Abbas was opposed to reforms modeled on the European powers led to lower government spending and thus to tax relief for the poorer sections of the population; they also had to do less hard labor .

In order to weaken French influence in Egypt, Abbas dismissed many French from civil service and rejected the construction of the Suez Canal planned by France . In return, the Wali moved closer to Great Britain. The Ottomans, meanwhile, tried to expand their influence in Egypt again. They were supported by a party hostile to the Wali, which consisted of members of his own family and deposed state officials, e. B. Artim Bey, the fugitive Minister of Commerce, who agitated against Abbas from Constantinople. In February 1851 , the Hohe Pforte approached Abbas with the order for the immediate introduction of the Tanzimat and with numerous other demands, the fulfillment of which would have significantly weakened his power. Accordingly, the Wali was unwilling to obey the Ottoman orders.

In July 1851 Abbas allowed the British to build the first Egyptian railway from Alexandria to Cairo; Robert Stephenson was in charge . In return Abbas received support from Great Britain in his conflict with the Sublime Porte. The latter protested on September 4, 1851, against the railway contract concluded without their approval. However, while this point of controversy was soon settled by the grand Ferman, who was enacted on November 4, 1851, about the approval of the contract, the other issues were also settled when the Sublime Porte sent Fuad Efendi to Egypt in early 1852 to negotiate with the wali. This accordingly reduced the service time of the military and promised the Ottomans the payment of higher annual tributes and the introduction of the Tanzimat. For this he was given the authority to impose the death penalty in murder cases, to oblige the Egyptians to compulsory and military service and to exercise the right to supervise all members of the Muhammad Ali Pasha family.

When the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Abbas supported the Ottomans militarily against Russia by making the fleet of the Nile country and 15,000 men of the Egyptian army available to them; he also sent them deliveries of grain. As a result, the Russian consul general in Egypt was soon recalled by his government. In the meantime, the construction of the railways had also progressed rapidly under the direction of British engineers; the 105 km stretch from Alexandria to the Nile was opened on July 4, 1854.

Abbas last lived in isolation in his palace in Banha, where he was found dead on a divan in a drawing room on July 13, 1854. The official version that the only 41-year-old Wali had died of a stroke was often mistrusted and instead a violently induced death was suspected.

He was succeeded by his uncle Muhammad Said .

Offspring (selection)

literature

Web links

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Remarks

  1. ↑ Abbas I (Egypt) . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 1, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 16.
  2. ↑ a b c Egypt . In: Heinrich August Pierer (ed.): Universal-Lexikon der Gegenwart und Past , 4th edition, Vol. 1 (1857), p. 217.
  3. ↑ a b Abbas I , in: Encyclopædia Britannica online.
  4. ↑ a b M. Colombe: Abbas Hilmi I . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2nd edition, 1st volume (1960), p. 13.
  5. ↑ Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past , 4th edition, Vol. 1 (1857), pp. 217-218.
  6. ↑ Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past , 4th Edition, Vol. 1 (1857), p. 218.
predecessor Office successor
Ibrahim Pasha Wali of Egypt
1849–1854 		Muhammad Said
personal data
SURNAME Abbas I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abbas I. Hilmi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wali of Egypt
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Jeddah
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1854
Place of death Banha