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ARABI PASHA (c. 1839- )

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 283 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARABI See also:

PASHA (c. 1839- ) , more correctly AHMAD `ARABI, to which in later years he added the epithet al-Misri, " the See also:Egyptian," Egyptian soldier and revolutionary See also:leader, was See also:born in See also:Lower See also:Egypt in 1839 or 1840 of a See also:fellah See also:family. Having entered the See also:army as a conscript he was made an officer by Said Pasha in 1862, and was employed in the transport See also:department in the Abyssinian See also:campaign of 1875 under See also:Ismail Pasha. A See also:charge of peculation, unproved, was made against him in connexion with this expedition and he was placed on See also:half-pay. During this See also:time he joined a See also:secret society formed by See also:Ali Rubi with the See also:object of getting rid of See also:Turkish See also:officers from the Egyptian army. Arabi also attended lectures at the See also:mosque El Azhar and acquired a reputation as an orator. In 1878 he was employed by Ismail in fomenting a disturbance against the See also:ministry of Nubar, See also:Rivers See also:Wilson and de Blignieres, and received in See also:payment a wife from Ismail's See also:harem and the command of a See also:regiment. This increased his See also:influence with the secret society, which, under the feeble See also:government of Tewfik Pasha and the Dual See also:Control, began to agitate against Europeans. In all that followed Arabi was put forward as the leader of the discontented Egyptians; he was in reality little more than the mouth-piece and puppet of abler men such as Ali Rubi and Mahmud Sami. On the 1st of See also:February 1881 Arabi and two other Egyptian colonels, summoned before a See also:court-See also:martial for acts of disobedience, were rescued by their soldiers, and the See also:khedive was forced to dismiss his then See also:minister of See also:war in favour of Mahmud Sami. A military demonstration on the 8th of See also:September 1881, led by Arabi, forced the khedive to increase the See also:numbers and pay of the army, to substitute Sherif Pasha for Riaz Pasha as See also:prime minister, and to convene an See also:assembly of notables. Arabi became under-secretary for war at the beginning of 1882, but continued his intrigues.

The assembly of notables claimed the right of voting the See also:

budget, and thus came into conflict with the See also:foreign controllers who had been appointed to guard the interests of the bondholders in the management of the Egyptian finances. Sherif See also:fell in February, Mahmud Sami became prime minister, and Arabi (created a pasha) minister of war. Arabi, after a brief fall from See also:office,acquired a dictatorial See also:power that alarmed the See also:British government. British and See also:French warships went to See also:Alexandria at the beginning of See also:June; on the See also:lath of that See also:month rioting in that See also:city led to the See also:sacrifice of many See also:European lives. See also:Order could only be restored through the intervention of Arabi, who now adopted a more' distinctly See also:anti-European attitude. His arming of the forts at Alexandria was held to constitute a menace to the British See also:fleet. On the refusal of See also:France to co-operate, the British fleet bombarded the forts (1 ith See also:July), and a British force, under See also:Sir See also:Garnet See also:Wolseley, defeated Arabi on the 13th of September at Tel-el-Kebir. Arabi fled to See also:Cairo where he surrendered, and was tried (3rd of See also:December) for See also:rebellion. In accordance with an understanding made with the British representative, See also:Lord Dufferin, Arabi pleaded guilty, and See also:sentence of See also:death was immediately commuted to one of banishment for See also:life to See also:Ceylon. The same sentence was passed on Mahmud Sami and others. After Arabi's See also:exile had lasted for nearly twenty years, however, the khedive Abbas II. exercised his See also:prerogative of See also:mercy, and in May 1901 Arabi was permitted to return to Egypt. Arabi, as has been said, was rather the figure-See also:head than the inspirer of the See also:movement of 1881–1882; and was probably more honest, as he was certainly less intelligent, than those whose See also:tool, in a large measure, he was.

The movement which he represented in the See also:

eye of See also:Europe, whatever the motives of its leaders, " was in its essence a genuine revolt against misgovemment," i and it was a dim recognition of this fact which led Arabi to See also:style himself " the Egyptian." See EGYPT: See also:History; also the accounts of Arabi in Khedives and Pashas, by C. F. See also:Moberly See also:Bell (1884); and in Lord See also:Cromer's See also:Modern Egypt (1908).

End of Article: ARABI PASHA (c. 1839- )

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