When Muhammad Ali suppressed the peasants' revolution in Palestine with iron and fire | Politics

One of the strategic goals that the Ottoman Empire tried to work on for centuries was to preserve the unity of the Arab lands within the framework of this state, and Palestine was an integral part of this administration. Rather, the Ottoman sultans worked to preserve it through many urban and security achievements and administrative arrangements that made it safe and secure.

But Egypt – the neighboring country of Palestine – witnessed a devastating event in the late 18th century when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied it in 1798. For a full 3 years, he was keen to achieve French ambitions represented in cutting off the road between Britain and its colony of India, and cutting off Egypt and the Levant from the Ottoman Empire in order to weaken, defeat, and overthrow it.

These events led to the intervention of the Ottomans and the British, the defeat of the French, and then the rise of Muhammad Ali Pasha to rule Egypt, who realized from previous events the extent of the weakness that the Ottoman Empire was experiencing and its need to seek help from the European powers at that time.

For this reason, when he settled his decision in Egypt and established his rule there and was able to establish a strong army and fleet, then successfully intervened in Sudan, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Greek War, his conviction increased in the ease of achieving independence from the Ottomans and establishing his own empire, which might inherit Istanbul in ruling the Arab and non-Arab countries, and some Western advisors – especially the French among them – supported him in this endeavor.

Occupation of Palestine and the Levant

Muhammad Ali Pasha repeatedly asked the Sublime Porte to grant him rule over the Levant in addition to Egypt, but the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul's awareness of the danger of the dreams and aspirations of the governor of Egypt made him ignore these requests.

Muhammad Ali sought to control the Levant by armed force due to its many goods and economic resources, realizing that possessing it would make him the master of the Arab countries after his control of Jerusalem and Damascus, and an entry point to control the Arabian Peninsula later, in addition to it being a buffer zone that would protect him from the Sultan if he wanted to lead an army to eliminate him.

These strategic reasons, which Muhammad Ali realized through his experience and his contemplation of what Napoleon had done before him, as well as the organic and historical unity that had always united Egypt and the Levant, made him order his son Ibrahim Pasha to prepare a large army to begin controlling the Levant. These events became known as the Egyptian campaign, which began in 1831 and ended after 10 full years with defeat and withdrawal in 1841.

In October 1831, Egyptian forces were able to occupy Gaza, Jaffa and Haifa, and approached Acre in November.

In December of the same year, the campaign laid siege to Acre, and Ibrahim Pasha sent an ultimatum to the governor of Acre demanding that he surrender the castle. As a result of Abdullah Pasha’s rejection of this ultimatum, the former ordered the city to be bombarded from all sides.

Faced with this disobedience from the governor of Egypt, the Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud II hastened to send ambassadors to advise him to abandon the war in order to prevent the shedding of Muslim blood, but Muhammad Ali rejected this advice on the pretext that the governor of Acre, Abdullah Pasha al-Jazzar, had incited the Egyptian peasants to leave their country in rejection of compulsory conscription.

He would not abandon his war as long as Abdullah Pasha remained in his position, and even demanded that Muhammad Ali appoint another governor who had his personal trust, thus making the governor of Egypt face to face with the Ottoman Sultan.

It was natural for Sultan Mahmoud to reject Muhammad Ali’s request, so the latter ordered his son Ibrahim Pasha to continue the war and control all of Palestine and Syria.

In the face of this stubbornness of the governor of Egypt, the Ottoman Sultan issued a fatwa stating that the father and son had betrayed the state and left the religion of God, in order to mobilize the people of Egypt and the Levant against them.

The Sultan issued a decree dismissing Muhammad Ali from his position, which caused an uproar within popular and religious circles in Egypt regarding the legitimacy of his rule.

Muhammad Ali responded to this fatwa and the royal decrees with violence and extreme brutality, so he executed everyone he heard had caused this uproar, including some of the scholars of Al-Azhar.

After more than 6 months of siege and bombardment of Acre with cannons and explosives, the city fell. Ibrahim Pasha then rushed to control all the other countries of the Levant, such as Damascus, Hama, Homs and Aleppo. He was even able to enter Anatolia and seize Adana, Konya and Kutahya.

This prompted the Ottoman Sultan to seek help from Russia, England and France, who stood in the way of Muhammad Ali’s advance and agreed to conclude the Treaty of Kutahya on May 4, 1833.

The Road to Revolution

Under this peace treaty, Muhammad Ali became the ruler of Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Sudan, and Crete, in addition to the Levant. The people of the Levant welcomed the Egyptian campaign, thinking that they had come to help and support them and to lift the injustice inflicted upon them, as historian Abdul Karim Rafiq says.

Ibrahim bin Muhammad Ali worked to reform many administrative and economic affairs in Palestine and Syria, so that Sulayman Abu Izz al-Din says in his book “Ibrahim Pasha in Syria”: “Ibrahim brought about a great revolution in the government in the Levant, introducing new systems in administration, judiciary, finance and military, and introducing a dangerous change in the social system, so he launched religious freedom, spread the spirit of democracy, struck the hands of the feudal leaders, took power from their hands and established direct relations between the people and their rulers.”

In the first two years of the rule of Bilad al-Sham, Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim exempted the people of Palestine and Bilad al-Sham from many taxes and princely funds, and lifted the mistreatment and extortion in collection from them, but this policy soon changed.

In 1834, Muhammad Ali ordered his son Ibrahim Pasha to monopolize the silk trade, recruit the people of the Levant as he did with the Egyptians, and disarm and monopolize them in the hands of the central authority.

Muhammad Ali Pasha also ordered the collection of the “Farda” tax from all the inhabitants of the Levant, including the Palestinians. This was a strange matter, that a tax be taken from Muslims by Muslims, and it is similar to the jizya.

It is narrated from one of the witnesses in the Levant, commenting on this strange decision imposed by Muhammad Ali on the Muslim population, that he said, “When the Muslims heard this news, it was more difficult for them than for everyone else, because throughout time no money had been taken from them on their heads.”

On top of this, Ibrahim Pasha used the people of Palestine in forced labor and to build military barracks. When this decision was implemented and everyone became equal before Muhammad Ali Pasha and his son, and the humiliation and tyranny that accompanied this in implementing these decisions, those with prestige and social status, such as the tribes and sheikhs in Nablus, Jerusalem, and others, became upset and resentful of this tyranny that they had not seen under the Ottoman governors.

In light of the injustice and oppression that the Palestinians were subjected to by the new authorities brought by Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim, everyone agreed to unite their ranks in rejecting these decisions.

When Ibrahim Pasha learned of these developments, he went to Jerusalem with his army and surrounded it. He called on the governor and the sheikhs of the neighboring tribes to hold a dialogue. They announced their refusal to surrender their weapons, and they also announced their refusal to be compulsorily conscripted, and demanded a financial compensation in exchange for exemption.

Oppression and violence

But Ibrahim Pasha rejected their demands, and told them that he was carrying out his father's orders. Everyone pretended to obey, but they rejected these conditions, especially after they heard that the Ottoman Empire was preparing a large army to liberate Syria from Muhammad Ali and his son Ibrahim.

As a result, the regions of Mount Nablus and Jerusalem rose up, and this revolution was led by Sheikh Qasim al-Ahmad, and the Ghosh family from Jerusalem joined the revolution that extended to Jaffa, Hebron, Karak, Ilbire and Ramallah.

Everyone declared disobedience to Muhammad Ali and his son, and bloody battles erupted in all these regions, in some of which the Egyptian forces lost, while Ibrahim succeeded in defeating the revolutionaries of Jerusalem, Jaffa, and the Arabs of the Dead Sea. Faced with this attrition, he sent to his father in Egypt asking him to supply him with soldiers.

In light of these developments and the deaths on both sides, Muhammad Ali decided to lead a new military campaign. He set out from Alexandria to Jaffa, which he landed in on June 29, 1834, with an army estimated at 15,000 fighters, in addition to a huge fleet in Gaza and Jaffa.

Throughout his stay in Palestine, Muhammad Ali was keen to win over the senior leaders of the revolutionaries, and he succeeded through enticement and intimidation in making seven of them lean towards him, headed by the leader of Jabal Nablus, Sheikh Qasim al-Ahmad, the Abu Ghosh family, the Abdul Hadi family, and others.

Muhammad Ali decided to waive compulsory military service and to be tolerant of many other matters, and even gave them financial rewards.

But soon the people of Nablus announced the continuation of their revolution against the unjust rule, and they ignited the revolution again, and began to hold meetings, which made Ibrahim come to them with a large number of military forces and he was able to defeat them, so he subdued all of Nablus and then gave its people security.

While Ibrahim suppressed the Nablus revolution, the Safad revolution erupted. Prince Bashir al-Shihabi – one of the princes of Mount Lebanon who were loyal to Muhammad Ali Pasha in his campaign in the Levant against the Ottoman Empire – expressed his readiness to suppress the Safad revolution, and Ibrahim actually cooperated with him in suppressing and eliminating it.

The revolution continued to flare up in one place and to die down in another. In the face of these developments, Ibrahim Pasha used the policy that his father Muhammad Ali Pasha had used. Ibrahim brought many of the great sheikhs and revolutionaries closer to him, such as the Al-Abd al-Hadi and Abu Ghosh families. He released their father, who had been imprisoned in Acre, and made his eldest son the leader of his people, and the second son the governor of Jerusalem. He made Sheikh Hussein, the dean of the Al-Abd al-Hadi family, one of his close men.

But Sheikh Qasim al-Ahmad – one of the great revolutionaries of Palestine who first made peace with Muhammad Ali – returned and insisted – despite the separation of the great sheikhs and tribes from him – on continuing his uprising against the injustice of Ibrahim Pasha, and for this reason the people of Nablus lost a large number of soldiers, and Ibrahim burned the villages from which their people fled.

Muhammad Ali Pasha was following what was happening in Jaffa, and he was providing Ibrahim and his senior leaders, such as Muhammad Mankali Bey and others, with what they needed in terms of planning, weapons, and soldiers.

When Ibrahim was finally able to suppress the revolution in the West Bank regions – especially in Hebron – and win over many of its leaders, and forced most of the remaining revolutionaries and their leaders to flee towards Salt and Karak and pursue them, Muhammad Ali Pasha decided to return to Alexandria.

Ibrahim did not stop at this level of repression, but insisted on tracking down the fleeing revolutionaries and killing their most famous leaders, including Qasim al-Ahmad, who showed violent resistance.

Abraham resorted to sabotaging, destroying and looting villages, and reoccupied Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem.

In return, Gaza also declared a revolution against the rule of Muhammad Ali, so Ibrahim Pasha ordered the destruction of its homes, the looting of its money, and the brutal treatment of its people.

In the face of this severe brutality, the looting of villages, money, and estates, and the annihilation of the great revolutionaries and sheikhs, the people of Jerusalem, Hebron, and Nablus asked for amnesty and safety. Ibrahim actually gave them safety in exchange for his conditions, as he decided to recruit a large number of the people of Nablus into the Egyptian fleet and in the infantry. He arrested a large number of them, who were sentenced to death and exile. He insisted on disarming the people, and used the harshest punishments.

Although the revolution was not completely suppressed, as historian Aref al-Aref says in his book “History of Gaza,” “the struggle continued between the Palestinian revolutionaries and the Egyptian soldiers until Muhammad Ali achieved what he wanted, so he established compulsory conscription and disarmed the people. As soon as he achieved that, he returned to Egypt, and his son Ibrahim Pasha traveled to Damascus.”

Muhammad Ali Pasha and his son Ibrahim ruled the Levant and Palestine for 10 years, and were finally forced to leave Palestine after the London Conference was held in 1841, in which the Ottoman Empire, 4 European countries, the Russian Empire, Prussia, the United Kingdom, and the Austrian Empire participated, to limit Muhammad Ali Pasha’s expansion, which was a reason for reducing his powers.

Those were 10 full years in which Palestine was ruled with an iron fist, and in which its great revolution, known as the “Peasants’ Revolution,” was suppressed.