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| 1822 |
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| INTRODUCTION OF MILITARY CONSCRIPTION. On the advice of Frenchmen in his service, Muhammad Ali began the drafting of Egyptian peasants into his newly formed modern regiments (al-nizam al-jadid), creating the core of an indigenous army that gradually displaced the traditional mercenary and Mamluk troops. This innovation provoked resistance by the peasants, many of whom fled, maimed themselves, or joined antigovernment revolts. Through harsh methods of conscription and rigorous training Muhammad Ali built an army of over 100,000 men that ranked as the most effective military force in the region. | 1 |
| Opening of the government printing press in Bulaq, the first Arabic press in Egypt. It published numerous Arabic and Turkish works. | 2 |
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| 1823–28 |
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| Campaigns in Greece and the Aegean. At the request of the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad Ali sent his army to assist in suppressing the Greek revolt. The Egyptians subdued Crete and then the Morea, both of which were granted as governorships to Muhammad Ali's son Ibrahim. But an allied European fleet dealt a severe blow to the Egyptians by destroying their fleet near Navarino (Oct. 20, 1827). The Egyptian forces withdrew from the Morea in 1828, but remained in control of Crete until 1840. Muhammad Ali gained little from his involvement: he failed in his plans to keep the Morea as a base from which to control the trade of the eastern Mediterranean and in his efforts to persuade the sultan to grant him the promised Province of Damascus. | 3 |
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| 1825 |
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| Death of Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (b. 1753), one of the last great chroniclers. His ‘Aja’ ib al-athar is a major source for the political and social history of Egypt from the 17th century to the early 19th century. | 4 |
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| 1827 |
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| The Medical School was founded in Cairo, the first institution for training in modern medicine in Egypt. | 5 |
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| 1828 |
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| The first Arabic newspaper, the official al-Waga’i‘al-Misriyya, began publication. It was a report on government decrees and decisions. The press remained an exclusively state venture until the emergence of independent newspapers in the 1870s. | 6 |
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| 1831–41 |
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| THE OCCUPATION OF SYRIA AND OTTOMAN-EGYPTIAN CONFLICTS. Muhammad Ali coveted Syria from the early years of his rule. During Nov. 1831–July 1832 his son Ibrahim Pasha occupied Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. An Ottoman-Egyptian settlement (May 1833) granted Syria, the district of Adana, and Crete to Ibrahim in return for a yearly tribute. | 7 |
| Muhammad Ali now controlled an empire extending from the Sudan and the Hijaz to Anatolia, and he was planning to transform the yearly tenure into complete independence. But local opposition, Ottoman refusal to yield, and European intervention combined to undo his empire building. A coalition of European powers led by Britain, combined with a popular uprising, drove the Egyptians from Syria in 1840, and the sultan reluctantly granted Muhammad Ali the hereditary viceroyalty of Egypt (in a decree issued on June 1, 1841). Muhammad Ali was stripped of all his conquests except the Sudan, and his army was to be reduced to 18,000 men. | 8 |
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| 1834 |
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| The introduction of steamboats. The East India Company began to use steamships between Bombay and Suez. In the late 1830s steam tugs were employed for towing barges on the Nile and the Mahmudiyya Canal linking Alexandria with the Nile. The use of steamboats spread rapidly throughout Egypt. | 9 |
| Prostitution was banned by the government but continued to attract poor women. By the 1860s prostitutes were again being taxed and required to undergo regular medical checkups. Many of them were virtual prisoners of their pimps. | 10 |
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| 1835 |
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| The School of Languages was founded by Muhammad Ali, as part of a state program of translation. Numerous European works were translated into Arabic by professionals trained in the school. They had a significant impact on the spread of knowledge, the development of education, and the process of westernization. | 11 |
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| 1848 |
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| IBRAHIM PASHA. In 1847 he took over the administration from his senile father, was formally invested by the sultan in July 1848, but died shortly afterward (Nov. 10, 1848). His real legacy was the four decades of energetic service as military commander and adviser for Muhammad Ali. | 12 |
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| 1848–54 |
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| ABBAS HILMI I. This grandson of Muhammad Ali sought to check the rapid pace of reform and the growing European influence in the country. This orientation won him many powerful enemies in the elite and among the Europeans, who worked successfully to demonize him. Unsympathetic views of him as a cruel and perverse reactionary have been perpetuated in historical works, often without adequate grounds. Abbas was murdered in July 1854. | 13 |
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| 1849, Aug. 2 |
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| Death of Muhammad Ali. | 14 |
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| 1850–1914 |
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| THE INFLUX OF FOREIGNERS. As a result of business opportunities connected with the cotton boom and state projects, the number of foreigners, primarily Europeans, in Egypt increased dramatically from about 3,000 in 1850 to about 90,000 in 1882. By the early 20th century the number had reached about 200,000. Although less than 2 percent of the total population, these foreigners enjoyed extraterritorial privileges under the Capitulations (commercial treaties with European powers) and held disproportionate economic power in the country, controlling the main financial, commercial, and industrial enterprises. Their influence began to decline rapidly after 1915. | 15 |
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