The dramatic encounter between Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, Ottoman governor of Egypt, and his vanquished Saudi foe, Imam ‘Abd Allah, in Cairo in November 1818 marks the symbolic end of the First Saudi State. ‘Abd Allah was in transit to public execution in Istanbul, the pasha on his way to becoming a major regional force and founding a local dynasty. The meeting was witnessed by an English Whig, John Bowes Wright, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, whose previously unpublished account throws new light on the exchanges, and the surrender by ‘Abd Allah of the remaining treasures taken by his late father Sa‘ud from the Prophet’s tomb in al-Madina.
The book highlights the importance of this historic moment in the uneasy relationship between Muhammad ‘Ali and his nominal sovereign, Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, and analyses their respective efforts to benefit domestically and internationally from ‘Abd Allah’s final journey. It considers the political cultures of the main regional protagonists and the Whiggish attitudes and assumptions that Bowes Wright brings to his experiences in Cairo and Istanbul. It is this cultural exploration that distinguishes this work and makes it of particular value to those interested in pre-modern Middle Eastern history and the contribution to understanding of Western travellers in Egypt and the Levant.
About the Author
Michael Crawford is an independent historian who writes on the history of the Arabian Peninsula. After qualifying as a barrister, he served the British government in London and overseas, including in Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, from1981 to 2009. He was a visiting Fellow at Princeton in 2009. His incisive biography of Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement, was published in 2014 by Oneworld in its Makers of the Modern World series.
Gallery
Image 1
The ruins of the first Sa‘ūdi capital as viewed from the track to Riyadh. For a short period, al-Dir‘iyya was the prosperous centre of an empire extending beyond today’s Saudi Arabia.
Image 2
In 1811 the invading Ottoman commander sent Imam Sa‘ūd this sword, engraved: “From the commander of the victorious army Ṭūsūn Pasha … to the amir and leader of Najd Amir Sa‘ūd ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz 1226 AH.” For all the bravado, Tusun suffered a series of early defeats.
Image 3
Portrait of Muḥammad ‘Alī Pasha by the eminent le Comte de Forbin in Alexandria in early 1818. His observations during his visit make an interesting counterpoint to those of Bowes Wright later in the year.
Image 4
Lithograph of Imam ‘Abd Allāh, done in London 1834 by the well-known Belgian Louis Haghe, based on the Coste drawing but without attribution. Haghe may have tried to correct some of the artistic defects in Coste’s portrait.
Image 5
This woodcut is based on a Horace Vernet lithograph of an alert Muḥammad ‘Alī watching the slaughter of the mamlūks in the citadel in 1811, while cross-legged smoking his pipe. De Forbin described the event as a remarkable piece of treachery, whereas Bowes Wright excused it as “perhaps a matter of self-defence”.
Image 6
Portrait of Sultan Maḥmūd II in westernized military dress, done by Athanasios Karantz(ou)las in the later 19th century. The inscription describes him as ‘ghāzī’ (holy warrior), a title he assumed in 1813 on recovering the Holy Cities from the Wahhābis.
Image 7
Behind this imposing gateway in Istanbul lay the grand vizier’s offices, the nerve centre of the Ottoman Empire. Imam ‘Abd Allāh was escorted here before being taken for interrogation and torture. Photo by Armenian official photographers to the sultan, 1880.
Image 8
This fountain kiosk, built in 1728, lay outside the entrance to the Seraglio (Topkapi palace). Imam ‘Abd Allāh was beheaded nearby. Rebels and criminals were beheaded; eminent Ottomans were strangled. Photo by Francis Bedford, 1862.
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The dramatic encounter between Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, Ottoman governor of Egypt, and his vanquished Saudi foe, Imam ‘Abd Allah, in Cairo in November 1818 marks the symbolic end of the First Saudi State. ‘Abd Allah was in transit to public execution in Istanbul, the pasha on his way to becoming a major regional force and founding a local dynasty. The meeting was witnessed by an English Whig, John Bowes Wright, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, whose previously unpublished account throws new light on the exchanges, and the surrender by ‘Abd Allah of the remaining treasures taken by his late father Sa‘ud from the Prophet’s tomb in al-Madina.
£25.00
