Chapter 26: Crisis in the Arab Islamic Heartlands

1. Pages 624-629 Primary Sources: Sultan Abdul Mejid pgs. 319-323 Chapter 26: Crisis in the Arab Islamic Heartlands

2. Create 3 Sections • What Europe is doing • What Islamic Heartland Leaders are doing • What “the people” are doing Where ever you see cause and effect, use an arrow with key words written on the line of the arrow to show connections. Notes Layout

3. Arab people of Fertile Crescent, Egypt, coastal Arabia, and N. Africa have long lived under Ottoman-Turkish rule. • Most resented Turkish domination, but could relate as Muslim and protectors and defenders of the faith. • Decline of the Ottomans leaves them at risk for conquest by European powers • Capture of Indonesian areas, India, Algeria causes the panic/crisis • Muslims now feeling displaced by Europe as a leading civilization Crisis in the Arab Islamic Heartlands

4. 1798: Napoleon invades Egypt, sending shock waves through Islamic world • Napoleon didn’t want Egypt for his empire, but was using it to destroy British power in India • July 1798: slips past British blockade, puts armies ashore • Napoleon’s armies are met by tens of thousands of cavalry bent on defending the Mamluk regime (ruled as vassal of Ottoman sultans) • Murad (head of coalition of Mamluck households) dismisses the invader as a donkey boy he could drive out • Murad’s contempt for Napoleon is an example of the ignorance of events in Europe • Crushing defeats (armor and spears vs. artillery) • Shows vulnerability of Muslim areas to European aggression • Victory in Egypt does little to help the French • British catch up to French fleet and sink most of it at Battle of Aboukir (1798), Napoleon must abandon army and sneak back to Paris • Spares Egypt of European conquest for a brief period of time Egypt and Napoleon

5. Emerges as an effective ruler of Egypt • Impressed by weapons and discipline of the French, spends time and resources attempting to build a western style army • Conscription of peasantry • Hires French officials to train troops • Imports western arms • Adopts tactics, modes of organization and supply • Creates best fighting force in the Middle East • Invades Syria, war fleet threatens Istanbul • Other reforms fail to fundamentally transform Egyptian society • To build economic base orders peasants to increase production of cotton, hemp, indigo, other high demand crops from Europe • Efforts to improve harbors and irrigation • Ambitious attempts to reform education, but little accomplished • Failure to build industrial sector (Opposition and competition from Europe) • Dies 1848, successors content to confine claims to Egypt and Sudanic lands • Khedives : descendents of Ali who rule after 1867, remain formal rulers of Egypt until military coup of 1952 brings Gamel Abdul Nasser to power Muhammad Ali

6. Problems: • Landlord class gets rich, peasant class go hungry • Long Term: Egypt is dependant on a single export (cotton) • Revenue collected wasted on extravagance of the palace or wasted on military campaigns • Debt to European financiers • European nations allow debt because they want access to cheap cotton and to share in a possible canal across the Isthmus of Suez Economic Problems in Egypt

7. Completed in 1869 • Transforms Egypt into a very strategic location • Link between European powers and colonial empires in Asia and East Africa • Control of it is key Suez Canal

8. Discussions begin among Muslim intellectuals and political activists to determine how to ward off the growing European menace • Egypt, Muslim University of al-Azhar become key meeting places • Ideas • Jihad to rid Muslim lands of infidels • Return to patterns of religious observance and social interaction from the golden age of Muhammad • Borrow scientific learning and knowledge from the west (al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh) = innovation • All agree Muslim unity, but had different ideas on how to renew Islam • Britain and France have interest in stability and accessibility of Egypt because of the debts and canal. • Bankers buy shares of the canal, ask government to intervene when khedives are unable to meet loan payments • Ahmad Orabi leads revolt in 1882 after kehdive tries to save money by disbanding Egyptian regiments and dismissing Egyptian officers • Riots in city of Alexandria, mutinies within army cause khedive to seek British assistance • British bomb coastal batteries, send troops ashore to crush Orabi’s rebellion, secures power of the khedive • Leads to decades of dominance by British, who try to rule through puppet khedives, British advisors to Egyptian administrators, British officials control Egypt’s finances and foreign affairs • Begins European control over Islamic heartlands Strategies of Resistance

9. Suez Canal

10. British are drawn into the conflict with the Sudanic region south of Egypt. • Egyptian began efforts to control Sudan in 1820, met with great resistance • Opposition: Camel and cattle herding nomads • Areas along Nile were easier to control, so towns such as Khartoum were where you would find Egyptian authority (still resented though) • Reasons for resentment: corruption, taxes, show favoritism to some Sudanic tribes, attempts in 1870’s to end profitable slave trade • By 1870’s Egyptian oppression and British intervention has caused deep resentment and hostility Sudanic Opposition

11. Educated by local Sufi brotherhood, family claims descent from Muhammad • Mahdi- promised deliverer • Breaks with Sufi master, has own following, has visions that show remarkable future, escapes from Egyptian effort to capture him, now seen as divinely appointed leader of revolt against foreigners • Leads Jihad against Egyptians and British • There are several movements in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 18th century • Represents Islamic response to dilution of Islam in Africa and threat of Europe • Promises to purge Islam of superstitious beliefs and degrading practices that had built up over centuries • Win several victories against the Egyptians (aided by guerrilla tactics and confidence of followers), come to control most of the area of modern day Sudan • Dies of typhus at height of power, a capable successor was found Muhammad Achmad

12. One of Mahdi’s (Achmad) most skillful military commanders • Under Abdallahi, the Mahdists build a strong, expansive state • Want to control society (no smoking, drinking, severe punishment for theft, prostitution, adultery) • Religious and ritual practices are heavily enforced • Ban on slavery lifted • Most foreigners imprisoned or expelled • Mahdist armies attack or threaten neighboring states for a decade • 1896: British General Kitchener sent to end the threat • Spears and magical garments of the Mahdists are no match for the machine guns and artillery • Battle of Omdurman: thousands of Mahdists cavalry are slaughtered • Within a year, the Mahdist state collapses, British power advances into interior of Africa KhalifaAbdallahi

13. In what ways do you see a “western” influence over Sultan Abdul Majid in his Imperial Rescript? How does this proclamation impact Majid’s subjects? Sultan Abdul Majid