Chapter 46: The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back
Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire
In many ways the Second Syrian War between the Ottoman Empire and the Khedivate of Egypt was inevitable and came as no surprise to anyone. The peace between them was tense, the political differences were too deep, and the continuance of the status quo was deemed impossible. Either the master should destroy the servant, or the servant should rise and kill the master, regardless of the outcome both sides understood that there could not be two lords of the Ottoman Empire. So, it was that the intervening years between the end of the First War and the start of the Second were spent preparing for the looming rematch between the Egyptians and the Turks. For their part, Sultan Mahmud II and the Ottomans would undertake the most extensive reformation of the Ottoman bureaucracy, economy, and military since the time of Suleiman the Magnificent in a bid to close the great gap between them.
Following the final defeat of the Albanian and Bosnian Rebels in 1834, the Sultan issued a new series of edicts continuing his earlier reforms to an even greater degree. All property belonging to the rebel Beys and Ayans was seized by the crown, while the rebel Eyalets themselves were subject to extensive reorganization and revisions. The Bosnian Eyalet was split in twain with the southern Sanjaks being molded into the new Eyalet of Hercegovina which was in turn bestowed upon the loyal Ali Ridvanoglu Pasha. The remaining northern Sanjaks of the rump Bosnian Eyalet were denuded of their local autonomy and were to be henceforth administered directly by the Capital. The Albanian Eyalets were similarly carved up with the Pashaliks of Scutari and Ioannina dissolved and their constituent Sanjaks were summarily reabsorbed into the Eyalet of Rumelia.
With the Balkans secured, Sultan Mahmud turned East to Anatolia and the Derebeys who would also see their power and privileges reduced by the centralizing policies of the Sultan. Though they had once been great magnates of Anatolia in the earlier days of the Empire, providing the Ottoman armies with bountiful levies, they had grown corrupt and indulgent over the years with power coalescing into their own hands rather than that of the Sultan and the Porte. As the State was no longer dependent upon the Derebeys for manpower thanks to the previous military reforms by Mahmud II in 1826, the raison d’etre for their continued existence had been extinguished. Sultan Mahmud now began the arduous process of clawing back the power, autonomy, and privileges, multiple generations of Sultans had bestowed upon them. It would be a grueling process as many would violently resist rather than peacefully surrender, but little by little the Derebeys were forced to submit to the Porte.
Along with the administrative reforms came a series of budgetary reforms to sure up the flagging Ottoman economy which had been thoroughly exhausted after nearly twenty-five years of constant warfare and unrest. Taxation policies were amended with a series of commissions established to regulate the collection of the Haraç, a capitation tax which had been fraudulently utilized by unscrupulous tax collectors to their own benefit. In addition, the Timar system, the Ziamets, and the practice of tax farming were abolished as was the assessment of vexatious charges by Government officials. In 1839 a new paper banknote Piastre was designed to supplement the incredibly debased silver coin Piastres, while a new gold coin, the Lira was scheduled for production in 1844.
Sultan Mahmud would also abolish vacant and unneeded offices as well as titles that lacked responsibilities or duties. He furloughed ineffective and incompetent government officials and he imprisoned corrupt ministers and governors who abused their powers solely to enrich themselves. The effects of these economic and administrative initiatives were immediate as the revenue of the Ottoman Government by the end of the 1830’s would actually surpass the total government revenue collected at the start of his reign in 1808 despite the significant loss of territory and people over the years. While he eliminated redundant and ineffectual offices, the Sultan also created a new council of Ministers, the Meclis-i Vukela, which aided him in crafting and implementing new reforms and modernization policies. Another initiative Mahmud took to cut away at the rampant corruption in his Empire was to regularly attend the Divan-i-Hümâyûn, the Imperial Council and develop the institution into a more contemporary institution akin to the Ministries of Modern European Governments with the aid of the Grand Vizier.
The Divan-i-Hümâyûn, the Imperial Council
Militarily the organization and armament of the Nizami Corps was fully underway by 1834 and by the end of the decade, its effective strength during peacetime would rise to 80,000 professional soldiers, while during times of war they would be supported by a reserve force some 300,000 strong. All soldiers were organized into proper units modeled after modern European formations with the basis of their armies being the Regiment. Recruitment for the armies was fulfilled primarily through volunteers, but conscription would come into use to meet the numbers required to effectively fill their ranks. When its reorganization was finally complete in mid-1840, the new professional units of the Ottoman Army were christened the Asakir-Mansure-i-Muhammadiye, the Victorious Soldiers of Muhammad or more commonly, the Mansure Army.
Foreign advisors and instructors from Austria, Britain, and Prussia were welcomed by the dozens to impart modern tactics, strategy and techniques into the Ottoman soldiers and their officers. Included among this number of foreign officers was the young Prussian Captain Helmuth von Moltke who both served as an instructor and aide to his Ottoman hosts for much of the 1830’s. Captain Moltke’s records are among the most detailed of Ottoman military policy for this time, and intricately detail the great shift in the institution. To further this endeavor, a formal military academy, the Mekteb-i-Harbiye, was established at Heybeliada near Constantinople to generate a steady supply of quality army officers for the army. There, they would be trained in the art of war, and schooled in engineering, mathematics, science and philosophy among a myriad of other topics. A defined chain of command and General Staff was established with a clear hierarchy between the command personnel, the field officers, and the soldiers in the field.
The Ottoman Navy also received an increased investment from the Sublime Porte thanks to the determined efforts of Sultan Mahmud and his new Kapudan Pasha, Ahmad Fevzi Pasha. Over the course of the 1830’s the Navy would increase from the 44 battered and bruised fighting ships that remained in 1832 after the war with Egypt to 104 warships in 1840, including a batch of 22 newly minted steamships and 7 additional Ships of the Line. Additionally, the flagship Mahmudiye was thoroughly repaired and refitted removing much of the dry rot from the ship that had plagued the vessel during its first sortie in 1831. When its repairs were complete in 1838 it could be said that the Mahmudiye was truly a floating fortress on the seas. As was done with the army, the Bahriye Mektibi Naval School was reestablished at Kasimpasa in 1837 to provide the Ottoman Navy with a cadre of skilled Naval officers trained in the art of modern naval doctrine and tactics.
[1] With his military reforms now complete, Sultan Mahmud now wished to test it, fortunately he need not look far as events on the Barbary Coast soon drew his attention.
Though they officially remained territories of the Ottoman Empire in de jure, the Eyalets of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripolitania had become effectively independent states over the course of the 18th century, operating under the sheerest veil of Ottoman suzerainty. While they had done well for themselves under Ottoman rule, the only facet of their relationship that proved of any value to them was the protection the Ottoman Empire provided. In return for a token tribute and supplying the Ottoman military with ships and men during war, the Porte would shield their piracy with all the might of Turkish arms no matter the circumstance or powers involved. For a time, this arrangement worked well for both, but by the end of the 1700’s this began to change as the power of the Ottoman Empire would wane significantly, allowing the Great Powers of Britain and France, along with the lesser powers of Spain, Sweden, Sicily, and even the United States of America to begin challenging the corsairs of Northern Africa. Try as they might, the Pirates of Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunisia were no match for the strength of arms of the ascending European states without the aid of the Ottomans and by 1815 Piracy was officially ended in the Mediterranean, although sporadic raids would continue for several years to come.
British Sailors Fighting Barbary Corsairs
The end of piracy, followed soon after by the growing global abolitionist movements would cut deep into the economies of the North African states, of which Tripolitania suffered the worst. With poverty skyrocketing in the North African state, the people of Tripolitania began lashing out at their aging and increasingly ineffectual leader Yusuf Karamanli Pasha. Yusuf Pasha’s reign had been troubled from the start as he himself had forcibly taken the throne from his own brother Hamet in 1795, and ever since his own kin had been vying to take it away from him. With demonstrations against his rule increasing in frequency and violence the elderly Yusuf Pasha abdicated in favor of his eldest son Ali II Karamanli on the 14th of November 1833 in a bid to preempt any further unrest. Rather than lessen the growing dissent in his state, this act only made it worse as Ali Pasha’s jealous brothers Mehmed and Ahmad denounced the rule of their brother and rose in rebellion several days later, sparking a bloody civil war that would last for several years.
[2]
Taking advantage of this opportunity to reassert his authority in the region, Sultan Mahmud threw his support behind the embattled Ali Karamanli in February 1836 and dispatched men and ships to aid him. The defense of Ali Karamanli’s rights were not his true goal, however. Instead, Sultan Mahmud planned the overthrow of the Karamanlis entirely restoring Tripolitania to direct Ottoman rule. With his supposed Ottoman benefactors providing him with thousands of men, Ali Pasha promptly defeated his younger brothers, who were summarily forced to flee into the deserts of Fezzan leaving Ali in total control of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. With the younger Karamanli brothers beaten, the Ottomans abruptly turned on the victorious Ali Pasha, dispatching his remaining loyalists and reestablishing Ottoman authority in the region.
The Ottoman victory in Tripolitania had another effect as the ruler of Tunis, Mustafa ibn Mahmud Bey was successfully cowed into vassalage once more, albeit to a lesser degree than his predecessors. The matter in Tripolitania, however, would not end there as Mehmed and Ahmad Karamanli would soon reconcile their differences and reignite the fight against the Ottomans from the Southern deserts of Fezzan. Despite their earlier loss and humiliation, thousands of Arab and Berber volunteers joined their cause, attracted by the riches and weapons given away by the brothers to their supporters. Though it has remained unproven, many scholars believe that these wares had been provided by the neighboring Egyptians in a bid to disturb Ottoman interests in the region, as the Eyalet’s treasury and munitions depots had been captured along with their brother Ali in Tripoli. Regardless of the identity of their backer, the Karamanli rebellion would successfully hamper Ottoman efforts in the region for years to come. With Tripolitania largely secure, and Tunis cowed once more, the Sublime Porte could finally turn its attention to the last thorn in its side, Egypt.
Not all had been pleasant for the House of Kavalali in the intervening years as a series of uprisings and revolts against their rule took place across the Levant and Arabia. In 1832, just months after the conclusion of the war against the Ottoman Empire, the Saudis of the Najd would revolt for a third and final time in 1832. Though they fought with vigor and fanaticism, they were put down once again, with as much brutality and finality as Ibrahim Pasha could muster. Two years later in 1834, the Druze of Lebanon would riot against the Muhammad Ali’s ally Bashir Shibab of Mount Lebanon for his supposed favoritism of the Maronites in his administration. Ironically, the Maronites would also revolt against Emir Bashir II for his heavy taxation and conscription policies which had been imposed in accordance with the Egyptian demands. As was the case with the Egyptians aiding the Karamanlis in Tripolitania, it strongly believed that these revolts in the Levant and Arabia were spurred on at the insistence of the Ottoman Government who covertly provided the rebels with arms and munitions to fight the Egyptians and their allies.
The most serious rebellion against Egyptian rule in the Levant would take place in the Summer of 1837 when the residents of the cities of Ascalon, Hebron, Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Nablus rose up in rebellions against their Egyptian masters. While the peoples of Palestine were unhappy with the heavy tax policies of the Egyptians, the conscription of fighting age men into the Egyptian armies, and the hated modernization initiatives which disrupted their simple lifestyles, the spark of the revolt was the result of a tribal conflict between rival factions in Egyptian Palestine. The Qasim Clan and the Abu Ghosh Clan had been relatively prominent power brokers in Ottoman Palestine, but under the Egyptians they had been gradually replaced by members of the Abd al-Hadi clan who were staunch allies of the Egyptians. The shunning of tradition and local politics by Ibrahim Pasha and the Egyptian Government was too much to bare for the already oppressed peoples of Palestine who revolted in great numbers on the 29th of April 1837 when the chief of the Qasim Clan was imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities for inciting sedition against them.
Within days, tens of thousands of Arab and Bedouin peasants and magnates rose in revolt catching the Egyptians off guard. Those loyal to Muhammad Ali and his son were ruthlessly butchered by the rebels, who violently beheaded every Egyptian soldier and administrator they could get their hands on. Outside of the Abd al-Hadi Clan and those loyal to Emir Bashir Shibab of Lebanon, the Egyptians had thoroughly alienated every individual, family, and clan in Palestine against them. As was the case with the earlier revolts contact did exist between the rebels and agents of the Sublime Porte who provided money and munitions to the Palestinians. The rebels for their part, made no secret that they received aid from the Sublime Porte, nor did they try to hide their proclamations calling on the Sultan to aid them in their struggle.
For Sultan Mahmud II and the Ottomans, these revolts represented a perfect opportunity to retake the provinces of Adana, Aleppo, Damascus, Sidon, and Tripoli which had been lost to Muhammad Ali at the end of the last conflict between them in 1832. To that end, the army was called up and given marching orders, all that remained was the issuing of the final go ahead from the Sultan. Their efforts would ultimately be for not when the Sultan fell ill with a terrible case of tuberculosis in June rendering him incapable for several weeks. Despite his many administrative and bureaucratic reforms over the years, many of the Government’s initiatives still fell under the prerogative of Sultan and as he was indisposed, the opportunity came and went with the Ottomans doing little to aid the dissidents.
Without the aid of the Sultan and the Ottoman army, the Palestinian uprising was methodically and brutally crushed by the Egyptians. Ibrahim Pasha directed his army against the city of Jerusalem where he mercilessly destroyed all who opposed him. The rebels were butchered, their leaders were executed, and their families were deported to Egypt where many would die in poverty and destitution. This process was repeated at Jabal Nablus, Gaza, Galilee, Hebron, and everywhere else that the rebels had dared to rise against him and by the end of the year, the Levant was at peace once more, it would not be the last revolt against Egyptian rule however. Three years later in January 1840, outside the city of Hamah, an altercation between an Egyptian officer and a local merchant would lead to the merchant’s death. Angered by this outcome, the people of Hamah fell upon the Egyptians, slaughtering the lot of them, sparking the next in the long series of revolts against the Egyptians.
When news of this Syrian Uprising reached the Sultan’s palace in Constantinople, Sultan Mahmud immediately issued the orders to ready his forces for war. On the 2nd of March, the commander of the Eastern Ottoman Army Hafiz Osman Pasha received his orders are marched across the border into Adana. The 2nd Syrian War had begun in earnest and unlike the First this war would be much less one sided. Marching from their barracks in Konya to the city of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast, the Ottoman Army, some 100,000-strong made quick progress reducing its defenses and taking the city by storm on the night of the 10th. This victory was soon followed by the recapture of Adana nine days later, Alexandretta would fall in early April, and Gaziantep would follow a month after that. By the start of May, the entirety of Egyptian Adana had fallen and the Ottoman army now stood poised to reenter Syria.
For the Egyptians, this development was incredibly alarming. While they had anticipated Ottoman intervention on the side of the rebels and had strengthened the northern garrisons accordingly, they did not anticipate their defenses along the border collapsing as quickly as they did. Ibrahim Pasha had hoped that his forces in Adana would hold long enough for him to deal with the Syrian rebels before marching north to relieve his men to the North. While he had succeeded at capturing Tartus and Homs from the dissidents and his compatriot Suleiman Pasha had captured al-Salt, Amman and Damascus, Hamah remained obstinately opposed to him, forcing Ibrahim to starve the rebels into submission. Now caught between the Ottoman army to the North and the remaining Rebels to his South, he faced a terrible predicament.
Ibrahim and his force could march north to combat the Ottoman Army which was presently besieging Aleppo, but in doing so he would run the risk of the rebellion reigniting in the region. His force was also much smaller than his foes’, numbering slightly higher than 50,000 and while he had defeated forces many times his own numbers before, he recognized that the Ottomans had improved somewhat since their last encounter. Alternatively, he could hold his ground outside Hamah and destroy the few remaining rebels before the Ottomans could arrive to assist them, but in doing so he would likely condemn his soldiers at Aleppo to death. A third option to retreat and join with Suleiman Bey did exist, but was soon thrown out. Ibrahim would eventually settle on a compromise of the first two plans, he would leave behind a small screening force of 10,000 men to continue the siege of Hamah, while the remainder of his forces would march north to combat the Ottomans.
Curiously, throughout this entire endeavor much of the Egyptian fleet remained unaccounted for as Muhammad Ali had recalled his ships to Alexandria at the start of the war. When news reached his court in late-March that Ottoman forces had crossed into his territory and taken his cities, Muhammad Ali, who was now approaching his 71st year on this Earth, rallied his soldiers and sailors for war and prepared his own fleet to drive back the Ottoman invasion, the Kapudan Pasha Ahmad Fevzi had plans to the contrary however. Two days later, on the 28th of March 1840, 74 ships of the Ottoman Navy appeared on the horizon, their sailors ready for war and their cannons aimed at Alexandria.
Next Time: Egypt in the Maelstrom
[1] The Bahriye Mektibi Naval School had been around since 1773, along with the Naval High School but it had been subject to numerous renovations, relocations, and closures due to financial issues and a particularly bad fire in 1822. Before this point in TTL, or 1838 IOTL, the Bahriye Mektibi Naval School was more akin to a cartography school for prospective navigators rather than an actual naval academy.
[2] I managed to find a source indicating a man by the name of Mehmed Karamanli claimed to be the Ruler of Tripolitania from 1832 to 1835 when the Ottomans reconquered the region in OTL. That said, I didn’t find any information about a second brother named Ahmad, so I picked that name at random because it was a relatively common name in the Karamanli family.
