Egypt (Cromwell the Great)

Egypt! from whose all dateless tombs arose Forgotten Pharaohs from their long repose, And shook within their pyramids to hear A new Cambyses thundering in their ear; While the dark shades of forty ages stood Like startled giants by Nile's famous flood. (Lord Byron, The Age of Bronze, 1823) The Khedivate of Egypt (Arabic: خديوية مصر‎; Ottoman Turkish: خدیویت مصر‎ Hıdiviyet-i Mısır) is an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of the French Army of Egypt under the command of Louis Charles Antoine Desaix also bringing an end to the short-lived French occupation of Lower Egypt.

Ottoman Egypt
Before the landing of the French expeditionary force Egypt was a province of the Ottoman Empire conquered in 1517 from the ruling Mamluk Sultanate. However Egypt was a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks. The Mamluks were the Egyptian military caste that had ruled the country for centuries.

French Egypt (1803-1806)
During the European Revolutionary Wars (1790-1810), the idea of annexing Ottoman Egypt as a French colony or protectorate had been under discussion under the Directory. The goals were to attack British commerce, and undermine Britain's access to India and the East Indies, since Egypt was well-placed on the trade routes to these places. Also it would more easily linked with Cygnia, regain French India and help France's ally Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore in India. An engineering project of a "double port" connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, the current Suez Canal, was also considered to be done once French occupation was consolidated. However plans for the military campaign were shelved as other military goals in Europe were of more immediate concern.

The fall of the Directory and installation of Grand Elector Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1801-1809) plans for the Egyptian military expedition were revived and General Louis Charles Antoine Desaix given its command. The invading fleet sailed in 1803, reoccupying Malta again (1803-1805).

The landing in Alexandria of French troops easily defeating the Mameluke army and securing the port, the next step was moving by land and using the Nile as supply line, to Cairo. In 1803, after winning the decisive Battle of the Pyramids were the Mamluks and the Egyptian Army were wiped out, Desaix proclaimed the Egyptian Republic as a sister state of France. However French control was unchallenged in the Lower Egypt, the chaotically fleeing Mamluk forces mustered a sparse resistance in the Upper Egypt.

Immediate reforms included the recruitment of a local army modeled on the French one, naming of councils of local notables (divans) in Alexandria, Cairo and the capitals of the departments to advise the French civil and military authorities, an armistice for Arab and Turks, the expropriation of the lands and states of the Arabs and Turks that did not put down their resistance.

The new republic was readily organized along french administration in departments under the direction of a French prefect and Egyptian advisor with a local council of notables. This dual administration was copied in all levels. The General Commissioner of the Egyptian Republic was the chief executive assisted by a consultative Divan. The judiciary, as the administration was divided in the religious courts of the Muslims, Copts, other Christians and Jews and the Civil Courts that tried cases were a French or European was one of the parties of fell within the French civil and penal law.

Besides the religious feats of the Islamic and Coptic calendar three civil feats were established: fête of the Nile (celebrating the Nile floods which brought fertility to the plains, 28 August), the fête or mawlid of the Prophet (anniversary of his birth beginning on 21 August), and the fête de la République (22 September).

The Khedivate (1806 to date)
Pasha Muhammad Ali controlled Egypt using the incipient state machinery left by the French. Under his rule Egypt was centralized and annually paid its tribute to the Sublime Porte. Ali also started to govern autonomously being later acknowledged as viceroy (Khedive) by the Sultan. Ali also began the industrial cultivation of cotton and built irrigation works, a taxing system and a treasury. Machinery for textiles and steam machines were imported. The railroad between Cairo and Alexandria was inaugurated with grand fanfare marking for many the beginning of a modern Egypt. Under British expertise the Egyptian pound was introduce as the national currency.

Egypt was divided in provinces (mudīryāt), each subdivided into departments (m’amūryāt), districts (qism, plural: ‘aqsām) and sub-districts (khuṭ).

Rulers of Egypt
Before the declaration of the Khedivate, the governors (beylerbey) of Egypt were named by the Sultan at his pleasure. Muhammad Ali Pasha established a hereditary governorship (Khedive) that was autonomous from Sublime Porte in all but name. Beylerbey (Governor) General Commissioner of the Egyptian Republic Khedive
 * Abdullah Pasha al-Azm ...-1803. Mamluk emirs Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey wield de facto power
 * (vacant 1803-1804 due to French occupation)
 * Ibrahim Bey 1804-1804 (puppet governor named by Muhammad Ali Pasha)
 * Hurşid Ahmed Pasha 1804-1806 (named by Muhammad Ali Pasha. later deposed by him and ruled directly has Khedive)
 * Louis Charles Antoine Desaix 1803-1805 (died in battle)
 * Jean-Baptiste Kléber 1805-1806
 * Jacques-François Menou 1806-1806
 * Muhammad Ali Pasha 1806-1848
 * Ibrahim Pasha 1848-
 * Isma'il Pasha