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116-573: This period was characterized by the strong influence of French engineers and/or French educated Egyptian engineers. Numerous public works projects were constructed in both Upper and Lower Egypt during this period, but the most notable of these were the construction of the three major irrigation canals (Mahmoudiyah, Ismailia, and Ibrahimiya) and the Delta Barrages . After his rise to power in 1805, Muhammad Ali Pasha embarked on consolidating his power and building an empire. His way of achieving that

232-414: A textile industry in an effort to compete with European industries and produce greater revenues for Egypt. While the textile industry was not successful, the entire endeavour employed tens of thousands of Egyptians. Muhammad Ali used contracts called concessions to build cheap infrastructure – dams and railroads – whereby foreign European companies would raise capital, build projects, and collect most of

348-484: A "Saharo-tropical African variant". Keita also added that it is important to emphasize that whilst Egyptian society became more socially complex and biologically varied, the "ethnicity of the Niloto-Saharo-Sudanese origins did not change. The cultural morays, ritual formulae, and symbols used in writing, as far as can be ascertained, remained true to their southern origins." The proto-dynastic kings emerged from

464-520: A 2005 study on mummified remains found that "some Theban nobles had a histology which indicated notably dark skin ". In the eleventh century, large numbers of pastoralists , known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis . It is believed that degraded grazing conditions in Upper Egypt, associated with the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period , were

580-555: A School of Medicine for women. Clot-Bey had been invited in 1827 by Muhammad Ali to found the Qasral-‘Ayni School of Medicine at the Army hospital of Abou Zabel which later transferred to Cairo. The Army Medical School had a difficult beginning with religious officials against dissection of corpses for anatomy lessons. The medical school for women would produce hakimas, "doctoress", to treat women and children. French women adherents of

696-698: A century, until the revolution of 1952 when King Farouk was overthrown by the Free Officers Movement led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser , establishing the Republic of Egypt . Muhammad Ali was born in the Sanjak of Kavala (modern-day Kavala ), in the Rumelia Eyalet , to an Albanian family from Korça region. He was the second son of a Bektashi Albanian tobacco and shipping merchant named Ibrahim Agha, who also served as an Ottoman commander of

812-485: A daily supply of 70,000 cubic meters of fresh water. It was designed by Linant who also managed its construction. The Ismailia canal has its inlet at Cairo upstream of the Delta Barrages . It actually used to have two inlets, one called the Kasr-el-Nil, in the heart of Cairo. This was the oldest, but it was abandoned later after the area got very urbanized. The other inlet, called Shobra, is situated 7 kilometers below in

928-582: A failed Ottoman invasion of Syria in 1839, he launched another invasion of the Ottoman Empire in 1840; he defeated the Ottomans again and opened the way towards a capture of Constantinople. Faced with another European intervention, he accepted a brokered peace in 1842 and withdrew from the Levant; in return, he and his descendants were granted hereditary rule over Egypt and Sudan. His dynasty would rule Egypt for over

1044-671: A finger of the right hand, so as to be unable to fire a rifle. Beyond building a functioning, industrial economy, Muhammad Ali also made an effort to train a professional military and bureaucracy. He sent promising citizens to Europe to study. Again the driving impulse behind the effort was to build a European-style army. Students were sent to study European languages, primarily French, so they could in turn translate military manuals into Arabic. He then used both educated Egyptians and imported European experts to establish schools and hospitals in Egypt. European education also provided talented Egyptians with

1160-561: A fundamental role in reducing the incidence of smallpox during the 19th century by vaccinating approximately 600 children a month in the Civil Hospital. They checked and treated women, mainly prostitutes, for venereal diseases. Another important task was the "forensic examination" of women. In this respect, hakimas operated in a legal setting. Their examination was used as evidence in cases involving unnatural death, suspected premarital loss of virginity, or miscarriage. Although one task of

1276-565: A line parallel to the maritime Suez canal and empties into the channel of the port of Suez . The line of the Ismailia canal conforms at many points to the direction followed by the ancient canal, which, according to historians, put the Nile in communication with Lake Timsah, or with the Red Sea itself, and of which traces have been found on the surface. The length of the canal between the Nile and Lake Timseh

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1392-597: A little over 80-kilometer (50 mi) long. Shakir Effendi seems to have bungled his assignment, and was replaced by the French engineer Pascal Coste (1787–1879) who completed the canal in a record time of few months in 1820. This canal, which linked the Nile with the city's western harbor, gave Alexandria access to the Egyptian heartland and put Egypt face to face with the sea. It also provided Alexandria with Nile 's fresh water for

1508-841: A means of social mobility. A by-product of Muhammad Ali's training program was the establishment of a professional bureaucracy . Establishing an efficient central bureaucracy was an essential prerequisite for the success of Muhammad Ali's other reforms. In the process of destroying the Mamluks, the Wāli had to fill the governmental roles that the Mamluks had previously filled. In doing so, Muhammad Ali kept all central authority for himself. He partitioned Egypt into ten provinces responsible for collecting taxes and maintaining order. Muhammad Ali installed his sons in most key positions; however, his reforms did offer Egyptians opportunities beyond agriculture and industry. A 2015 study found that Ali's economic policies had

1624-513: A monthly allowance from the state. Graduates served at the Civil Hospital in Cairo or at health centres throughout Egypt. Some stayed at the school to serve as instructors. Marriages were arranged by the state to male doctors. Once married, hakimas were given the title of Effendi , the rank of second lieutenant, and a monthly salary of 250 piasters. Licensed hakimas treated women and children, providing vaccinations and delivering children. They served

1740-538: A much larger Ottoman force, to re-occupy Egypt following a brief French occupation that upended Mamluk dominance in Egypt. The expedition, aboard xebecs , landed at Aboukir in the spring of 1801. One of his trusted army commanders was Miralay Mustafa Bey, who had married Muhammad's sister Zubayda and was the ancestor of the Yeghen family. The French withdrawal left a power vacuum in Egypt. Mamluk power had been weakened, but not destroyed, and Ottoman forces clashed with

1856-425: A new cash crop . To help improve production, he expanded the land used for agriculture and overhauled the irrigation system, largely completed by the corvée , or forced peasant labor. The new-found profits also extended down to the individual farmers, as the average wage increased fourfold. In addition to bolstering the agricultural sector, Muhammad Ali built an industrial base for Egypt. His motivation for doing so

1972-449: A positive impact on industrialization in Egypt. The purpose of the law was to represent Muhammad Ali in his absence. Muhammad Ali's initial focus was on reforming the criminal law, passing his first penal legislation in 1829. By this time, Muhammad Ali was already moving towards an establishment of an independent state, which he first expressed in 1830, by creating a state of "law and order", where Christians within Egypt can be safe, which

2088-498: A series of political maneuvers, and in 1805 he was named Wāli (governor) of Egypt and gained the rank of Pasha . As Wāli , Ali attempted to modernize Egypt by instituting dramatic reforms in the military, economic and cultural spheres. He also initiated a violent purge of the Mamluks , consolidating his rule and permanently ending the Mamluk hold over Egypt. Militarily, Ali recaptured

2204-466: A sign of reform but Ali furthering his military goals. For example, their treatment of venereal diseases was intended to curb its incidence among soldiers and smallpox vaccinations increased the pool of potential soldiers by reducing childhood mortality rate. Furthermore, the hakimas allowed for increased state control over social life. This is observed in the use of hakimas to collect statistics on childbirth, either personally or through dayas, as well as in

2320-596: A small unit in their hometown. His mother was Zeynep, the daughter of Çorbaci Husain Agha, another Muslim Albanian notable in Kavala. When his father died at a young age, Muhammad was taken and raised by his uncle Husain Agha with his cousins. As a reward for Muhammad Ali's hard work, his uncle gave him the rank of " Bolukbashi " for the collection of taxes in the town of Kavala. Muhammad Ali later married his cousin Amina Hanim ,

2436-521: A thriving international trading community with well-developed markets throughout the Levant ; in addition, it would be a captive market for the goods now being produced in Egypt. Yet perhaps most of all, Syria was desirable as a buffer state between Egypt and the Ottoman Sultan. A new fleet was built, a new army was raised and on 31 October 1831, under Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian invasion of Syria initiated

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2552-441: A unique number that identified their unit and their role within it, and officers were expected to use lists with these numbers to keep a close watch on the men and ensure every man performed his clearly assigned duty. This was particularly useful in identifying deserters who often fled in the chaos of massed movement, such as during forced marches or relocation to a new encampment. The soldiers were placed under strict surveillance in

2668-535: A wealthy widow. She was the daughter of Ali Agha and Kadriye (Zeynep's sister). After Muhammad's promising success in collecting taxes, he earned the rank of Second Commander under his cousin Sarechesme Halil Agha in the Kavala Volunteer Contingent of Albanian mercenaries that was sent to re-occupy Egypt following General Napoleon Bonaparte's withdrawal. In 1801, his unit was sent, as part of

2784-516: Is 136 kilometers, and the length of the Suez branch is 89 kilometers. During the reign of Ismail Pasha (1863–1879), many great public works projects were constructed. Over 8,000 miles (13,000 km) of new canals (the longest of which was the Ibrahimiya Canal) were dug; the cultivated area increased from 3,050,000 feddans in 1813 to 4,743,000 in 1877. Ismail's khedivate is also closely connected to

2900-509: Is between the Cataracts of the Nile beyond modern-day Aswan , downriver (northward) to the area of El-Ayait, which places modern-day Cairo in Lower Egypt . The northern (downriver) part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait, is also known as Middle Egypt . It is believed to have been united by the rulers of the supposed Thinite Confederacy who absorbed their rival city states during

3016-548: The 11th , 12th , 17th , 18th and 25th dynasties, reunified and reinvigorated pharaonic Egypt after periods of fragmentation. For most of Egypt's ancient history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, the importance of Egypt declined. Under the dynasty of the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of the capital city of Upper Egypt. Shomarka Keita reported that

3132-662: The Anazeh in Syria and those bred in the Nejd . While his immediate successor had minimal interest in the horse breeding program, his grandson, who became Abbas I shared this interest and further built upon his work. Though Muhammad Ali's chief aim was to establish a European-style military, and carve out a personal empire, he waged war initially on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmud II , in Arabia and Greece, although he later came into open conflict with

3248-610: The First Turko-Egyptian War . For the sake of appearance on the world stage, a pretext for the invasion was vital. Ultimately, the excuse for the expedition was a quarrel with Abdullah Pasha of Acre . The Wāli alleged that 6,000 fellahin had fled to Acre to escape the draft, corvée, and taxes, and he wanted them back. (See also: 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine ) The Egyptians overran most of Syria and its hinterland with ease. The strongest and only really significant resistance

3364-566: The Naqada III period (c. 3200–3000 BC), and its subsequent unification with Lower Egypt ushered in the Early Dynastic period . Upper and Lower Egypt became intertwined in the symbolism of pharaonic sovereignty such as the Pschent double crown. Upper Egypt remained as a historical region even after the classical period. The main city of prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen . The patron deity

3480-659: The Nile Barrages , and Mougel's had been preferred. Linant left sufficiently on record his jealousy of his rival, and seems to have come easily to the conclusion that his rival's Barrage was a costly failure, of no more use than those useless old Pyramids a few miles off. Muhammad Ali Pasha died in 1848 without seeing the Delta dams completed. He was succeeded by his grandson Abbas Hilmi I , (1848–1854) whose known contempt towards his grandfather caused him to halt or entirely abandon most of Muhammad Ali Pasha 's massive projects, including

3596-571: The Nuba Mountains , and west and south Sudan, all incorporated into a foot regiment known as the Gihadiya (pronounced Jihadiya in non-Egyptian Arabic) which were composed of the recently defeated Shaigiya who now took service under the invaders in exchange for keeping their domains. Ali's reign in Sudan, and that of his immediate successors, is remembered in Sudan as brutal and heavy-handed, contributing to

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3712-684: The Saint-Simonian social reform movement were living in Egypt during 1833–36 and studied or provided medical care under Clot Bey's direction. French sage-femme (midwife) Suzanne Voilquin writes of assisting during the cholera epidemic of 1834. Several of the French women contracted cholera and died. Ali's military and economic goals required a healthy army and population from which young boys could be conscripted. Venereal diseases, especially syphilis, were common among soldiers and smallpox outbreaks led to high childhood mortality rates. Clot Bey argued that female-provided health care for women and children

3828-528: The bastinado and the whip to control and punish the soldiers. Muhammad not only wanted his soldiers to be disciplined, but he also created many military codes to regulate the definitions of crime and punishment, this helped to create blind obedience to the laws. A large part of Ali's goal of a European-style military was through the creation of new labelling and organizational systems to identify soldiers, distinguish officers from enlisted men, structure units, and properly distribute salaries. Soldiers were given

3944-514: The prelude to the new Aswan High Dam project which was built using his calculations of the required long-term storage capacity. Egyptian engineers operated the Department after Egypt was liberated from the British rule. The biggest and most complicated of all public works in Egyptian history ( Aswan High Dam ) was constructed during this period. This period experienced influence of Soviet engineers in

4060-486: The 1950s and the 1960s. This was replaced by some influence of American engineers in the 1980s and the 1990s. Currently, all the public works in Egypt are controlled by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. The goal of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation is to implement feasible projects that will increase agricultural productivity. The Irrigation Improvement Project was designed to do that through improving

4176-549: The Aquarium Garden, Sewage, and Irrigation. Linant continued in charge of public works, as director general beginning with 1862, and as Minister of Public Works in 1869. He retired from this post in the same year (1869) and in 1873 was given the title Pasha by Khedieve Ismail Pasha . In 1854 the first act of concession of land for the Suez Canal was granted to a French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps . Actual construction of

4292-554: The Arabian territories for the sultan, and conquered Sudan of his own accord. His attempt at suppressing the Greek rebellion failed decisively, however, following an intervention by the European powers at Navarino . In 1831, Ali waged war against the sultan , capturing Syria, crossing into Anatolia and directly threatening Constantinople , but the European powers forced him to retreat. After

4408-650: The Delta Barrages. Abbas Pasha had no faith in the project and wished to abandon the construction of the dams. He dismissed Mougel Bey in April, 1853, and placed Mazhar Bey in charge of the work. Sensing his master's lack of enthusiasm for the project, Mazhar Bey, a Turkish engineer, did not do much to finish the work which would only be completed later during the time of Egypt's next Wali from Muhammad Ali Dynasty , Sa'id Pasha . Under Sa'id Pasha 's rule (1854–1863) there were several reforms as he tried to portray himself as

4524-685: The Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, further vitiates the Mesopotamian-influence argument". Similarly, Christopher Ehret , historian and linguist, stated that the cultural practice of sacral chiefship and kingship which emerged in Upper Egypt in the fourth millennium had originated centuries earlier in Nubia and the Middle Nile south of Egypt. He based this judgement on supporting, archaeological and comparative ethnographic evidence. These cultural advances paralleled

4640-564: The Department of Public Works assumed jurisdiction over railways and was also given supervision of the Delta Barrages. In 1866, railways administration was separated from the Department of Public works which was reduced into an office (qalam) within the Department of Interior. Public Works was subsequently reconstituted as a department and with combined with Education into a single administration under Ali Mubarak , yet by 1869 it seems to have resumed an independent existence under its own director Linant Bey . After his resignation in 1870, public works

4756-612: The Egyptian army marched north into Anatolia . At the Battle of Konya (21 December 1832), Ibrahim Pasha soundly defeated the Ottoman army led by the sadr azam Grand Vizier Reshid Pasha. There were now no military obstacles between Ibrahim's forces and Constantinople itself. Through the course of the campaign, Muhammad Ali paid particular focus to the European powers. Fearing another intervention that would reverse all his gains, he proceeded slowly and cautiously. For example, Muhammad Ali continued

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4872-453: The Mamluks for power. During this period of turmoil, Muhammad Ali used his loyal Albanian troops to work with both sides, gaining power and prestige for himself. As the conflict drew on, the local populace grew weary of the power struggle. In 1801, he allied with the Egyptian leader Umar Makram and Egypt's Grand Imam of al-Azhar . During the infighting between the Ottomans and Mamluks between 1801 and 1805, Muhammad Ali carefully acted to gain

4988-695: The Naqada region. Excavations at Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt) found archaeological evidence of ritual masks similar to those used further south of Egypt, and obsidian linked to Ethiopian quarry sites. Frank Yurco stated that depictions of pharonic iconography such as the royal crowns , Horus falcons and victory scenes were concentrated in the Upper Egyptian Naqada culture and A-Group Lower Nubia . He further elaborated that " Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Lower Nubia, and not in

5104-430: The Ottoman Empire. He used several new strategies to ensure the success of his new military. First new recruits were isolated from the environment they were used to. They began housing soldiers in barracks, leadership enforced a strict regime of surveillance, roll call was done several times a day, and corporal punishment used to ensure the new fighting force grew to become a strong disciplined military. The army often used

5220-602: The Saudis began conquering parts of Arabia. This culminated in the capture of the Hejaz region by 1805. With the main Ottoman army tied up in Europe, Mahmud II turned to Muhammad Ali to recapture the Arabian territories . Muhammad Ali in turn appointed his son, Tusun , to lead a military expedition in 1811. The campaign was initially turned back in Arabia; however, a second attack was launched in 1812 that succeeded in recapturing Hejaz. While

5336-423: The art . Construction took nearly 20 years and consumed untold wealth. The Rosetta section was 465 meters in length with 61 arches containing sluices, each of five meters in width. The Damietta section was 535 meters long with 71 arches containing similarly sized sluices. Navigation locks were provided on both branches, and the two barrages were joined by an elevated roadway 8.6 meters wide, with drawbridges over

5452-769: The balance of power in the East Mediterranean. On 20 October 1827 at the Battle of Navarino , while under the command of Muharram Bey, the Ottoman representative, the entire Egyptian navy was sunk by the European Allied fleet, under the command of Admiral Edward Codrington . If the Porte was not in the least prepared for this confrontation, Muhammad Ali was even less prepared for the loss of his highly competent, expensively assembled and maintained navy. With its fleet essentially destroyed, Egypt had no way to support its forces in Greece and

5568-493: The barracks. In order to accomplish this Muhammad Ali relied on the Bedouins to guard the troops that were sent to the training camps. Despite being hired to control the troops the Bedouins were actually a menace to the government who often had to use the army to control the Bedouins. In order to combat this the government slowly switched from using Bedouins to guard the soldiers and to capture deserters and instead attempted to set up

5684-461: The barrage attracted attention by reason only of its imposing superstructure, but it failed to produce any impression by its performances, for it was weakest where strength was most needed." Following the British occupation, engineers decided if any good could be done, they must either repair the old barrage, or build a new one; it was absolutely necessary to get control of the Nile water and thus improve irrigation and exports. They resolved to see what

5800-528: The campaign was successful, the power of the Saudis was not broken. They continued to harass Ottoman and Egyptian forces from the central Nejd region of the Peninsula. Consequently, Muhammad Ali dispatched another of his sons, Ibrahim, at the head of another army to finally rout the Saudis. After a two-year campaign, the Saudis were crushed and most of the Saudi family was captured. The family leader, Abdullah ibn Saud ,

5916-565: The canal varied between 30 and 80 cubic meters per second in summer and between 500 and 900 cubic metres per second in flood. Having its head on the left bank of the Nile , opposite Assiut , it runs northwards for 60 kilometers and then divides in Dirout into two main branches; one branch is the Bahr Yousef Canal, while the other is the Ibrahimiya Canal proper. Between 1849 and 1879, was

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6032-692: The cases where a hakima was used to examine a woman. In the 1820s, Muhammad Ali sent the first educational "mission" of Egyptian students to Europe. This contact resulted in literature that is considered the dawn of the Arabic literary renaissance, known as the Nahda . To support the modernization of industry and the military, Muhammad Ali set up a number of schools in various fields where French texts were studied. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi supervised translations from French to Arabic on topics ranging from sociology and history to military technology. In 1819/21, his government founded

6148-466: The champion of the people, Muhammad Ali was able to forestall popular opposition until he had consolidated his power. The Mamluks still posed the greatest threat to Muhammad Ali. They controlled Egypt for more than 600 years, and over that time they extended their rule systematically south along the Nile River to Upper Egypt. Muhammad Ali's approach was to eliminate the Mamluk leadership, then move against

6264-484: The construction of the Suez Canal . He agreed to, and oversaw, the Egyptian portion of its construction. Although Ismail was the greatest modernizer of Egypt since Muhammad Ali Pasha , his wars of expansion into Africa and the many infrastructure projects he carried, including the costly Suez Canal , put the country heavily in debt. In 1879 he was forced out of power by Great Britain and France who replaced him with his much less capable son Tawfiq . The Ibrahimiya Canal

6380-418: The conveyance efficiency on both the main system, the mesqa system and on-farm level. Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( Arabic : صعيد مصر Ṣaʿīd Miṣr , shortened to الصعيد , Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [es.sˤe.ˈʕiːd] , locally: [es.sˤɑ.ˈʕiːd] ; Coptic : ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ , romanized:  Mares ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of

6496-400: The cracked dam was worth, quite literally. In 1884, with initial safety testing, immediate repairs, and controlled filling, the existing structure held a pool about seven feet above the natural level. The cost to this work, totaled £26,000; the increased water provided to canals produced 30,000 tons more cotton than the previous year, which was worth over £1 million. This was so encouraging that,

6612-705: The delta and the 30th parallel N. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake Nasser (formed by the Aswan High Dam). In ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as tꜣ šmꜣw , literally "the Land of Reeds" or "the Sedgeland", named for the sedges that grow there. In Arabic , the region is called Sa'id or Sahid, from صعيد meaning "uplands", from the root صعد meaning to go up, ascend, or rise. Inhabitants of Upper Egypt are known as Sa'idis and they generally speak Sa'idi Egyptian Arabic . Upper Egypt

6728-463: The economy, train a professional bureaucracy, and build a modern military. His first task was to secure a revenue stream for Egypt. To accomplish this, Muhammad Ali 'nationalized' all the iltizam lands of Egypt, thereby officially owning all the production of the land. He accomplished the state annexation of property by raising taxes on the ' tax-farmers ' who had previously owned the land throughout Egypt. The new taxes were intentionally high and when

6844-535: The engineers and scientists he would need to carry out all the great projects he had planned. Impressed by the scientific and cultural aspects of the French Expedition (1798–1801), Muhammad Ali relied on French scientists and craftsmen to help him modernize Egypt . French engineer Pascal Coste was the first engineer hired by Muhammad Ali in 1817 to help him construct his ambitious projects. Coste worked on some small projects first, then came his biggest when he

6960-559: The expectation of internment from the beginning of the soldiers stay at the training camps in order to deter them from deserting the military in the first place. Muhammad Ali's first military campaign was an expedition into the Arabian Peninsula . The holy cities of Mecca , and Medina had been captured by the House of Saud , who had recently embraced a literalist Hanbali interpretation of Islam . Armed with their newfound religious zeal,

7076-502: The expense of the weakened imperial power, but scholars have noted that Muhammad Ali's rule was the first significant program of Europeanization of the military and its supporting institutions. Unlike Selim, he had dispatched his chief rivals, giving him a free hand to attempt reforms similar to those first begun by Selim III. Muhammad Ali's goal was for Egypt to leave the Ottoman Empire and be ruled by his own hereditary dynasty. To do that, he had to reorganize Egyptian society, streamline

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7192-568: The first indigenous press in the Arab World, the Bulaq Press . The Bulaq press published the official gazette of Muhammad Ali's government. Among his personal interests was the accumulation and breeding of Arabian horses . In horses obtained as taxes and tribute , Muhammad Ali recognized the unique characteristics and careful attention to bloodlines of the horses bred by the Bedouin , particularly by

7308-430: The first place was abandoned. Poorly constructed, the barrages would have to be rebuilt during the British occupation. A more technical and specific description, some years later says: "When the work was subjected to a small head in 1863 and 1867, unmistakable signs of failure appeared in the form of cracks and displacements, and the barrage was forthwith put upon the sick list. The failure was due to " piping ." Runs below

7424-505: The first time in history. It should be mentioned here however that the entire canal was constructed using the hated corvée system, which Muhammad Ali and his successors used extensively and which was finally abolished under Khedive Ismail during the digging of the Suez Canal . Corvée of more than 300,000 men were drafted from every part of Egypt to dig the Mahmoudiya canal, which was of very little importance to cultivation, and which

7540-435: The floor were developed under the influence of the head of water, and the sand of the foundation bed was carried away by the flowing water till the floor lost its support and settled down. The defects arose, not so much from faulty design, as from careless construction of the foundations. Worried by the impatience and impetuosity of the Viceroy, Mougel Bey's workmen laid the foundation concrete in running water, which carried away

7656-446: The following year, Lord Cromer, despite the state of finances, provided £1 million to improve Egypt's irrigation works. Between 1885 and 1890, Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff successfully completed repairs of the barrages at a cost of $ 2.5 million; it provided a maintainable and desired depth of eight feet of water on downstream parts of the Nile. Maintenance and continuing repair of the Delta Barrages for irrigation purposes would continue into

7772-399: The growing barrage trade. The impact of hydraulic developments was a dramatic increase in the output of Egyptian agriculture. Some of the greatest civil engineers of the 19th century worked in the department in this era, including Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff , Sir Hanbury Brown, Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir William Willcocks , most of whom had been trained or experienced in British India . All

7888-411: The hakimas was overseeing childbirth, the majority of the population continued to use the dayas. Hakimas performed almost no deliveries and often were only called upon during difficult deliveries. However, dayas were required to have a certificate to perform deliveries, which could only be obtained from hakimas. They were also expected to report statistics on births to the hakimas. A significant issue

8004-432: The idea of digging a canal that would allow the barges bringing cargoes from Upper , Middle and Lower Egypt to reach Alexandria without passing Rosetta and the mouth of the river, a point where many ships sank due to the turbulence of the waters. He chose a Turkish engineer, Shakir Effendi , to be in charge of the design and execution of the work. The canal would begin in the village of Atfa, below Fuwwa ; would be

8120-399: The inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to people of the Sahara and more southerly areas", but exhibited local variation in an African context. S. O. Y. Keita, a biological anthropologist also reviewed studies on the biological affinities of the Ancient Egyptian population and characterised the skeletal morphologies of predynastic southern Egyptians as

8236-461: The intent of conquering the territory and subjugating it to his authority. Ali's troops made headway into Sudan in 1821, but met with fierce resistance by the Shaigiya . Ultimately, the superiority of the Egyptian troops and firearms ensured the defeat of the Shaigiya and the subsequent conquest of the Sudan. Ali now had an outpost from which he could expand to the source of the Nile in Ethiopia , and Uganda . His administration captured slaves from

8352-473: The island of Crete in exchange for his support in putting down the revolt. Muhammad Ali sent 16,000 soldiers, 100 transports, and 63 escort vessels under command of his son, Ibrahim Pasha . After Ibrahim sustained successive defeats in Greece (see Ottoman–Egyptian invasion of Mani ) Britain , France , and Russia intervened to aid the Greek revolution as a check on Ibrahim's expansionist agenda which threatened

8468-428: The local elite, Mamluks and the ulama, weakening opposition to Muhammad Ali's reforms. In practice, Muhammad Ali's land reform amounted to a monopoly on trade in Egypt. He required all producers to sell their goods to the state. The state in turn resold Egyptian goods, within Egypt and to foreign markets, and retained the surplus. The practice proved very profitable for Egypt with the cultivation of long staple cotton ,

8584-417: The locks. Elaborate fortifications with towers and turrets completed the imposing structure. By the time the barrages were finally completed in 1862, during the early reign of Viceroy Ismail Pasha (not yet khedive of Egypt), 3 million Egyptian pounds had been spent already. When it was time to operate the dam, the foundations had been so poorly laid that the whole purpose for which it had been built in

8700-642: The major dams controlling the Nile (the Old Aswan Dam and Esna , Nag Hammadi , Assiut , Edfeina and Zifta barrages) were constructed during this period. The venerable Delta Barrage, was finally replaced in 1939 by the newly constructed Mohammed Ali Barrage several hundred meters downstream from the original barrage location, and would again be relegated to the status of a romantic river crossing. Harold Edwin Hurst 's work in Egypt started in 1906 and lasted 62 years doing his best work after he reached 65. He championed

8816-581: The maritime canal lasted for 11 years (1858–1869). From its early start, design and construction work of this international waterway were kept out of the Department of Public Works and was totally handled by the Suez Canal Company , which would become a state within the state and would later have its strong impact on the Anglo-Egyptian relations. The first major project the department under Linant (now under his new title as director general) constructed

8932-464: The mid-1930s. Up until construction of the Nile Barrages , no formal single entity was responsible for the execution of all public works that were being constructed in many parts of the Nile valley and the Nile Delta . Muhammad Ali had invented a new position in 1818: Chief Engineer for Lower Egypt ( Pascal Coste was the first ever to be chosen for this position). A similar title for Upper Egypt

9048-404: The mortar and left loose stone, without any binding material, through which the springs of the river bed had free passage. The design, if faithfully executed, was not much at fault. The floor was amply strong to resist the upward pressure due to the head, but its breadth was perhaps deficient; and the protection given both on the upper and lower sides of the flooring was inadequate. From 1867 to 1883

9164-504: The need to reform and modernize the Ottoman military , along European lines, to ensure that his state could compete. Selim III, however, faced stiff local opposition from an entrenched clergy and military apparatus, especially from the Janissaries . Consequently, he was deposed and ultimately killed in 1808. Muhammad Ali shared some traits with common warlords seeking to gain the upper hand at

9280-570: The new great reformer. Some modernization of Egyptian and Sudanese infrastructure occurred using western loans. During this period, the Nizarah (or Ministry) of Public Works was established in 1857. It actually comprised many departments like the departments of Railroads, Telegraphs, Surveying, Building Construction, Agriculture, Alexandria Harbor, Antiquity, the Opera House, the Zoological Garden,

9396-417: The now bustling Shobra district in northern Cairo. After leaving its inlet, the canal follows the edge of the desert until it reaches the little Wadi Tumilat , which it crosses and follows the north side, trending direct to the east as far as the town of Ismailia , where it discharges into Lake Timsah . A branch, which begins a little before Ismailia , stretches toward the south across the desert, following

9512-767: The operating revenue but would provide Ali's government with a portion of that revenue. Ali also granted Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin permission to build technical schools modeled after the Ecole Polytechnique . Additionally, by hiring European managers, he was able to introduce industrial training to the Egyptian population. To staff his new industries, Muhammad Ali employed a corvée labor system. The peasantry objected to these conscriptions and many ran away from their villages to avoid being taken, sometimes fleeing as far away as Syria . A number of them maimed themselves so as to be unsuitable for combat: common ways of self-maiming were blinding an eye with rat poison and cutting off

9628-443: The political unification of towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, while the same occurred in the societies of the Nile Delta , or Lower Egypt . This led to warfare between the two new kingdoms. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the delta and became sole ruler of the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt, a sovereignty which endured throughout Dynastic Egypt. In royal symbolism, Upper Egypt

9744-526: The popular independence struggle of the self-proclaimed Mahdi , Muhammad Ahmad , in 1881. While Muhammad Ali was expanding his authority into Africa, the Ottoman Empire was being challenged by ethnic rebellions in its European territories. The rebellion in the Greek provinces of the Ottoman Empire began in 1821. The Ottoman army proved ineffectual in its attempts to put down the revolt as ethnic violence spread as far as Constantinople. With his own army proving ineffective, Sultan Mahmud II offered Muhammad Ali

9860-457: The practice of using the sultan's name at Friday prayers in the newly captured territories and continued to circulate Ottoman coins instead of issuing new ones bearing his likeness. So long as Muhammad Ali's march did not threaten to cause the complete collapse of the Ottoman state, the powers in Europe remained as passive observers. Despite this show, Muhammad Ali's goal was now to remove the current Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II and replace him with

9976-631: The predynastic Badari culture was followed by the Naqada culture (Amratian), being closely related to the Lower Nubian; other northeast African populations, coastal communities from the Maghreb , some tropical African groups, and possibly inhabitants of the Middle East . According to bioarchaeologist Nancy Lovell, the morphology of ancient Egyptian skeletons gives strong evidence that: "In general,

10092-412: The projects. In 1836 the Department of Public Works was established and was presided over by Linant de Bellefonds (later known as Linant Pasha ). His position would associate him in a long and fruitful career with most of the great works of modernizing Egypt 's irrigation system. But this also meant trouble for Mougel Bey as he and Linant had always been opposed to each other. Each had his own design for

10208-523: The rank and file. Muhammad Ali invited the Mamluk leaders to a celebration at the Cairo Citadel in honour of his son, Tusun Pasha , who was to lead a military expedition into Arabia . The event was held on 1 March 1811. When the Mamluks had gathered at the Citadel, they were surrounded and killed by Muhammad Ali's troops. After the leaders were killed, Muhammad Ali dispatched his army throughout Egypt to rout

10324-531: The remainder of the Mamluk forces. Muhammad Ali transformed Egypt into a regional power which he saw as the natural successor to the decaying Ottoman Empire. He summed up his vision for Egypt as follows: I am well aware that the (Ottoman) Empire is heading by the day toward destruction... On its ruins I will build a vast kingdom... up to the Euphrates and the Tigris. Sultan Selim III (reigned 1789–1807) had recognized

10440-833: The root cause of the migration. In the twentieth-century Egypt, the title Prince of the Sa'id (meaning Prince of Upper Egypt ) was used by the heir apparent to the Egyptian throne. Although the Kingdom of Egypt was abolished after the Egyptian revolution of 1952 , the title continues to be used by Muhammad Ali, Prince of the Sa'id . The following list may not be complete (there are many more of uncertain existence): Nowadays, Upper Egypt forms part of these 7 governorates : Large cities located in Upper Egypt: Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali (4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849)

10556-555: The sultan's son, the infant Abdülmecid . This possibility so alarmed Mahmud II that he accepted Russia's offer of military aid resulting in the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi . Russia's gain dismayed the British and French governments, resulting in their direct intervention. From this position, the European powers brokered a negotiated solution in May 1833 known as the Convention of Kutahya . The terms of

10672-476: The support of the general public. In 1805, a group of prominent Egyptians led by the ulama (scholars, savants) demanded the replacement of Wāli (governor) Ahmad Khurshid Pasha by Muhammad Ali, and the Ottomans yielded. In 1809, though, Ali exiled Makram to Damietta . According to Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti , Makram had discovered Muhammad Ali's intentions to seize power for himself. Sultan Selim III could not oppose Muhammad Ali's ascension. By appearing as

10788-448: The tax-farmers could not extract the demanded payments from the peasants who worked the land, Muhammad Ali confiscated their properties. The other major source of revenue Muhammad Ali created was a new tax on waqf endowments, which were previously tax-free. Through these endowments, personal income could be set aside for schools or other charitable purposes. As well as raising revenue to fund his new military, this tax took revenue away from

10904-449: The time of the great expansion and development of a centralized Egyptian bureaucracy, and important structural changes occurred in the Egyptian system of government. A trend of discontinuity of entities within the Egyptian government became apparent during these years. Departments of the government (Public Works included) were continuously being combined and recombined, abolished and reformed, or otherwise modified. From 1864 to 1866 that time,

11020-473: The wheels for the conquest of Syria were set in motion. Like other rulers of Egypt before him, Ali desired to control Bilad al-Sham (the Levant), both for its strategic value and for its rich natural resources; nor was this a sudden, vindictive decision on the part of Ali since he had harboured this goal since his early years as Egypt's unofficial ruler. For not only had Syria abundant natural resources, it also had

11136-603: Was a way Muhammad Ali was able to pull influence from Europe. He started gradually reforming the government in a way that increased his influence and reduced that of the Sultan. He implemented a police force (principally in Cairo and Alexandria) that combined public order and prosecutorial functions. Strict Shari'a rules of evidence were relaxed, and modern evidence, particularly autopsy reports, became increasingly important in investigations and trials. In 1832, Muhammad Ali allowed Antoine Clot , known as "Clot Bey" in Egypt, to establish

11252-622: Was appointed by Muhammad Ali as the Chief Engineer for Lower Egypt . This was the highest engineering post in Egypt at the time since most of Muhammad Ali 's work to improve irrigation was concentrated in this region of the Nile Delta . Under his new position, Coste started working on constructing the Mahmoudiyah canal, the first of a long list of great irrigation projects that were to be constructed in that era. Around 1818, Muhammad Ali conceived

11368-497: Was created in 1831 after Muhammad Ali started to consider building irrigation improvements in Upper Egypt . Linant de Bellefonds (another French engineer) was appointed the first chief engineer for Upper Egypt. Pascal Coste quit his position and returned to France in 1829 and was replaced by his fellow countryman Mougel Bey . As the volume of public works increased, Muhammad Ali Pasha decided to establish one entity to handle all

11484-685: Was crucial to maintain a healthy population. He believed that the untrained local dayas (midwives) were unable to provide appropriate care and under Egyptian law, male doctors could not treat women. Clot Bey's solution was a school to train female doctors. The school of medicine for women followed a French model. The first two years of training provided Arabic literacy in order to communicate with patients. The following four included training in: obstetrics, pre- and post-natal care, dressing wounds, cauterization, vaccination, scarification, cupping, application of leeches, identification/preparation of common medicines. Students were provided housing, food, clothes and

11600-544: Was especially designed for the benefit of the city of Alexandria . With the great expansion of commercial cotton and sugarcane cultivation, river banks were initially raised and strengthened to protect summer crops from flood water. In the Nile Delta old canals were deepened and small weirs built across them to raise the water level. But this was an enormous undertaking, and since the canals were badly laid out and graded they became full of mud during flood season and required to be continually re-excavated. Muhammad Ali Pasha

11716-477: Was forced to withdraw. Ultimately the campaign cost Muhammad Ali his navy and yielded no tangible gains. In compensation for his loss at Navarino, Muhammad Ali asked the Porte for the territory of Syria . The Ottomans were indifferent to the request; the Sultan himself asked blandly what would happen if Syria was given over and Muhammad Ali later deposed. But Muhammad Ali was no longer willing to tolerate Ottoman indifference. To compensate for his and Egypt's losses,

11832-480: Was joined to Education and Charitable Endowments and was headed by Ali Mubarak for a second time. In November 1871 it was converted into an office of engineering and was placed under Interior again. By 1872, it had been reestablished as a department one more time, but in August of the same year it was joined again to Education and Charitable Endowments. Twelve months later, owing to the transfer of its director to Interior, it

11948-523: Was primarily an effort to build a modern military. Consequently, he focused on weapons production. Factories based in Cairo produced muskets and cannons . With a shipyard he built in Alexandria , he began construction of a navy . By the end of the 1830s, Egypt's war industries had constructed nine 100-gun warships and were turning out 1,600 muskets a month. However, the industrial innovations were not limited to weapons production. Muhammad Ali established

12064-401: Was put up at the port city of Acre . The Egyptian force eventually captured the city after a six-month siege, which lasted from 3 November 1831 to 27 May 1832. Unrest on the Egyptian home front increased dramatically during the course of the siege. Ali was forced to squeeze Egypt more and more in order to support his campaign and his people resented the increased burden. After the fall of Acre,

12180-399: Was reached in 1846. Contemporary and modern historians have viewed the creation of a school of medicine for women and the position of hakima as an example of modernization and reform for women under Muhammad Ali. Khaled Fahmy argues against this view. Fahmy states that, because the reasons for the creation of the school are primarily for the maintenance of a healthy army, the school was not

12296-402: Was recruitment of students. Egyptian culture at the time opposed the education of women. Therefore, the first students at the medical school were young slave girls. Slaves continued to be recruited through slave auctions as well as orphans from hospices. Despite the modest success of the school and its graduates, increasing enrolment remained a consistent problem, though the limit of 60 students

12412-489: Was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet , the flowering lotus, and the sedge. Its patron deity, Nekhbet, was depicted by the vulture. After unification, the patron deities of Upper and Lower Egypt were represented together as the Two Ladies , to protect all of the ancient Egyptians, just as the two crowns were combined into a single pharaonic diadem. Several dynasties of southern or Upper Egyptian origin, which included

12528-570: Was returned to Interior. Two months later, it was joined to the War Department. In 1875, Public Works was reattached to Interior. Following the Egyptian military's seizure of power in 1882 , General Mahmoud Fehmy was appointed Minister of Public Works, a role he combined with his military duties. After the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, British engineers took control of the department. They concentrated on building coffer dams, and facilitating

12644-727: Was sent to Istanbul, and executed. Muhammad Ali next turned his attention to military campaigns independent of the Porte , beginning with the Sudan which he viewed as a valuable additional resource of territory, gold, and slaves. The Sudan at the time had no real central authority, as since the 18th century many petty kingdoms and tribal sheikhdoms had seceded from the declining Sultanate of Sennar , fighting each other with Medieval weaponry. In 1820 Muhammad Ali dispatched an army of 5,000 troops commanded by his third son, Ismail, and Abidin Bey , south into Sudan with

12760-526: Was the Ottoman Albanian viceroy and governor who became the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely considered the founder of modern Egypt . At the height of his rule, he controlled Egypt, Sudan , Hejaz , the Levant , Crete and parts of Greece . He was a military commander in an Albanian Ottoman force sent to recover Egypt from French occupation under Napoleon . Following Napoleon's withdrawal, Muhammad Ali rose to power through

12876-560: Was the Ismailia canal. It was constructed between 1861 and 1863, in virtue of agreements between the Egyptian Government and the Suez Canal Company, for the purpose of creating a navigable waterway between the Nile and the planned Suez maritime canal; to furnish water for irrigating some lands conceded to the company, and finally to provide for the needs of the maritime canal and the towns and stations established along its course

12992-594: Was the goddess Nekhbet , depicted as a vulture. By approximately 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals. Shortly thereafter, Egypt began to grow and increase in complexity. A new and distinctive pottery appeared, related to the Levantine ceramics , and copper implements and ornaments became common. Mesopotamian building techniques became popular, using sun-dried adobe bricks in arches and decorative recessed walls. In Upper Egypt,

13108-605: Was the most important public work executed under the newly established Ministry of Public Works. It was built during the reign of Ismail Pasha when he was Khedive of Egypt . It was built in 1873 by Bahgat Pasha , minister of public works, who designed it primarily to provide perennial irrigation to the Khedivial sugar estates in Middle Egypt . It supplied perennial irrigation to 580,000 acres (2,300 km) and flood irrigation to another 420,000 acres (1,700 km). The discharge of

13224-480: Was then advised to raise the water surface by erecting a dam (or, as the French called it, a barrage ) across the apex of the Nile Delta , twelve miles (19 km) north of Cairo . In 1843 the foundations were laid for the two great barrages across the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile at the point where they divide north of Cairo . The project engineer was the French engineer Mougel Bey , whose objective

13340-427: Was to modernize Egypt and to build a European style strong army and a modern system of government. His desire for modernization fueled many new establishments such as the first modern military school, educational institutions, hospitals, roads and canals, factories to turn out uniforms and munitions, and a shipbuilding foundry at Alexandria . He established the school of Engineering ( Mohandes Khana ) in 1820 to provide

13456-477: Was to regulate the entire hydraulic system of the Nile Delta . While initially unsuccessful, the two barrages would ultimately permit conversion of over 754,000 acres (3,050 km) of the Nile Delta from seasonal basin irrigation to perennial irrigation ; the increased availability of water lengthened the dry summer growing season, and dramatically increased agricultural output. But this massive work proved to be very costly and impinged upon engineering's state of

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