Muhammad Ali Assumes Control and Captures Ahmed Pasha
Thir was replaced as commander of the Albanians by Muhammad Ali, one of the regimental commanders. Fearing for his position from the Ottomans, he entered into an alliance with the Mameluke leaders Ibrahim Bey and Osman Bey al-Bardisi.
With Husrev Pasha fortifying himself at Damietta, the Turkish troops in the vicinity of Cairo acclaimed Ahmad Khurshid Pasha, the Ottoman mayor of Alexandria, as their new governor. Muhammad Ali, however, refused to surrender Cairo to him. In reordering his forces to meet the new threat, he also removed the Mamelukes from Giza, where they had been invited by his predecessor, Thir.
Ahmed Khurshid Pasha established himself at the mosque of al-Zflhir, which the French had converted into a fortress, but was eventually cornered and besieged by Muhammad Ali and his Albanian troops in the Cairo citadel, and compelled to surrender. Among the prisoners, those of the Turkish troops who had been involved in the assassination the former Albanian commander, Thir Pasha, were put to death.
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