Albanians Under Thir Rise and Seize Cairo From Husrev Pasha
In March 1803, the British evacuated Alexandria leaving a power vacuum in Egypt. Muhammad Bey al-Alfi (aka Alfi Bey) (1751–1807) had accompanied the British to lobby them to help restore the power of the Mamelukes. In their attempts to return to power, the Mamelukes took Minia and interrupted communication between Upper and Lower Egypt.
About six weeks later, the Ottoman governor Husrev Pasha, finding himself in a financial bind and unable to pay all the troops under his command, attempted to disband his Albanian bashi-bazouks (or Arnauts) without pay in order to be able to pay his regular, Turkish, soldiers. The Albanians refused to disband, and instead surrounded the house of the defterdar (finance minister), who appealed in vain to Husrev Pasha to satisfy their claims. Instead, the Pasha commenced an artillery bombardment from batteries located in and near his palace on the insurgent soldiers who had taken the house of the defterdar, located in the Ezbekia. The citizens of Cairo, accustomed to such occurrences, immediately closed their shops and armed themselves. The tumult in the city continued all day, and the next morning a body of troops sent out by Hursev Pasha failed to quell it.
The Albanian commander Thir Pasha then repaired to the citadel, gaining admittance through an embrasure, and from there began a counter bombardment of the pasha's forces over the roofs of the intervening houses. Soon thereafter, Thir descended with his guns to the Ezbekia and then laid close siege to the governor's palace. The following day, Husrev Pasha fled with his women, servants, and regular troops to Damietta along the Nile.
Thir then assumed the government, but within twenty three days encountered trouble due to inability to pay all of his forces. This time, it was Turkish troops who went without pay, and they in turn mutinied and assassinated Thir Pasha. During the course of the mutiny, the governor's palace was burnt and plundered. A desperate, prolonged, and confusing conflict then ensued between the Albanians and Turks, with the divided Mameluks oscillating between the two factions or attempting to regain power on their own behalf.
Read more about this topic: Muhammad Ali's Seizure Of Power
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