Ahmad Arabi

Ahmad Arabi (1839-1911), Egyptian army officer and revolutionary leader. Ahmad Arabi, also known as Ahmad Urabi, led the resistance to foreign aggression in Alexandria, Egypt. Commissioned in the Egyptian army in 1862, Arabi served in the Abyssinian War of 1875 (Ethiopia was called Abyssinia until the 20th century) and joined a secret movement to rid the army of Turkish officers. In 1878 he was encouraged by Khedive Ismail Pasha to raise anti-Christian disturbances. Arabi also organized opposition elements against Ismail Pasha’s son, Khedive Muhammad Tawfik, and also against Anglo-French control. In 1882 Arabi became undersecretary of war and then minister of war in Mahmud Sami's cabinet, and he was made a pasha. That year British and French naval squadrons put on a naval demonstration off the coast of Alexandria, and the city broke out in rioting that included violence directed against foreigners, particularly Europeans. The British bombed the city on July 11, and Arabi's army was defeated at Tell al-Kabir on September 13. Arabi was captured in Cairo, Egypt, and tried on December 3. He was condemned to death but the sentence was changed to exile in Ceylon. In May 1901 he was pardoned by Khedive Abbas II and allowed to return to Egypt.