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Ibrahim Pasha Biography

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IBRAHIM PASHA, (1789-1848). An Egyptian general. He was the adopted son of Mehemet Ali (q.v.), Governor and subsequently Viceroy of Egypt, and was born at Kavala in the Province of Saloniki in European Turkey. In 1816 he took charge of the army in Arabia and in the course of three years overthrew the Wahhabi power in western Arabia and in Nejd. During the War of Greek Independence he was dispatched at the head of a powerful fleet and a finely disciplined land force to the aid of the Turks in the Morea. In 1825 he stormed Navarino and Tripolitza and in the following year took Missolonghi after a long siege. The destruction of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet in the harbor of Navarino (q.v.), Oct. 20, 1827, and the landing of a French force, led to the evacuation of the Morea by Ibrahim in September of the following year. As the result of a dispute with the Pasha of Acre, an Egyptian army under Ibrahim invaded Syria in 1831, stormed Acre, May 27, 1832, and defeated the Turkish forces at Homs, Beilan, and Konieh. By the Treaty of Kutayah, May 6, 1833, Mehemet Ali received possession of Syria, while Ibrahim was made Governor of Cilicia. War with the Porte broke out again in 1839, and on June 24 of that year Ibrahim overwhelmed the Turkish army at Nisib, near the Euphrates. Only the interference of the Great Powers saved the Porte from the victorious armies of Mehemet Ali. Ibrahim was forced to evacuate Syria in 1840 and to return to Egypt, suffering the most severe hardships on his march through the desert. He died at Cairo, Nov. 10, 1848, after acting for some months as Regent during the ineapaeity of Mehemet Ali. His son, Ismail Pasha (q.v.),. subsequently became Khedive of Egypt.