The birth and rise of Mehemet Ali—How he became Viceroy of Egypt—His genius and astuteness—The massacre of the Mamalukes—Attempts of the Sultan to get rid of his dangerous vassal—Mehemet's wars and his attempts to benefit Egypt—Neslé-Hannoum and her husband, Ahmet Bey—Ahmet's exploits in Upper Egypt and the Soudan—His remorseless cruelty—Anecdotes of Ahmet—How Neslé-Hannoum killed her husband for the supposed good of Mehemet Ali—Extraordinary character of Neslé—Her licentiousness and exploits—Incidents of cruelty in harem life.
THE Egypt of to-day was founded by Mehemet Ali, a simple fisherman of Greek descent, who was born at the small town of Cavalla, on the coast of Roumelia, about the year 1768. As few Mahometans keep registers of births, he never knew his own age. Illiterate in his youth, he learned to write through the teaching of a slave, after he was forty years of age. He won his first promotion by an act of treachery. He pretended to pray in a mosque by the side of a friend who had done something which forfeited his life to the government. He secured the confidence of this man, and when he had learned his secret by gross deception, handed him over to the authorities. Mehemet was rewarded by a lieutenancy. His ambition satisfied, he then used his cunning and power to save the life of his victim, the betrayal of whom had been his first stepping-stone in promotion.
His courage was daring even to desperation, and when an end was to be gained there was no sacrifice or treachery which he hesitated to use to attain it. Born a soldier of consummate ability, he intuitively grasped the science of war. Coming to Egypt as a lieutenant and rising rapidly to the rank of Bey (colonel), he was very soon, next to the Viceroy, the most important man in the government. The fact that the Mamelukes were troublesome during this time and in conflict with authority gave the young Greek an opportunity to play a subtle part. Becoming a mediator, he betrayed both parties and advanced his own schemes.
After driving from power no less than three Viceroys and standing in open revolt against the Sultan, he found himself hampered by the force of the Mamelukes whom he had deceived, but who were still a strong power in the land. The Ulumas, the people, and the army presented to him the supreme authority, and the Sultan, driven by policy, though against his will, invested him by a firman with the post of Governor-General. It was only after a great show of reluctance that the cunning Greek accepted the lofty position of authority for which he had been intriguing. Like Cæsar, he needed to be pressed to accept the crown. Thus he consummated the ambition for which he had long been working alike by craft and the commission of dark crimes. English influence with the Porte subsequently induced the latter to offer him the Pachalik of Salonica in exchange for his Egyptian authority, in order to get the wily soldier out of the way of British plans in the East. But Mehemet Ali made a bold stand. Again courting the alliance of the Mamelukes whom he had formerly tricked, and securing the friendship of France, he so worked on the fears of the Sultan, who dreaded the danger of losing his valuable suzerainty, that the Porte again made a virtue of necessity, and confirmed his unruly vassal in the title of Viceroy, on his agreeing to pay a yearly tribute of a million dollars.
England, indignant at this arrangement, sent an expedition to Egypt, which was encountered by Mehemet near Rosetta, and was vanquished by him. He was guilty of acts of great brutality and cruelty toward his foe, but becoming aware that it was not his interest to appear before the world in the light of a monster, he afterward sent the remaining prisoners in his power as a peace-offering without ransom to appease the wrath of his enemy. It is interesting to follow the history of this man, who by the force of native genius eventually attained power in perpetuity, shaking the throne of the Sultan and wresting from him the highest dignity ever conferred upon a subject—the dominion of a practically independent empire. He was given the domain extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Equator, a vast empire in itself, and the hereditary succession was established forever, according to Mahometan law, in the eldest of his blood. Like Napoleon, Mehemet Ali was a natural soldier. The fortunes of both were carved out with the sword in countries of which they were subjects but in which they were not born, and both attained the highest power. The one died a prisoner in the hands of “ perfidious Albion,” the other died a maniac in his palace near Cairo. The successor of Napoleon closed his reign in an ocean of blood ; the descendant of Mehemet has just emerged from an inglorious war against his own people, escaping by the aid of English bayonets.
Travellers, on going to Cairo, wind their way in a gradual ascent through the famous street called Mouski, while crowding through a throng of shrieking Arabs and ungainly camels, and crushing against donkeys, people, and carriages, only to emerge into a still more crowded Arab street. Aided by your syce (the man who runs before your horse or carriage) you manage, in the greatest confusion of sounds and smells, to commence the steep ascent to the citadel. After many halts the great gate is entered fronting the mosque of alabaster, erected by the Grand Pacha to receive his remains.
A little to the left of this mosque there stands the remnant of a Saracenic building which was a part of the palace where once resided the great warrior, Saladin. This site is some two hundred and fifty feet above the city, on one of the heights of the Mokattim hills. Beyond this, and on the other decline, a short distance away, is an historical well, nearly two hundred feet deep, cut through the limestone rock. It bears the name of the patriarch Joseph, and, according to tradition, was excavated by him. Retracing the road and passing around the mosque to a stone platform, we see the spot from which a Mameluke leaped on horseback to the distance of sixty feet below, as told by the dragoman of to-day. Passing through the mosque a short distance, another great gateway is entered, fronting a long building with many entrances, stairways, salons, and an extensive harem establishment. This building was the palace and residence of Mehemet Ali. All the buildings just described are inclosed by high walls and surrounded with fortifications and barracks which overlook the city and valley of the Nile, the Pyramids, and tombs of the Khalifs, with the great surrounding desert. The whole is called the Citadel. It is here that Mehemet Ali committed one of his greatest crimes, which only an Eastern despot could justify on grounds of policy. The Sultan having great doubts—for he then had ambitious dreams of empire—and wishing to weaken his powerful vassal, sent an order to the Viceroy to make war upon the Wahabees, who were then threatening Mecca. Knowing the power of the Mamelukes, those independent lords in the interior, whose influence was still great, and who, he knew, were plotting against him, Mehemet determined, before leaving, to settle the question with them once and forever. After coquetting with his victims and thoroughly inspiring them with confidence, he invited all their leading men to a grand, elaborately prepared banquet.
After the magnificent feast was ended the haughty guests were dismissed, and they descended into the courtyard to mount their horses. But this time they were invited to a banquet of death. The inclosure was lined with artillery, which instantly opened fire on the unfortunate men, while a rain of bullets fell upon them from hidden soldiery in the Citadel. Thus occurred the instant butchery of four hundred men. At the same time thousands were hunted down and slain like dogs in the provinces. This was the end of those celebrated freebooters, the Mamelukes. Emin Bey, the chief, who leaped the wall on horseback and landed safely on the débris below, was afterward taken into favor, and became one of Mehemet's stanchest supporters.
The Mamelukes dead, the Viceroy's sons, Ibrahim and Toussoun, marched against the Wahabees, and in person he led an army to the Hedgas . The Sultan, taking advantage of the supposed absence of Mehemet's soldiery, sent Latif Pacha to assume power in Egypt. The envoy was welcomed by Mehemet, the Pacha's representative, with a gracious smile and offers of services. A Turk is never so treacherous as when most gracious. Biding his time until he had Latif Pacha completely in his power, Mehemet put him to death. Stirred by this act of declared hostility on the part of the Porte, the Viceroy set seriously to work to establish a firm government, with the sole object of throwing off the Turkish yoke, and it has been thought that he even aimed at conquering the entire East. His Arabian and Syrian wars which followed caused him, however, to abandon his dreams of an Arabian empire.
In creating a nation he borrowed his policy largely from the example of Napoleon, with whom he had come in close contact in Egypt ; and in following the policy of the great Corsican he naturally made many mistakes, chiefly in trying to accomplish too much. There are many evidences of his folly pointed out by those who have lived long in Egypt. In attempting the great work of damming the two rivers of the Nile known as the Barrage, twelve miles below Cairo, that he might irrigate the lower delta, he miscalculated his means. The scheme was too mighty for so poor a country, if not absolutely impracticable in any case, on account of its cost. After immense sums had been spent upon it the attempt was only partially successful ; but some of the great engineers of the world have expressed the opinion that even in its unfinished state the work is one of the greatest conceptions of human genius. The incident is often quoted of Mehemet's reply to a French engineer relative to his manner of cutting the Mammondieh Canal, which connects Alexandria with the Nile, one of the substantial monuments of his reign. The inquisitive Giaour was disposed to joke the Viceroy on the crookedness of the canal. Mehemet asked him if all the rivers were not made so by Allah. And the reply being in the affirmative, he said the example of Allah was good enough for him to follow.
Occupying himself after his wars in establishing his finances, he was oppressive in exacting money with which to meet his extraordinary demands. Desiring independence, he established many manufactories, liberally invited foreigners, among them numbers of military men from France for his army and military schools, and sent many young men to Europe to be educated. Egypt being peculiarly agricultural, much of his time and money were devoted to the development of improved methods of cultivation. He was the first to introduce the cultivation of the Sea Island cotton, and he planted innumerable forest and shade trees throughout Egypt. Successful in his Arabian and Bedouin wars, he determined upon the conquest of Sennaar, in upper Africa, and ordered his favorite son, Ismail, aided by Ahmet Bey, who had married his daughter, Neslé, to take military possession of that province. To reach the gold region, where they thought to find rich mines, was one grand object of the expedition. Coming to the village of Chendy, Ismail demanded of Menek-Nem'r, the ruler of the country, large sums of gold under threats of terrible vengeance ; and in addition he required the chief to send him his attractive young daughter, in accordance with the usage of the country. The invaders had also asked for straw for their horses and the same for beds for the soldiers. The whole people, apparently delighted, readily brought enormous quantities of straw and spread it around the building in which Ismail and his party were established. Crowds came singing and dancing, with torches to light the gay throng. Ismail was enjoying the scene instituted, as he supposed, in his honor, when suddenly the father of the girl signalled his people, and in an instant the straw was lighted, the building was in a blaze, and the son of the Viceroy with his whole party was burned to death. None were allowed to escape except the young girl, and even she was spared much against the will of her father ; Mahometan as he was, he considered her, though an unwilling victim, dead to him. The avengers continued dancing the dance of death, their women singing the song of joy, until the last cry of agony had died away. Ahmet Bey, the Deftdar, as he was called, hastened from Kordofan, another province, to avenge the death of the young prince. Naturally cruel and remorseless, he put thousands of the people to the sword and applied the torch to their villages, sparing neither sex nor age.
This man Ahmet was a Turk, of good make and manners, but he was said to look at one “ with the whites of his eyes,” which gave a wicked and suspicious expression to his face. He had been sent by the Sultan to Egypt to watch the course of the Viceroy. In order that he might attach this spy to his interest, Mehemet gave him his daughter, the Princess Zora, called more frequently Neslé-Hannoum, in marriage. He knew that if there was any one on earth who could keep Ahmet Bey in good faith to him, it was this wily and heartless woman, who loved no one on earth except her father. The story is told that, hating the Deftdar, he gave Neslé to him in order that the latter might enjoy the association of one as cruel and brutal as himself. Though not a perfect beauty according to our Western idea, she had symmetry of form and charm of face, and was called handsome. She could be extremely refined and witty, was fond of admiration, and possessed many winning ways. During the lifetime of her husband she was true to him, according to report. After his death, dreading, maybe, another such an alliance, she declined to marry again, but gratified her appetites in a succession of cruel yet romantic amours, which made her name notorious throughout the East.
An amusing incident is related of the Deftdar, which I was told by an old and attached friend of Mehemet Ali, who has given me much information concerning the traits of that wonderful man. Ahmet Bey while in command of these upper provinces required his French engineers to make magnificent maps of Kordofan, Sennaar, and other portions of Africa, accompanied by the most minute accounts of the country, the people, their language, customs, habits, and mode of thinking, the whole constituting the most perfect description we have, even yet, of that region. He sent copies of the maps and descriptions to the Geographical Institute at Paris, who were pleased to get them. The French at that time were anxious to cultivate a good understanding with the new government, and accordingly a member of the society was sent to thank Ahmet for the valuable present, and to inform him that he had been nominated an honorary member. Those who have visited Cairo will recollect a long, low stone building occupying a large space between the two great hotels there. It was this old palace into which the Frenchman was introduced. While seated in a grand salon, dazzled by the extraordinary display of gilt and gold and luxuriously enjoying his ease upon the rich silk divans, his Oriental contemplation was suddenly interrupted. Hearing an extraordinary scratching at the great door, he supposed it to be the Eastern signal of some one desiring to enter. A moment later, however, a great pressure forced the door partly open, and to the Frenchman's amazement there appeared the head of a large lion with glaring and savage eyes, its shaggy mane partly covering them and adding still more to their extraordinary glitter. Entering with soft tread upon the Persian carpet and showing his enormous white teeth, the great beast majestically walked toward the member of the Institute, who, giving a terrific shriek, rushed to the second-story window, intending to leap headlong into the street below. But he was in a harem prison, barred with iron. As quick as thought he climbed up the massive damask curtain and crouched on the top of the cornice, squeezed into the smallest possible space. The noise alarmed the household, who running pell-mell to learn the nature of the difficulty, saw the distinguished Frenchman in the undignified predicament described, giving loud expression to his dolorous fear, while the king of beasts, seemingly amazed, regarded him curiously as if desiring to know what strange animal it was that had crossed his path. Those who came seeing the lion turned back in apparent amusement, adding still more to the fright of our hero. At that moment Ahmet Bey appeared. He, too, showed his amused appreciation of the scene, but helping his visitor to descend, he assured him that the lion was perfectly gentle. “ But,” said the trembling Frenchman, “ we are not accustomed in Paris to live in intimate association with such ferocious beasts.” Completing his errand as soon as possible, he left the palace never to enter it again.
The story was current that Mehemet in his old age complained of his health, and that his daughter Zora gave him a potion in the hope of curing him. It unfortunately affected his brain and ended in madness, from which he never recovered. But I was informed that this was a mistake, the true story being as follows : Mehemet had been showing signs of approaching insanity, and this daughter, who loved him dearly, observed that one of his idiosyncrasies was that he trembled with fright at the sight of Ahmet Bey, her husband. The grim old warrior having pathetically told her of his distress, she caressingly said to him that she would provide a medicine that would relieve his sufferings. The next day she prepared a cup of the finest Mocha coffee and perfumed it with cinnamon, of which the Turk is very fond. Holding it to the lips of her husband with her beautifully jewelled little hand (cruel to all others, he had always been kind to her), she with her sweetest smile asked him to drink it. Its aroma delighted him, and he swallowed it at a single draught ; in a quarter of an hour the remedy for her father had its effect ; the cause, as she supposed, of his ailment was forever silenced, and the beautiful Princess Neslé-Hannoum was a widow.
There are many acts of cruelty related of Ahmet, who to this day is remembered in Egypt as a demon, and who was cruel apparently for no better reason than a fiendish delight in human suffering. I forbear to mention such stories for fear of exaggeration. But there are several anecdotes which show that at times he possessed a rough sense of justice. A sheik in one of the villages of Kordofan where he commanded, whose duty it was to provide for the feeding of the government animals, did not pay the poor keeper for the grain, but pocketed the money himself, believing that no one would dare complain of him. The facts came to the ears of the Deftdar, however. Ahmet at once required the official to pay over the money he had stolen, and then ordered that all his teeth should be extracted, cruelly telling him during the infliction that as he had devoured the substance of the poor, he should be deprived of the power of masticating his own. On another occasion a merchant complained of the arbitrary act of a military subordinate, which was so apparent and flagitious that an immediate execution was ordered. By great exertion the merchant saved the offender on the latter returning the money ; but he was forced to get upon his knees, take off the shoes of the merchant, and kiss the bottom of the infidel dog's feet—the most fearful of humiliations to a Turk.
Here it may be proper to say something further concerning Neslé-Hannoum, a woman whose name is notorious in Egypt. It is impossible to pass by the history of this remarkable woman without mentioning some of her exploits, and I shall do so in as delicate a manner as possible. It has already been said that her husband had proved himself cruel and relentless to those within his power. It is a singular fact that though Ahmet inspired fear in all others, even including the great Mehemet Ali, who made the East tremble, yet he was in abject fear of this woman. Of kindred spirits, they were actuated by similar impulses, and were conscious of the similarity. They divined that they were two beings distinct from the rest of humanity ; that they were influenced by like vicious and desperate instincts, and by a strange freak of nature this mutual recognition of character bred in them a great respect and admiration for each other, and they never failed to show the greatest love and tenderness in their intercourse. Though after Ahmet's death the widow, in gratifying her desires, entered upon a career of crime which scarcely finds a parallel in history, she had always been (save in the single instance cited, when she acted under the powerful influence of filial affection) true and devoted to this man, whom she poisoned. Fearing the anger of her family, and thinking to save her name from becoming a curse among her people, she never hesitated to provide the means of destroying the object of her caprice when her safety required it. She had never read history, and of course knew nothing of those extraordinary women whose careers her own resembled ; she was therefore her own great original in vice and crime.
Inclosed in a harem and knowing nothing of the world, accustomed to silence those who possessed too much knowledge of her secrets, she judged that prudence made it necessary to do the same toward those who did not belong to her charmed circle, but who may have been admitted into it. Every kind of deception was practised in the introduction of her victims into her harem. It was thought that, led blindfolded, they could never know their new acquaintance ; and as the Nile alone could reveal the secret, no one would ever be the wiser. Two or three of her victims having disappeared, rumor began to be busy, and Neslé became famous. The neighbors saw strangers enter and never return again. Suspicious-looking objects were seen cast by moonlight into the Nile, and noises like a death-struggle were heard within her inclosure. These ominous signs were cautiously whispered about by the Arabs, for she, being a princess and the daughter of Mehemet Ali, whose name they feared, they dreaded vengeance from his anger. A bold and adventurous foreigner, against the advice of his friends, determined to enter the portal of death, having satisfied himself of the truth of the rumors. The route was circuitous ; bandaged and led through broad gardens, he ascended and descended stairs and was finally halted ; the bandage was removed, and he found himself in a brilliantly-lighted Oriental salon, where the princess in her rich costume nestled on her silk divan, playing with a necklace of rose-coral and diamonds, while a maid kneeling at her feet was engaged in fanning her.
Dances were executed by the young slaves ; delightful dinners and voluptuous music were constantly introduced for his entertainment ; every resource of Oriental luxury was taxed to add to his pleasure ; but there is a term to all earthly happiness. The gallant gentleman was finally told that the head of the house was about to return, and it being against the law for a stranger to enter the abode of bliss, it was necessary for him to take his departure or risk his life and the lives of those who were compelled to remain. “ But,” he replied, “ fair lady, your husband never can return here, for the simple reason that you are the Princess Neslé-Hannoum, and a widow.” Upon her denying this statement, he said that she was not only known to him, but that he was acquainted with the fortune that awaited him, were it not for the fact that precautions had been taken to guard against his being thrown into the Nile. Alarmed, the princess smilingly protested that no one had ever been killed by her orders, that he was the first who had ever penetrated into her harem, and dismissed him with the injunction to keep his introduction a secret. A similar instance occurred afterward when two or three of her eunuchs were killed by the daring lover whom she had doomed to death. This created a profound sensation in Cairo, and caused the banishment of the princess by her nephew, Abbas Pacha, to Constantinople. On his death she returned, and again created an excitement by her voluptuous crimes, but was put under surveillance and made to behave herself by her brother SaÎd, who had the windows of her harem walled up. Though she long ago followed her numerous victims, yet these walled-up windows are pointed out to this day as mementoes of her criminal life. To show the degradation to which the system of plurality of wives inevitably leads, it is well to mention another oft-told tale of crime and cruelty practised in the secrecy of the harem. A Mussulman killed his wife for infidelity. The father of the woman was so well satisfied of her guilt, and so moved by the feeling which sustains one of the Faithful under such circumstances, that he commiserated the unfortunate man, and in his anxiety to soothe his lacerated feelings offered him in marriage another daughter, much younger and of ravishing beauty, in lieu of the murdered one. It is most remarkable that these Mussulmans not only look upon a murder like this as entirely natural and proper, but think it only right that a sister of the slain wife should be given in her stead. A want of confidence in women is thoroughly instilled into their corrupt and brutal minds, but in such a case they argue that the new wife will avoid her sister's crime for fear of bringing upon herself her sister's punishment. The government never interferes, it matters not how cruel the events which pass within the harem walls, and the police are blind. There was an old Pacha, over eighty, who had a young harem, and two of the ladies gave birth to offspring. Believing that age precluded him from being the father of these interesting creatures, his vengeance sacrificed one of the mothers, and nothing was done. The other, after being terribly beaten, it is said escaped to Europe.