The accession of Abbas, grandson of Mehemet—His odious and detestable character—Prominent traits of a ruler who was heartless, avaricious, and worthless—His death supposed to have been instigated by his aunt, Neslé-Hannoum—Succeeded by Saïd Pacha, his uncle, Mehemet's son—Incidents of his reign and traits of his character—Saïd a strange mixture of good and evil—His eccentricities of purpose and action—Lesseps and the Suez Canal—Death of Saïd after a short reign.

IBRAHIM PACHA, who held power for some time during the insanity of Mehemet, succeeded him at his death, but reigned in his own right only seventy-five days. He was just, though severe, and died universally regretted. A beautiful equestrian statue, erected in Cairo in his honor by his son Ismail, was wantonly destroyed by fanatics in the recent unhappy war.

Abbas Pacha, the grandson of Mehemet Ali and son of Toussoun, who served in the campaign against the Wahabees of Arabia, was the next in age, and became Viceroy. This man was a singular character in his way, and in no wise followed the methods of his predecessors. He seemed to study how best he could personify a fiend. His undoubted ability seemed instinctively directed to every conceivable wickedness. Socially and as Viceroy, in every affair of life his career was marked by cruelty and vindictiveness. A striking peculiarity of his character was a deep-seated hatred of his nearest relatives. His own mother and his own son did not escape his cowardly and heartless suspicions, and he enjoyed with keen relish the cruel and unjust espionage to which he constantly subjected them. The wanton annoyances with which he persecuted his wealthy subjects were of such a nature that their only safety was in concealing their money and their persons. The squeezing process, so exquisitely applied, was one of the traits of his great financial ability. No Viceroy was ever known to keep so full a treasury. A fanatical Mussulman, in filling his coffers with the glittering prize he never failed to thank Allah that he had placed under his hand so much wealth to meet the necessities of the state. While exiling his own family and murdering his people, this peculiar man never neglected to offer his prayers devoutly to Allah on Friday. Though reverent in his Mahometan duties, in the same breath his caprice doomed, on the slightest suspicion, the most honored of his subjects to the Fazougle, his prison in Central Africa, a place said to have been selected because of its deadly climate. A writer of note mentions the fact of there being an original order on file at Khartoum, in the Soudan, which directs his minions “ to get a sickly place, and to put but one door and window in the prison to be erected, and to feed the prisoners on a quarter of a ration.” When the fatal malaria and burning heat of that climate are considered, no more refined and horrible punishment can be imagined to inflict upon poor human nature-not hardened criminals in this case, but the best men in the land, whose only fault was the possession of wealth, in clutching which he was able to show his wonderful financial ability. Numbers of rich and poor were confined together in the same party, with a wooden yoke around their necks and their hands manacled, and were marched often great distances, their ankles chained in heavy fetters, to die thousands of miles from any possible hope of comfort or aid. It is said that his superstition went so far that he believed in magic “ when practised in the name of Allah,” but visited his vengeance on those who attempted it in the name of the unbelieving Jin. Having numerous magicians constantly about him, they often guided him with their “ secret science” in the most serious affairs of state. He dismissed the able foreigners whom Mehemet Ali had collected around him for the advancement of science and the arts and the introduction of a better civilization. So great a dread had he of foreigners that he even fled, when he dared, the approach of diplomatic agents. Abbas, when a prince, once left the haunts of civilized men and placed himself on a cliff near Mount Sinai, in the most inhospitable desert. Disliking woman, there was no one to share his isolation except a few favorite dogs, and the people of Egypt thought him possessed of the evil eye. They were delighted, even at that early day, to get him out of their sight.

The contrast between this man and the “ grim old warrior,” socially and in government, was marked. Mehemet Ali was accustomed, after the cares of state, to hasten to his garden (for, like all Orientals, he was fond of shady trees and fragrant flowers), and there for many hours each day he indulged in the conversation of distinguished foreigners. This relaxation was to him a source both of pleasure and of profit, and he applied much that he learned in this agreeable manner to the improvement of his country's condition. Enjoying refined associations, though himself steeped in blood spilled to gratify his ambition, this singular man in his hours of ease was exceedingly amiable and complaisant to the young and fair creatures with whom even in his old age he was accustomed to surround himself. There was something romantic in this scarred old solider passing his leisure in the society of innocent young Greek and Circassian women, with his frequent (Inshallah) “ please God ” for the manifold blessings which were conferred upon him. Forgetting in the smiles of beauty the great wrongs he had done in his career of crime, he soothed his conscience, if he had such a thing, with the idea that he was a true son of the Faithful, and that all his experiences were but the carrying out of great and good designs under the special countenance and protection of Allah.

The name of Abbas is connected with two fine works—the railroad from Alexandria to Cairo and Suez, and the Barrage—of which we have already written as commenced by Mehemet Ali. He incurred the deep hatred of his aunt, the Egyptian Messalina Neslé, and it is believed that she planned his assassination, a doom which he always feared and took every precaution to avert. It finally befell him at the hands of two eunuchs, who were specially appointed to watch over his repose, and who had been sent by Neslé-Hannoum from Constantinople to wreak the revenge which she cherished.

Saïd Pacha, one of the youngest sons of Mehemet, was the next in succession. He came to the throne only to find that Abbas had emptied the treasury into his own private coffer or had lavished the money upon his own family. The country was in disorder, and those attached to the government were crying for bread, fulfilling to the letter the adage so common in the East, “ After me the deluge.” Abbas, like the rest, had spent vast sums in bribing the cormorants at Constantinople, who were only too anxious to take the money, to give the crown to his son. They swore by the prophet that so reasonable a request should be granted, knowing perfectly well that the chances were that they could never comply with their promise. But a single friend recollected Abbas' dying injunction ; Elfy Bey, in his own interest and that of his master, did his best to carry out the scheme, but signally failed. A cup of perfumed coffee smoothed his passage into the other world.

The drowning of Ahmet Pasha, the next after Saïd in right to the throne, gave rise to suspicions in which Saïd and Ismail were both inculpated. Saïd was suspected because he had invited all the leading men of his family to a fête in Cairo, and the car containing them plunged into the Nile, an accident in which many lives were lost, that of the heir-apparent among the number. But it was said, on the other hand, that Saïd liked the victim, and would not have committed so great a crime as the drowning of his whole family simply to make his young son Toussoun his successor. It so happened that Ismail, the enemy of Saïd and next in birthright to Ahmet, born of a different mother and only a few months younger, feigned sickness, and was not on the railroad at the time. It was known he was rich, ambitious, and full of intrigue, and therefore there were many who thought that as he was the only one directly interested he had arranged the whole scheme to pave his way to the succession. There is no evidence to connect either with the catastrophe, and if there is a secret the probabilities are that, like many others of its kind in the East, it will always remain one. An accident like this, in which there are numbers interested, never fails to arouse suspicions, often well grounded. The fault is with the system of polygamy as it exists in the Eastern countries. There being many sons by different mothers in the same harem, the jealousies of the mothers, which they study to instil into the minds of their sons, increase with years, until all ties of relationship are forgotten in ambition, and finally the matter ends in remorseless crime.

Saïd Pacha in his early days was tall and symmetrical, with blue eyes, light hair, and fair complexion, but toward the close of his reign, when the writer made his acquaintance, he had grown stout, with that dazed look so common in the prematurely old man in the East. Complaisant, convivial, and generous with his friends, his good humor was sometimes interrupted by uncontrollable rage. In these moods he often committed acts of cruelty, which were followed by the deepest remorse. In his penitence he went beyond reason in his efforts to remedy the wrong done. The policy of Abbas was reversed ; foreigners were invited, for their learning and wealth ; the army was reorganized ; influential men in exile were recalled, and thousands unjustly incarcerated were set free. Saïd also instituted great works for the good of the country. His last great act was the grant of the concession to De Lesseps, which resulted in the cutting of the Suez Canal—a concession which, though of incalculable service to the world, was of doubtful value to Egypt. In letting the astute Frenchman lead him into his meshes the Viceroy violated a well-established tradition of his family. Saïd did not live to see this great work consummated. Under the new régime commerce and agriculture prospered, and as a result his treasury was replenished. Still, extraordinary extravagances continued, and the eternal tax was levied with renewed vigor. Luckily for Egypt, the American war came on, Egyptian cotton-planting increased, and as a consequence the government grew rich. Tolerant in religion, he visited instant punishment upon those of his people who through fanaticism interfered with the Christian. On one occasion, violence being threatened by enthusiasts, the four leading Mahometans were summoned to Saïd's presence and told that they should be held responsible for any religious disturbance ; that if a hair on the head of a single Christian was touched, their heads should fall and grace the four gates of the city. This salutary harangue had the desired effect.

The unfortunate people of Egypt welcomed Saïd's accession to the throne with delight, deeming any change from the rule of Abbas a gain to them ; but they soon had reason to lament the heavy weight of taxation laid upon them by their new ruler. Saïd's policy was capricious and oppressive, and was marked by changes so sudden and so radical as to create something like a convulsion in the state. When neglect and extravagance had brought the government to the brink of financial chaos, Saïd startled the country by a decree dismissing all important officers of state and announcing his purpose to take all administrative matters into his own hands. A brief experience of the results of this policy cured the Viceroy of his delusion, and the old system was re-established. This disastrous experiment cost Saïd the respect of the country, and he was thenceforth regarded as an incapable and capricious statesman—a “ crank” invested with despotic power.

One of his mad schemes was the building of a great city at the forks of the Nile twelve miles below Cairo, at what is known as the Barrage. Everybody in Egypt, foreigners and natives, were invited to witness the planting of the corner-stone. No display had ever equalled the series of entertainments given on the occasion, and the affair cost the state a fabulous sum. There were more than a hundred thousand people who banqueted day and night at the government's expense. The Egyptians who were destined to pay the bill looked on as long as the fête lasted, wondered what it all meant, and dismissed it quickly from their minds. It is not their habit to think long or deeply. They dream and smoke, and leave everything to Allah. The foreigners enjoyed the varied costumes of Saïd's Nubians and soldiers in coats-of-mail, the Bedouins in their best regalia riding their finest horses, and the great display of French fireworks. They ate Saïd's fine dinners and drank his best wine, and cared little whether he built his city or not. The city thus extravagantly ushered into being consists of the single stone originally planted in great solemnity with Moslem prayers. There was a gallant show and a great expenditure, and that was all.

It was said in Egypt that Saïd was not blameless in the treatment of his queen, the Sitta Hannoum or “ great lady.” Though she may not have fulfilled the order of nature which an Oriental thinks indispensable, giving birth to children, yet she was beautiful, charming, instructed, and good. She had been a young Circassian slave adopted by Saïd's mother and educated in her harem ; the companion of his youth and intended for his bride, there was everything in her winning ways to attract this wayward son of the Prophet, and she was always mistress of her home, for he never openly presented her with a rival. She bore her neglect with angelic resignation, and, still a widow, she has never been heard to utter a complaint. She tenderly loved Saïd's son Toussoun, born of one of her slaves, who was subsequently made next to herself in importance. Toussoun, the son, died during my residence in Egypt. I shall speak of him hereafter. Ill for a long time, Saïd waited his summons like a true fatalist, and as is usual with Eastern people, all his sycophantic couriers abandoned the setting for the rising sun with the exception of a Frenchman, who remained true to the last. Saïd had prepared a mausoleum at the Barrage, always a favorite spot in his memory, and desired as a last request to be entombed there ; but Ismail, his successor, refused to obey the injunction, and ordered his body to be placed in the tomb at Alexandria, where it still remains.

Part I, Chapter V

Table of Contents

© 1997 Atomic Rom Productions