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Muhammad Ali's rise to power
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==Albanians under Tahir rise and seize Cairo from Hüsrev 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 [[Mamluks]]. In their attempts to return to power, the Mamluks took [[Minya, Egypt|Minia]] and interrupted communication between [[Upper Egypt|Upper]] and [[Lower Egypt]]. About six weeks later, [[Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha]], the [[Ottoman governor of Egypt]], was unable to pay all the troops under his command, so he attempted to disband his Albanian ([[Arnaut]]) [[bashi-bazouk]]s without pay in order to be able to pay his regular Turkish soldiers.<ref name="Enc">Inalcık, Halil. Trans. by Gibb, H.A.R. ''The Encyclopaedia of Islam'', New Ed., Vol. V, Fascicules 79-80, pp. 35 f. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=cJQ3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA35 Khosrew Pasha]". E.J. Brill (Leiden), 1979. Accessed 13 September 2011.</ref> The Albanians refused to disband and instead surrounded the house of the ''[[defterdar]]'' (finance minister), who appealed in vain to Hüsrev 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 [[Azbakeya]]. 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, troops sent by Hüsrev Pasha failed to quell it. The Albanian commander, [[Tahir Pasha (Egypt)|Tahir Pasha]], then returned to the [[citadel of Cairo|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, Tahir descended with his guns to the Azbakeya and then laid close siege to the governor's palace. The following day, Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha fled with his women, servants, and regular troops to [[Damietta]] along the Nile. Tahir then assumed control of the government, but within 23 days encountered trouble due to his own inability to pay all of his forces. This time, it was Turkish troops who went without pay, and they in turn mutinied and assassinated him. 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 Mamluks oscillating between the two factions or attempting to regain power themselves.
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