Ahmed 'Urabi

Colonel Ahmed ‘Urabi or Orabi (Arabic: أحمد عرابى‎‎, [ˈæħmæd ʕoˈɾɑːbi] in Egyptian Arabic; 31 March 1841 – 21 September 1911), widely known in English (and by himself) as Ahmad Arabi or Arabi Pasha, was an Egyptian nationalist and an officer of the Egyptian army. The first political and military leader in Egypt to rise from the fellahin, ‘Urabi participated in an 1879 mutiny that developed into a general revolt against the Anglo-French dominated administration of Khedive Tewfik. He was promoted to Tewfik's cabinet and began reforms of Egypt's military and civil administrations, but the demonstrations in Alexandria of 1882 prompted a British bombardment and invasion that deposed ‘Urabi and his allies in favor of a British occupation.

He was born in 1841 in the village of Hirriyat Razna near Zagazig in the Sharqia Governorate, approximately 80 kilometres to the north of Cairo. ‘Urabi was the son of a village leader and one of the wealthier members of the community, which allowed him to receive a decent education. After completing elementary education in his home village, he enrolled at Al-Azhar University to complete his schooling in 1849. He entered the army and moved up quickly through the ranks, reaching lieutenant colonel by age 20. The modern education and military service of ‘Urabi, from a fellah, or peasant background, would not have been possible without the modernising reforms of Khedive Ismail, who had done much to eliminate the barriers between the bulk of the Egyptian populace and the ruling elite, who were drawn largely from the military castes that had ruled Egypt for centuries. Ismail abolished the exclusive access to the Egyptian and Sudanese military ranks by Egyptians of Balkan, Circassian, and Turkish origin. Ismail conscripted soldiers and recruited students from throughout Egypt and Sudan regardless of class and ethnic backgrounds in order to form a "modern" and "national" Egyptian military and bureaucratic elite class. Without these reforms, ‘Urabi's rise through the ranks of the military would likely have been far more restricted.

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