Egypt — Rose Gan

Part Seven: Egypt

Mehmet Ali, Pasha of Egypt (1769-1849)

Mehmet (Mohammed) Ali Pasha was the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt. An Albanian by birth, his merchant father had moved the family to Kavala, Eastern Macedonia where his son worked his way up through the army of various Ottoman sultans during a tumultuous time of rebellions and assassinations when central authority was weak. Eventually Mehmet was appointed governor of Egypt which for generations had bee in the hands of the Mameluk Turks. Mehmet Pasha ruled Egypt like a king from 1805-48, after initially launching a brutal purge against the Mameluks. Mehmet thus demonstrated his ruthlessness towards the former ruling dynasty, leaving few families alive to oppose him and confiscating their splendid palaces and fabulous treasuries.

Taking advantage of the current lack of Ottoman opposition, Mehmet began his own programme of rebuilding Egypt into a modern power. First he rebuilt the cities of Alexandria and Cairo and then turned his attention to remodelling the Egyptian army and navy. Mehmet Pasha approached European states such as France and Britain, who were well-disposed to weakening the Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, after the Napoleonic War many military officers found themselves without suitable commissions – Mehmet Pasha was able to surround himself with French and British naval and army officers. It was in this capacity that William Light – a former experienced soldier with the rank of Colonel who was also an experienced naval officer – came to the notice of the Pasha. From 1830–1835 he employed Light as an adviser.

Mehmet Pasha is a fascinated character, learned and generous but at the same time ambitious and ruthless. He built a great palace at Shoubra on the outskirts of Cairo, a rural retreat known for its spectacular gardens and the famous Fountain Pavilion, described in Part Seven, Legacy. During his long reign, Egypt became much more westernised, Alexandria known as a cosmopolitan city of great wealth and elegance, attracting wealthy dilettantes from all over Europe and the Americas. The Pasha had ambitions for total independence from Ottoman control; from 1831, he embarked upon a war against his Ottoman masters.

It was a risky strategy; Sultan Mahmud– sometime referred to as 'The Peter the Great of Turkey’– proved to be a far more competent ruler than his predecessors. Mehmet Pasha had met his match. Yet, after ten years of conflict, the two men found their way to an equitable peace in 1842. Mehmet withdrew from the Levant and other Arab territories he had occupied, and the Sultan granted him hereditary rule in Egypt. The descendants of Mehmet Pasha ruled Egypt until 1952 when King Farouk was finally overthrown by a military coup.

Mehmet Ali Pasha 1841 by Auguste Couder

Commissioned by King Louis-Philippe for Versailles; image from Bibliotheca Alexandrina Digital Archive

The Pavilion (Nymphaeum) in Shoubra Palace from the original design by Pascal Coste.

[Typographie de Firmin Didot Freres]

Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II (1785-1839)

[Unknown artist. Sourced from Wikipedia commons]

John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875)

Born in Buckinghamshire, the son of a country clergyman with a passion for antiquities, John lost both his parents when still a student. He was educated at Harrow and Oxford, where he studied the Classics, but did not graduate, dropping out to travel on his inheritance. Whilst in Italy, Wilkinson met and was impressed by Sir William Gell, a renowned archaeologist. He subsequently joined him on an expedition in Egypt in 1821.

For the next twelve years the young Wilkinson lived in Egypt, spending most of the time travelling between all the famous archaeological sites and living in fairly rudimentary conditions. At first all he had was an interest in antiquities passed on by his father as well as the benefits of a Classical education but Gardener Wilkinson soon showed promise. He proved to be an excellent surveyor and artist, able to make intricate sketches and maps that were to become invaluable to the archaeologists who came after him. His particular skill was in recording in detail every aspect of an excavation, creating from his notes and records what would be a database of every known item and site, however small. It was Wilkinson who devised a numbering system to the Valley of the Kings which is still used today.

By 1833, however, his health had been compromised by his endeavours and he was forced to abandon his fieldwork and return to England. But his reputation as a groundbreaking archaeologist had preceded him and the following year he was elected to the Royal Society. Although he made four further trips to Egypt between 1840-55, he spent most of his life from then on in England, publishing his sketches and watercolours and writing books, most notably ‘Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (1837), a highly successful collection in 3 volumes. In 1839 he was knighted.

Late in life at the age of 58, Wilkinson married Caroline Lucas (1822-81), herself a well known Welsh botanist and author. She assisted him in his sketches and edited his later works. After his death, his journals, papers and sketches were passed to his cousin who lived at Calke Abbey, which is now a National Trust House and still hosts some of his material. Most of his records are now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where they are still of immense importance to the study of Egyptology because they contain a record of the original sites before tourists and souvenir hunters descended. Wilkinson is generally regarded as the Father of British archaeology.

John Gardner Wilkinson in Turkish dress (1844)

by Henry Wyndham Phillips

Calke Abbey, National Trust House

Athor in the Persea Tree; John Gardner Wilkinson 1839 [Wikipedia Commons]

The venerable scholar in old age c. 1863

[Photo credit: Ernest Edwards From the Collection of the State Library of New South Wales]

The Franklins

Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin play a small role in Part Seven as would-be chaperones to Mrs Mary Light when her husband is overseas. They were, however, a fascinating couple themselves, typical of the cosmopolitan community in Alexandria at the time.

Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) and Lady Jane Franklin (1791-1875)

John Franklin was born in Lincolnshire in 1791. He enlisted in the navy as a midshipman at the age of 9, and the following year joined the survey ship HMS Investigator on its famous voyage to circumnavigate Australia under Captain Matthew Flinders in 1801, which no doubt whetted his appetite for exploration. Franklin then saw military service as a captain in the Royal Navy during both the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812-14.

But it was as an explorer that Capt. Franklin gained distinction. Between 1819 and 1825 he undertook three expeditions into the far north of Canada and the Arctic, after which he was popularly called ‘the man who ate his own boots’ on account of the brutal and challenging conditions he survived during these expeditions, which sadly took the lives of many of his men. His most famous voyage at this time was when he traversed the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers into the Bering Strait (Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories) in 1825.

In 1823, whilst on leave in England, Franklin married the poet Eleanor Anne Powden, who gave birth to his daughter Eleanor the following year. But by the time Franklin returned from the 1825 expedition, his delicate wife had died of tuberculosis. In 1828, Franklin married a close friend of his former wife’s, one Jane Griffin, the daughter of a wealthy London merchant. Jane was extremely well educated and had travelled widely in Europe; she proved to be the ideal companion to John Franklin, as well as mother to his young daughter. After he was knighted in 1829, Sir John and Lady Jane spent several years based in Alexandria during which he and Jane made many trips into the interior visiting the monuments and excavations that had made Ancient Egypt the current obsession of travellers and scholars. During this period, they were friendly with William and Mary Light.

Appointed Lt. Governor of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1837-43, the two indomitable explorers were in their element, making many expeditions together to visit Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and New Zealand. Jane even trekked overland across Tasmania from coast to coast with her companion Christiana Stewart. Lady Jane was a progressive thinker by nature and became passionate that education for both boys and girls should be readily available in the new settlements, opening several schools. She also wrote often to Elizabeth Fry for advice about how best to support the plight of female convicts and was concerned about the future of the Aboriginal people, even adopting a few children herself.

Unfortunately, Sir John made an enemy of his colonial secretary, John Montagu, whom he had dismissed. Back in England, Montagu spread rumours that Franklin was a very poor administrator, unfit for his position. Furthermore, Montague claimed that he was ruled by his wife. As a result, a new Lt. Governor was sent out to Hobart.The Franklins only learned of their dismissal when he arrived. They were forced to pack up quickly and leave in ignominy. Once back home, with their reputations damaged, Lady Jane set about putting the record straight, by penning a book about their work in Van Diemen’s Land which she published in her husband’s name.

Sir John himself may well have been personally demoralised by the experience for shortly afterwards he applied to lead a new expedition to find the North West Passage, despite being almost sixty years of age. The Franklin Expedition was to result in tragedy. Their two ships were last sighted in July 1845. It is thought they became icebound off St William Island the following year after which they were stranded in bitter cold with few supplies. S

As time went on without news, Lady Franklin encouraged a government search party to look for the expedition, leading to many fruitless attempts (in which more men and ships were lost). It was only in 1852 that Inuits revealed to John Rae, a Scottish explorer in the area, what had had happened; the ships had been caught in the ice in 1847. The men had survived for a time, making their way across the ice to St William Island but many died. The remainder only survived by resorting to cannibalism, a terrible end to Franklin’s respected career, which has subsequently been proved by the discovery of the bones of many of the crew. Franklin himself died June 11th 1847 and was buried somewhere on the island, but his grave has never been located. Sir John was made an Admiral posthumously for his many contributions to exploration and mapping.

For the rest of her life, Lady Jane continued to travel extensively but also became obsessed with finding out what had happened to her husband, spending much of her fortune on further expeditions. Such was the respect in which she was held, contributions towards funding rescue missions even arrived from as far away as Australia where public collections had been made. Long after her husband’s death was confirmed in 1854, she continued to send out ships, sure that his records and papers would have survived somewhere and be of value. Lady Jane was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for her indefatigable spirit and contributions to exploration.