Background
Ahmed Arabi was born in Lower Egypt of poor parents in 1839.
Ahmed Arabi was born in Lower Egypt of poor parents in 1839.
After completing elementary education in his home village, he enrolled at Al-Azhar University to complete his schooling in 1849.
Commissioned in the Egyptian army in 1862, he served in the Abyssinian War of 1875 and joined a secret movement to rid the army of Turkish officers. In 1878 he was encouraged by Khedive Ismail to raise anti-Christian disturbances. He organized discontented elements against Khedive Tawfik (Tewfik) and Anglo-French control. As a result of a military demonstration led by Arabi in September 1881, the khedive was forced to increase army pay, replace Riaz Pasha with Sherif Pasha as premier, and convoke an assembly of notables. British and French naval squadrons anchored at Alexandria in June 1882, and rioting directed against foreigners, particularly Europeans, broke out in the city. The British bombed the Alexandria forts on July 11, British troops were landed, and Arabi's army was defeated at Tell al-Kabir on September 13. Arabi was captured in Cairo and tried on December 3. He was banished to Ceylon. In May 1901 he was pardoned by Khedive Abbas II. He died in Cairo, Sept. 21, 1911.