Ottoman Egypt

Ottoman Egypt إيالة مصر (Arabic) Iyalat Misr ایالت مصر‎‎ (Ottoman Turkish) Eyālet-i Mıṣr
Ottoman Province (1517–1805) Autonomous Province (1805–1914)
1517–1914
Flag Coat of arms (1854–63)
Map of the Eyalet of Egypt in 1795
Expansion of the Eyalet under Muhammad Ali and his sons
Capital	Cairo
Demonym	Egyptians
Population
• 1700	2,335,000
• 1867	6,076,000
Government
Grand Vizier
• 1857–1858	Zulfiqar Pasha (first)
• 1866–1867	Sherif Pasha (last)
Historical era	Early modern period
• Ottoman conquest	1517
• French Campaign	1798–1801
• Rise of Muhammad Ali	1801–1805
• Conquest of Sudan	1820–1822
• Egyptian–Ottoman War	1831–1833
• Khedivate recognized	1867
• British occupation	1882
• British Protectorate	1914
Preceded by Succeeded by Mamluk Sultanate Funj Sultanate Emirate of Diriyah Shilluk Kingdom Sultanate of Egypt Emirate of Nejd Hejaz Vilayet

Ottoman Egypt was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517.^[1] The Ottomans administered Egypt as a province (eyalet) of their empire (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت مصر, romanized: Eyālet-i Mıṣr).^{[2][better source needed]} It remained formally an Ottoman province until 1914, though in practice it became increasingly autonomous during the 19th century and was under de facto British control from 1882.^[3]

Egypt always proved a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks, the Egyptian military caste who had ruled the country for centuries. As such, Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until Napoleon Bonaparte's French forces invaded in 1798. After Anglo-Turkish forces expelled the French in 1801, Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt, seized power in 1805, and established a quasi-independent state.

Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. In reality, it was practically independent and went to war twice with the empire—in 1831–33 and 1839–41. The Ottoman sultan granted Egypt the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate in 1867.^{[citation needed]} Isma'il Pasha (Khedive from 1867 to 1879) and Tewfik Pasha (Khedive from 1879 to 1892) governed Egypt as a quasi-independent state under Ottoman suzerainty until the British occupation of 1882. Nevertheless, the Khedivate of Egypt (1867–1914) remained a de jure Ottoman province until 5 November 1914,^[4] when the Sultanate of Egypt was declared a British protectorate in reaction to the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire joining the First World War on the side of the Central Powers (October–November 1914).