urgent soldiery in the house of the defterdar,
across the Ezbekia. The citizens of Cairo, accustomed to such
occurrences, immediately closed their shops, and every man who possessed
any weapon armed himself. The tumult continued all the day, and the next
morning a body of troops sent out by the pasha failed to quell it.
Tahir, the commander of the Albanians, then repaired to the citadel,
gained admittance through an embrasure, and, having obtained possession
of it, began to cannonade the pasha over the roofs of the intervening
houses, and then descended with guns to the Ezbekia and laid close siege
to the palace. On the following day Mahommed Khosrev made good his
escape, with his women and servants and his regular troops, and fled to
Damietta by the river. This revolt marks the beginning in Egypt of the
breach between the Albanians and Turks, which ultimately led to the
expulsion of the latter, and of the rise to power of the Albanian
Mehemet Ali (q.v.), who was destined to rule the country for nearly
forty years and be the cause of serious European complications.

First appearance of Mehemet Ali.

Tahir Pasha assumed the government, but in twenty-three days he met with
his death from exactly the same cause as that of the overthrow of his
predecessor. He refused the pay of certain of the Turkish troops, and
was immediately assassinated. A desperate conflict ensued between the
Albanians and Turks; and the palace was set on fire and plundered. The
masters of Egypt were now split into these two factions, animated with
the fiercest animosity against each other. Mehemet Ali, then in command
of an Albanian regiment, became the head of the former, but his party
was the weaker, and he therefore entered into an alliance with the
Mameluke leaders Ibrahim Bey and 'Osman Bey al-Bardisi. A certain Ahmed
Pasha, who was about to proceed to a province in Arabia, of which he had
been appointed governor, was raised to the important post of pasha of
Egypt, through the influence of the Turks and the favour of the sheiks;
but Mehemet Ali, who with his Albanians held the citadel, refused to
assent to their choice; the Mamelukes moved over from El-Giza, whither
they had been invited by Tahir Pasha, and Ahmed Pasha betook himself to
the mosque of al-Zahir, which the French had converted into a fortress.
He was compelled to surrender by the Albanians; the two chiefs of the
Turks who killed Tahir Pasha were taken with him and put to death,