Muhammad
`Aliy Pasha, after the Mamaliyk annihilation, was now
free to turn his full attention to the welfare of Egypt; enlarging
his territories, and consolidating his power. In 1808, he
felt he was strong enough to confiscate all of the land in Egypt.
Even the lands held under the Waqf
(religious
endowment). Muhammad `Aliy destroyed all title deeds "Huggag
al-Kharag" except his
own, which was rather like burning the Doomsday Book (1),
and he even did away with the middleman and dealt with the peasants directly.
The system of `Umad
(mayors and/or of Shuyuwkh
al-balad
(local government representatives), and Mudiyryin,
(provincial governors) which Muhammad `Aliy set up remained
in use until the Revolution in 1952, and vestiges of it are
still in operation to this very day. "Not a clod of earth, not an ear
of corn, not a piaster of profit from sale of grain belonged to anyone
but himself:
the absolute ruler of
Egypt."
(2)
Agriculture
was nationalized, with all crops marketed through government warehouses.
To pay for all these innovations, taxes were increased to include a head
tax on the population without distinction. Taxes were also imposed on animals
and on date trees above and beyond the religious Zikat!
Food was severely and arbitrarily rationed, and there was a dreary period
during which the fallahiyn (peasants) were forbidden to consume
"Fuwl midammis"
(fava beans) - the staple of their diet!
He
possessed an absolute genius for creating and maintaining order at all
cost. Although he was entirely unscrupulous in regard to the methods
employed to attain his ends, during his reign crimes of violence were almost
unknown throughout the land; and never before or since had the country
been safer for travelers. There can be no question that, in a rough sort
of way, his ideals were quite practical, and his actions were inspired
by an obsessive ambition for law, and order. However, he knew little
of integrity, consideration or the tenets of fairness. The number of bad
characters whom he hanged without pretense of trial was enormous, but it
was far surpassed by the host of poor men whose wrongs he righted. He hated
oppression, and would not tolerate it among his officials. Yet his
methods of dealing with offenders was cruel and savage to the extreme.
It was said that once, when passing through a provincial town, a baker
complained to him of the illusive he had suffered at the hands of the local
governor. Muhammad `Aliy, having, verified the man's
story, sent for the governor, and caused him to be pitched head first into
the baker's, oven, where he was slowly roasted to death!
Any
form of laziness was abhorrent to him, and during the years of his reign,
he kept his officials working at top speed. Once, when he was arranging
for the cutting of a new canal in Lower Egypt, he asked the local
engineer what was the shortest time in which that section of the channel
could be cut. The man, having made some rapid calculations, stated that
the work could be done in one year. Muhammad `Aliy
calmly turned to his servants, and ordered them to administer two hundred
blows with a stick on the soles of the engineer's feet. This being done,
he told the fainting wretch that he would return in four months' time,
and if the canal was not then finished, another two hundred blows
would be administered. Needless to say the work was completed long before
the four months had passed! Though his methods were harsh, Muhammad
`Aliy was always convinced that he acted at all times in the best interests
of
Egypt. Through his domestic programs he inaugurated a new
modernist regime which was to lay the foundations for national independence
in Egypt.
(To be continued)
(1) Cadastre
; a public record , survey of the value of ownership of land as a
basis of taxation.
The
Doomsday
Book as a term, originally referred to
the English cadastre at the time of the Norman invasion of the British
isles in 1066.
(2) D.A.
Cameron. Egypt
in the Nineteenth Century ( London 1898)
| Description
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