Al-Hawsh al-Basha

Muhammad 'Ali Basha was born Greek to Albanian parents. He went to Egypt at age 32, an executive officer in regiment that was part of the AD1803 Ottoman campaign to re-occupy Egypt (countering the resurgence of the Mamluks, who had become indigenous) after the French imperial adventure there ended in withdrawal. The consummate self-made man, he was bereft of noble blood. Raised largely by his uncle after he was orphaned, he showed an all-consuming talent for politics and for choosing the proper tactics to (ruthlessly) realize his ambitions, one of which became the re-creation of Egypt as a regional power and for him to displace the sultan as ruler of the Eastern Mediterranean. In fact, it is under his governance that an Egyptian empire maximized its hectares: no pharaoh was so successful in grabbing land. He monopolized the cotton trade make it more profitable and created an Egyptian arms manufacturing sector and (by AD1824) an army comprised of conscripted native Egyptians--the first true Egyptian army since the ancients. He took the Sudan, which remained Egyptian until AD1956. His forces marched to within 200 kilometers of Istanbul, overcoming one after another Ottoman force thrown at it by the sultan and the cold and snow of Anatolia. Having obtained Syria and Crete, the European powers (especially Great Britain) agreed to permit him to keep Damascus. He refused, and a Western-Turkish alliance drove his army and navy back to Egypt and Nubia.

He dispatched Egyptian students to Paris to learn the best military and engineering techniques. His Bulaq Press, a propaganda machine, was the first Arabic press in the Arab world. He started the world's second national archive. He authored Egyptian bureaucracy, a questionable achievement today.

His family was enthroned until AD1952 and was the last in the long line of those clans sent to Egypt, however inadvertently, by another polity, in this case the Ottomans, to rule it as a province and who chose to make of Egypt a rival instead. It was a risk that Istanbul had to take: by AD1805 the Wahhabi Saudi Arabs were a severe nuisance and by AD1811 they controlled the Hegaz. In AD1815, the Wahhabis broke a truce negotiated with 'Ali's son Tussun Basha, who died that year, and 'Ali sent Ibrahim Basha, his eldest son, to fix matters with the Saudis once and for all. Ibrahim Basha's military skills not only liberated the Hegaz but carried the campaign deep into central Arabia and firmly crushed the House of Saud and the Wahhabi threat. By AD1849, when Muhammad 'Ali Basha died, he was demented. Ibrahim Basha, was capable, devoted, ruling in his place, and dead of tuberculosis six months prior to Muhammad 'Ali's funeral. Muhammad 'Ali's body was interred at the Hawsh and then relocated in AD1857 to the cold, poorly-designed masged gumm'aa at the Citadel that bears his name. His cenotaph is a piece missing from the Hawsh. Another piece is this: visitation by tourists. It is the most compelling Egyptian monument seldom seen by Egyptian and agnabi alike. And, finally, the Hawsh al-Basha is testimony that this area was not always dusty, but rather a rich and well-watered garden into which well-heeled Cairene families would regularly flow to honor and commune with their ancestors.

Note: The photographs from this collection were made without artificial light--the architects illuminated these tombs in this fashion using only windows. Note also that the word "hawsh" defines a mausoleum which is organized around a courtyard, in this case one that used to be lush.

• Brian Broadus