A Portrait of Muhammad 'Ali, Pasha of Egypt (1805-1848), Egypt, 19th century

In overall good condition, a small amount of bubbling to the surface in patches, minor losses to the giling on the wood frame, as viewed.
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Muhammad 'Ali, also known as 'the Father of Egypt' and the 'Lion of Alexandria' is arguably the most significant figure in the make-up of modern Egypt.  Before his rule, Egypt was a country whose indigenous nature had been practically forgotten after centuries of occupation and overshadowing by other Empires; the Roman, Byzantine, Arab and finally Ottoman.  From the commencement of his rule however, Muhammad 'Ali and his dynasty would control Egypt and Sudan until the Egyptian revolution of 1952.

Born in Kavalla, Macedonia in the late 1760s, Muhammad 'Ali rose to prominence as the commander of an Albanian military contingent that united with British and Ottoman Turkish forces to dislodge Napoleon Bonaparte and the French occupation of Egypt in 1802.  Having achieved this the Turks and British returned back home, but Muhammad 'Ali remained in Egypt, and declared himself the country's de facto ruler in 1806 (though nominally subject to the Ottoman Emperor) and in time came to be recognised by the Ottoman court (porte) as governor or pasha.  Remarkably, Muhammad 'Ali was successful in founding an autonomous and hereditary dynasty with an increasingly centralised administration, particularly at a time when the Ottoman court was reasserting its authority in many other Arab lands.

The Egypt Muhammad 'Ali came to control in 1806, however, was still very much in the hands of the Mamluks, whose land was still their source of great wealth and power, having taxed and administered the country for centuries in the name of the Ottoman emperor.  Realising this, Muhammad 'Ali carried out one of his most infamous acts as ruler in 1811 when he invited all the Mamluk Emirs to a feast at the citadel to celebrate the declaration of war against the Wahabis of Arabia and killed almost all of them in an ambush that became known as the 'Massacre of the Citadel'.  Having decapitated the power of the Mamluks (with thousands more and their families being killed in the following weeks), Muhammad 'Ali set about exploiting his growing power with incursions into Palestine and Syria in 1831.  However, his occupation of these two countries in 1840 posed enough threat to Ottoman stability that several European powers joined up with Ottoman forces to repel Muhammad 'Ali in Syria at the battle of St. Jean d'Acre, where he was soundly beaten.  Ever the opportunist, though, Muhammad 'Ali managed to keep hold of the hereditary pashipric of Egypt in 1841, after many lengthy negotiations between himself, the European powers and the Sultan of Turkey, but was deprived of his other territories.

Despite his plans of an Egyptian empire being scuppered, Muhammad 'Ali turned his attention back to Egypt, and the programme of internal reform policies that he had already initiated earlier on in his reign.  Since his position within the Ottoman Empire was generally less threatening after his emphatic defeat at Acre, Muhammad 'Ali realised the opportunity for regaining favour with Britain and Europe, and utilising the military and technical advances of the West in order for Egypt to flourish and progress.  With political ends in mind, therefore, the newly reinstated pasha of Egypt set about courting Britain, France and Europe, implementing Western educational systems and industries and establishing printing presses in Alexandria and Cairo from which newspapers circulated at an unprecedented rate.  These reforms brought Muhammad 'Ali and Egypt a good deal of attention in Europe where these social and economic occurrences, including the revival of Alexandria, caused considerable (yet admirable) surprise, and it would be fair to say that he ranks with his contemporaries the Ottoman Sultans Selim III and Mahmud II as a pioneer westerniser in the Middle East.  So much so, in fact, that when the British occupied Egypt in the 1880s they were able to take direct control over a process of westernisation in which they had already been long involved. 

Interestingly though, Muhammad 'Ali rejected French and European clothing fashions and military uniforms, instead opting to retain the traditional dress of Egypt.  This can be seen in both the present portrait and also a further painting of the pasha by David Wilkie, executed in 1841 by invitation of Muhammad 'Ali whilst the artist was waiting in Alexandria for the ship he would return home aboard (see Tromans 2008 p.59, fig.44).  In this instance he wears a tall fez in accordance with Ottoman decrees, but is otherwise dressed in traditional Egyptian dress, contradicting the dictates of the time.  Furthermore he is sporting a full beard (as in the present example) instead of the closer-cropped variety worn by his Ottoman contemporaries such as the more Francophile Sultan Abdul Mejid (Also painted by Wilkie in 1840, see Tromans 2008, p.59, fig.45).  The message in both Wilkie's portrait and the present one is clear to its audience: Muhammad 'Ali, ruler and reformer of Egypt, is a moderniser, but "...One who also seeks independence and a separate identity" (ibid, p.60).  Another point of interest in the present portrait is the manner in which Muhammad 'Ali is holding his sword in what might be considered a threatening manner.  Originally Wilkie had made a sketch of the pasha holding his sword in a more menacing manner than the way it was eventually presented, but he had objected, saying "The British have deprived me of my sword!" (see Stevens (Ed.) 1984, p.123).

In fact the overall appearance and features of the present portrait could be described as generally more aggressive than that of the placid subject depicted in Wilkie's portrait.  By appearing in national dress, Muhammad 'Ali offers his people a symbol of nationalism, appearing as a man taking pride in the indigenous traditions of his adopted country.

Literature:
Emily M. Weeks in Julie F. Codell & Dianne Sachko Macleod (Eds.), Orientalism Transposed – The Impact of the Colonies on British Culture, Ashgate Press, 1998.
Mary Anne Stevens (Ed.), The Orientalists: Delacroix to Matisse – European Painters in North Africa and the Near East, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1984.
Nicholas Tromans (Ed.), The Lure of the East – British Orientalist Painting, Tate Publishing, 2008.
Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh University Press, 1996.