Ahmed ‘Urabi

Ahmed ʻUrabi, also known as Ahmed Ourabi or Orabi Pasha, also spelled Arabi or Araby Pasha, was an an officer of the Egyptian army. The first political and military leader in Egypt to rise from the fellahin, ʻUrabi participated in an 1879 mutiny that developed into the ʻUrabi revolt against the administration of Khedive Tewfik, which was under the influence of an Anglo-French consortium. He was promoted to Tewfik's cabinet and began reforms of Egypt's military and civil administrations, but the demonstrations in Alexandria of 1882 prompted a British bombardment and invasion which led to the capture of ʻUrabi and his allies and the imposition of British control in Egypt. ʻUrabi and his allies were sentenced by Tewfik into exile in Ceylon.