Abbas Hilmi I

1812 - 1854

Viceroy of Egypt, 1848 - 1854.

Son of Tusun and grandson of Muhammad Ali, Hilmi Abbas was born in Alexandria (or, some sources say, Jidda) and reared in Cairo. A cavalry officer, he accompanied his uncle, Ibrahim Pasha, on his Syrian campaign, served as temporary governor-general of Egypt when Muhammad Ali went to the Sudan in 1839, and succeeded Ibrahim as viceroy upon his death in November 1848.

Abbas was viewed by many Europeans as a reactionary because he dismantled some of his grandfather's Westernizing reforms and dismissed most of the French advisers to the Egyptian government (his policies tended to be pro-British and anti-French), but he reduced taxes on the peasants. He awarded a concession to an English company to build Egypt's first railroad, connecting Cairo and Alexandria. The land route from Cairo to Suez was also improved. He sought the support of the Ulama (Islamic clergy) and the Sufi orders. He laid the cornerstone for the Sayyida Zaynab Mosque, a popular shrine, in Cairo. Abbas sent troops to fight on the side of the Ottoman Empire against Russia in the Crimea, where they suffered heavy casualties. His policies antagonized many members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, and he died in Banha in 1854 under mysterious circumstances.

Bibliography

Toledano, Ehud R. State and Society in Mid-Nineteenth CenturyEgypt. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

— ARTHUR GOLDSCHMIDT