ALEXANDRIA CONVENTION

Agreement made between the British and Muhammad Ali of Egypt to end Egypt's territorial aggression.

By the London Convention of July 1840, Muhammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, was given an ultimatum by the Ottoman Empire and its allies, to evacuate his troops from Anatolia and Syria. He refused, and Britain sent a naval squadron under Admiral Charles Napier to aid Syria. After the defeat of Egypt's forces in Syria, the British sailed to Egypt's port of Alexandria. Muhammad Ali recognized the weakness of his position and the strength of the forces arrayed against him; he sued for peace and signed the Alexandria Convention with Napier on 27 November 1840.

Under its terms, Muhammad Ali renounced his claims to Syria and agreed to yield to the Ottoman sultan. In return, the sultan granted him hereditary possession of Egypt. When news of the Alexandria Convention reached Europe, there was some concern that the terms had been too light; it was months before the sultan fully endorsed the agreement, fearing additional empire-building on the part of Muhammad Ali. The convention was used to signify the end of Muhammad Ali as a threat to the integrity of the rest of the Ottoman Empire—an integrity that was thenceforth preserved with the aid of the European powers.

see also muhammad ali.

Bibliography

Anderson, M. S. The Eastern Question, 1774–1923: A Study in International Relations. London and Melbourne: Macmillan; and New York: St. Martin's, 1966.

Hurewitz, J. C., ed. The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: A Documentary Record, 2d edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975.

Zachary Karabell