Ibrahim Al-Mausili

IBRAHIM AL-MAUSILI (742-804), Arabian singer, was born of Persian parents settled in Kufa. In his early years his parents died and he was trained by an uncle. Singing, not study, attracted him, and at the age of twenty-three he fled to Mosul, where he joined a band of wild youths. After a year he went to Rai (Rei, Rhagae), where he met an ambassador of the caliph Mansur, who enabled him to come to Basra and take singing lessons. His fame as a singer spread, and the caliph Mandi brought him to the court. There he remained a favourite under ;Tad', while Harun al-Rashid kept him always with him until his death, when he ordered his son (Ma`mun) to say the prayer over his corpse. His powers of song were far beyond anything else known at the time.

See the Preface to W. Ahlwardt's Abu Nowas (Greifswald, 1861), pp. 13-18, and the many stories of his life in the Kitab ul-Aghdni, v. 2-49.

IB3RAHIM PASHA

(1789-1848), Egyptian general, son, or adopted son of Mohammed Ali, pasha of Egypt, was born at Kavala in Thrace. During his father's struggle to establish him self in Egypt, Ibrahim, then sixteen years of age, was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman capitan pasha (admiral), but when Mo hammed Ali was recognized as pasha, he was allowed to return to Egypt. When Mohammed Ali went to Arabia to fight against the Wahhabis in 1813, Ibrahim was left in command in Upper Egypt. He continued the war with the broken power of the Mamelukes, whom he suppressed. In 1816 he succeeded his brother Tusun in command of the Egyptian forces in Arabia. Mohammed Ali had already begun to introduce European discipline into his army, and Ibrahim had probably received some training, but his first campaign was conducted more in the old Asiatic style than his later operations. The campaign lasted two years, and the political power of the Wahhabis was destroyed. Ibrahim landed at Yembo, the port of Medina, on Sept. 3o, 1816. The holy cities had been recovered from the Wahhabis, and Ibrahim's task was to follow them into the desert of Nejd and destroy their fortresses. Such training as the Egyptian troops had received, and their artillery, gave them a marked superiority in the open field. But the diffi culty of crossing the desert to the Wahhabi stronghold of Deraiya, some 40o m. east of Medina, and the courage of their opponents, made the conquest a very arduous one. Ibrahim displayed great energy and tenacity, sharing all the hardships of his army, and never allowing himself to be discouraged by failure. By the end of September 1818 he had forced the Wahhabi leader to sur render, and had taken Deraiya, which he ruined. On Dec. 11, 1819, he made a triumphal entry into Cairo. Af ter his return he supported the Frenchman, Colonel Seve (Suleiman Pasha), who was employed to drill the army on the European model. Ibrahim set an example by submitting to be drilled as a recruit.

When in 1824 Mohammed Ali was appointed governor of the Morea by the sultan, who desired his help against the insurgent Greeks, he sent Ibrahim with a squadron and an army of 17,000 men. The expedition sailed on July 1o, 1824, but Ibrahim was not able to land at Modon until Feb. 26, 1825. Ibrahim easily defeated the Greeks in the open field, and though the siege of Missolonghi proved costly he captured the place on April 24, 1826. The Greek guerrilla bands harassed his army, and in re venge he desolated the country and sent thousands of the inhabi tants into slavery in Egypt. These measures led first to the inter vention of the English, French and Russian squadrons (see NAVARINO, BATTLE OF), and then to the landing of a French expeditionary force. By the terms of the capitulation of Oct. 1, 1828, Ibrahim evacuated the country. English officers who saw him at Navarino describe him as short, grossly fat and deeply marked with smallpox. In 1831 Ibrahim was sent to conquer Syria. He took Acre after a severe siege on May 27, 1832, occu pied Damascus, defeated a Turkish army at Homs on July 8, defeated another Turkish army at Beilan on July 29, invaded Asia Minor, and finally routed the grand vizier at Konia on Dec. 2 I. The convention of Kutaiah on May 6 left Syria for a time in the hands of Mohammed Ali.

After the campaign of 1832 and 1833 Ibrahim remained as governor in Syria. The exactions he was compelled to enforce by his father soon provoked revolts. In 1838 the Porte felt strong enough to renew the struggle, and war broke out once more. Ibrahim won his last victory for his father at Nezib on June 24, 1839. But Great Britain and Austria intervened to preserve the integrity of Turkey. Their squadrons cut his communications by sea with Egypt, a general revolt isolated him in Syria, and he was finally compelled to evacuate the country in February 1841. In 1846 Ibrahim paid a visit to western Europe. When his father became imbecile in 1848, he held the regency till his own death on Nov. so, 1848.

See Edouard Gouin, L'Egypte au XIXe siecle (Paris, 1847) ; Aime Vingtrinier, Soliman-Pasha (Colonel Seve) (Paris, 1886) . A great deal of unpublished material of the highest interest with regard to Ibrahim's personality and his system in Syria is preserved in the British Foreign Office archives; for references to these see Cambridge Mod. Hist. x. 852, bibliography to chap. xvii.