Syria continued subject first to the Baharite aud then to the Circassian Memlooks. Their possession of the country was however interrupted for a short time by Tamerlane, who invaded Syria and sacked Aleppo in 1400, and in the next year destroyed Damascus. He did not however attempt to keep possession of the country. In the year 1516 Syria was conquered and united to the Turkish empire by the sultan Selim I. It was unsuccessfully invaded by General Bonaparte in 1799. In the year 1831, Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, formed the design of erecting Egypt and Syria into an independent kingdom. His sou, Ibrahim Pasha, invaded Syria, took Gaza, and on the flth of December attacked Acre, which he took on the 21st of May following, and Damascus on the 13th of June. On the 7th of July be defeated the army of the sultan at Hems., took Antioch on the 1st of August, and on the 21st of December utterly routed the forces of the sultan at Konieh in Asia Minor, taking the grand vizier prisoner, and then pressed on for Constantinople. In the meantime the sultan claimed the help of Russia. That power prepared to act against Mehemet Ali by sea and land. By the interference of Frause and England a pence was concluded, and the sultan play 6, 1833) confirmed Mehemet All in his government of Egypt and Caudia, granting to him in addition that of Damascus, Tripoli, Said, Sated, Nablous, and Jerusalem. Mehemet Ali still cherished his project.
Hostilities were renewed in May, 1839. At the battle of Nezib (June 25) Ibrahim defeated the Turkish army, and soon after the Turkish fleet deserted to Mehemet Ali (July 4). Upon this, Mehemet announced to the new sultan, Abd.ul-Medjid, hie determination to assert his claim to the hereditary government of all the provinces under his command, as a reply to the sultan's offer of the hereditary govern ment of Egypt. England, France, Austria, Russia, and Pruseia, now tried to bring about a settlement. Negotiations which followed ended in the secession of France and the conclusion of a treaty between the remaining four other powers and Turkey, to compel the submission of Mehemet. The treaty was signed iu London on the 15th of July 1840. Iu pursuance of this treaty, a fleet, consisting of English. Austrian, and Turkish vessels, commenced operations on the coast of Syria by the storming of Ileyrut. Acre and Sidon shared the sumo fate; and, after much negotiation, Mehemet consented to give up Syria, and receive the hereditary government of Egypt (January 11, 1841).
(Pococke; Volney ; Burckhardt ; Buckingham; Schubert, Reise in das Morgenland ; Robinson, retards in Palestine and Syria ; London Geographical Journal ; Robinson, Biblical Researches; Chesney, Erne dition to the Euphrates and Tigris ; Lynch, Expedition to the Rirer Jordan ; De Saulcy, Discovery of the Site of the Destroyed Cities of the Plain.)