Ahmed Pasha Rasheed رشيد باشا احمد

Descendants of Ahmed Pasha Rasheed رشيد باشا احمد احفاد

The Turkish Connection

It is thought that Ahmed Agha and Mohamed Ali were Turkish in origin and were assigned by the Ruling Ottoman Sultan to serve in Albania and Egypt. The descendants of Mohamed Ali and Ahmed Agha married into the Ahmed Pasha Rasheed line as well as other Turks.

The Story

A man was turning over the soil in the field he was to plant with Alfalfa. Monira, his seven month pregnant wife followed by four yugans, put down the bundle she carried on her head from their hut in the village of Sharkiya. “Here’s your lunch, Moustafa,” as she unwrapped and laid it out under a fruit laden fig tree. He made a last lunge with his Fass into the mud then yanked over another clod of dirt exposing the dark moist interior of a thousand, thousand years of silt laden floods to the Egyptian sun as his forefathers had done for endless generations. Sharkiya is located near the eastern branch of the Nile River, called Dumyata, about mid way up the Delta. That night, as he lay next to her and his brood, the water level in the small arrogation canal started to recede for no apparent reason.

About 30 miles to the north, in the lowlands of the Delta, strange people found themselves drowning in a flood of murky water. As they struggled, the water turned to mud making their escape impossible. The next morning, solders fished the survivors out. One of them was King Luis the Ninth of France.

King Luis the Ninth was a Crusader. He invaded Egypt from the Mediterranean Sea to the north in the 13^th century, encountered the army of El-Malik El-Saleh Ayyoub (The Fair King Ayyoub) and gave chase. King Ayyoub retreated south and when King Luis reached the lowlands, King Ayyoub opened the gates of all the dams in the area trapping the French army. King Luis’ wife latter paid a ransom for the return of her husband.

Like most of the many invaders of Egypt, King Luis left many of his solders behind. They were not farmers or merchants and owned nothing. Their only livelihood was war and they sold their skills and themselves to those who would employ or own them.

Egypt was the recipient of many invasions throughout its history but it remained more or less in tact. The practice of owning foreign warriors by the rich resulted in the growth in power of these “slaves.” They moved up the ranks and eventually took over the country creating the “Mamelouks,” era in Egyptian History. This name comes from the word “Milk” which means “ownership.” To own something meant you were a “Malik.” To be owned by someone meant you were a “Mamelouk” hence, the era of the Mamelouks or the era of the “Slaves.” Although the ruling Mamelouks were free, the title stuck.

The different Mamelouks inherited different sections of land from their predecessors and ruled their territories (provinces) as they wished. They had their own armies, tax collectors, laws and feuded with one another. Egypt became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in about the 15^th century and the Turks were only interested in the joy of officially having the biggest empire of their time and asked not much more from the Mamelouks than to pay tribute to the Ottoman Sultan (Emperor).

The French ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte, had no problem invading Egypt in 1798. The Mamelouks were divided among themselves and none had an army to match the French. The Ottoman Sultan came to the rescue and ordered armies from all over his empire to Egypt and by 1801 Napoleon had escaped in a small sail boat and returned to France. Many of the Turkish troops that were called upon to defend Egypt didn’t go back to their home countries after defeating him.

Top clergymen from the Al-Azhar University were not satisfied with the ever feuding Mamelouks and the increased presence of the Ottomans and decided to seek a united Egypt free from outside influence. They needed a strong leader who could takeover and restore law and order and they found him. Mohamed Ali was the commander of the Albanian army division at that time and received the clerics request with hesitation. He was about to turn them down when they found a way to pressure him. He led his troops into Cairo (the Capital) and took over the Citadel (Rook-Palace, seat of power). He tried several ways to persuade the Mamelouks to work together and implement new reforms necessary for a united country but failed. As a last resort, he invited them all to the Citadel for dinner and didn’t tell them they were on the main menu.

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By Leap’n Gewilligers, Inc. Download Page

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Last Updated 11 April 2011