The 1881Urābī Revolution partly pitted Arabic-speaking fellah officers against Turkish-speaking superiors.

Evidence

As early as the mid-1830s, when John Bowring visited Egypt, the resentment of Egyptians, in the full sense of the term, against their Turkish-speaking rulers was starting to become obvious, mainly in the army. “An Arab soldier of the last generation was wholly at the mercy of his Turkish officer; it is so no longer … [T]he whole character of the population is undergoing a silent but obvious change. The Egyptian element is gradually replacing the Turkish … ” By the late 1870s this “Egyptian element” had acquired enough self-consciousness such that it “dared to acknowledge its own existence,” and to express itself in open rebellion. The ‘Urābī Revolution of 1881–2, in addition to being a revolution by various sectors of the urban and rural population against European dual control, was also a revolt of these estranged Arabic-speaking fellah officers against their Turkish-speaking superiors. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1368

Categorization

• XREF: Adds an internal Egyptian dimension to the Urābī Revolt beyond the standard anti-European framing; connects to reader’s interest in Ottoman pasha performance.