Ein Muslimischer Pascha im Zentrum der Orientalischen Frage: Muhammed Ali von Ägypten

Abstract

The Eastern Question of the 19th century is a short-hand for the problems between the Christian subjects of the Sultan and the Sublime Porte as well as the efforts of the European states to mediate between them. In addressing this issue, participants sought to maintain the balance between small and great powers of the Europe, while at the same time trying to satisfy both the Sublime Porte and the Christian subjects of the Sultan. In actual fact, however, the Eastern Question of the 1830s focused on the relationship, or rather the crisis, between the Sublime Porte and its Muslim Pasha of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, who threatened to destroy the Ottoman Empire twice in the third decade of the 19th century. The present study analyses the Eastern Question on the basis of the available literature as well as the testimonies of contemporary witnesses. It argues that the positioning of the great powers not only vis-à-vis the Ottoman reforms themselves, but also their assessment of the Ottomans’ ability and inclination for reform, was the result of their real political considerations about the crisis between the Sultan and Muhammad Ali. Not surprisingly, the support of and even push for reform in the Ottoman Empire which became a fundamental principle of British foreign policy in the 1830s was shaped by the Eastern Question.