By Nader Habib President Mohamed Mursi's promise to turn the country around in 100 days is yet to be tested. But leaders before him managed to reshape the country within a few years of their rule. Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Al-Sadat definitely did, and two century ago, a young man of immense talent not only brought modernity to Egypt, but almost turned it into a superpower. Mohamed Ali took power on 17 May 1805, not exactly elected, but named by the country's dignitaries to be their favourite nominee for the title of Ottoman viceroy. The Ottoman sultan in Istanbul may not have been thrilled about the choice, but even in debilitated empires, rulers know when to acquiesce to public demands. It took Mohamed Ali six years to pacify his opponents, the Mamluks who had ruled Egypt, alone or under Ottoman aegis, since the thirteenth century. By 1811, having massacred the remaining Mamluk chieftains in the citadel, he was Egypt's uncontested leader. For the next 30 years, Mohamed Ali launched diverse schemes to turn Egypt into a modern country. He refurbished the army with the help of former members of the Napoleonic army. He restructured the government and created many schools to supply it with suitable technicians and clerks. Young Egyptians were sent to Milan, Florence, and Rome to study military sciences, ship building, and printing. Rifaah Rafei Al-Tahtawi, one of our earliest and most celebrated men of letters, led an educational mission to Paris in 1826. Agriculture received a boost not only due to Mohamed Ali's interest in cotton and new crops, but also to the many barrages and canals he built. The government's finance, often run by Copts and Armenians, were put in order, and a new tax system was put in place. This allowed the government to launch many projects, which were executed at least partly with the use of forced labour, or corvée. Peasants were not always pleased with the harshness of the tax collectors, and some of them consequently escaped to Syria. Instead of relaxing the tax system, Mohamed Ali took this opportunity to expand his territories. Mohamed Ali had already offered the Ottoman sultan money to allow him to rule Syria. But the sultan, recognising the ambition of the Egyptian viceroy, declined. When Egyptian peasants began running off to Syria, Mohamed Ali asked the Acre Viceroy Ahmad Al-Gazzar to deport them. Al-Gazzar's refusal gave Mohamed Ali the pretext he had been waiting for. Egypt and seized Acre in 1832, a feat that Napoleon had failed to accomplish at the turn of the century. Capitalising on his gains, Mohamed Ali started expanding his territories northward and threatening Istanbul itself. He was not thwarted until 1940, when European powers threw a naval blockade on Egyptian-held territories on the Mediterranean, forcing Mohammad Ali to cede Syria and Crete in return for hereditary rule in Egypt and Sudan. In 1848, aged and perhaps a victim of Alzheimer, Mohamed Ali was deposed from power by his own sons. He died in Alexandria in 1848 and was buried in the citadel in Cairo. By then, Egypt was already on its way to become a modern state. The textiles and oil factories he started formed the basis for a future industrial revival in the early twentieth century. Within the next 40 years, Egypt will have a parliament and a cabinet of minister. And by the turn of the next century, albeit by that time under British rule, Egypt will have a fully-fledged modern educational system, up-to-day communication and transport systems, and one of the most flourishing economies around the Mediterranean.
