p. 437 | A. G. DANIELLS by A. G. DANIELLS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 8, 1913

A. G. DANIELLS

By A. G. DANIELLS

Does the History of Turkey and Egypt Since 1798 Fulfil the Prophecy of Dan. 11:40-44? — No. 16

A. G. DANIELLS

“He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” Dan. 11:41-43.

The Conquest of Arabia

AT the conclusion of the war between France, Egypt, and Turkey, Arabia, with its holy cities of Mecca and Medina, was entirely independent of Turkey. Abdel-Wahab and his followers, called Wa-ha'-bys or Wahabites, began the conquest of Arabia about the year 1746, and succeeded in gaining control “of the vast country stretching from the Red Sea

to the Persian Gulf, and from the Indian Ocean to the desert of Syria.” Mohammed Ali was directed by the Porte to invade Arabia, overthrow the Wahabites, and restore Medina and Mecca to the sultan. He therefore sent an army of Turkish troops under command of his son Toussoun, into Arabia.

“Reenforced from Kosseir, Toussoun again advanced on Medina, which he took after a short blockade. . . . From Medina, Toussoun marched on Jedda, where Ghalib opened the gates with effusive professions of loyalty. Mecca also surrendered, and at last Mehemet Ali was able to send the keys to the sultan, as a proof that he had restored the prestige of the Turk.

“Step by step the invaders went their way through the suburbs, storming the walls, and hemming in the last garrison without hope of relief, till, in September, 1818, Abdullah surrendered to the conqueror. Taken to Cairo for the inspection of the pasha, he was sent on to Stamboul, where he was beheaded. As for Deraya [the capital], not one stone was left upon another, the palm-trees were burned, and the inhabitants driven away. . . .

“Thus ended Wahabiism as a definite attempt to restore an Arab califate and to wrench the custody of the holy cities from the sultan of Turkey.”—“Egypt in the Nineteenth Century,” pages 103, 110, by Cameron.

“The Libyans and the Ethiopians Shall Be at His Steps”

Libya and Ethiopia were divisions of Africa lying west and south of Egypt.

“The name Ethiopia was more usually and definitely applied to the country south of Libya and Egypt, between the Red Sea on the east and the Sahara on the west, and embracing the modern regions of Nubia, Sennar, Kordofan, and Abyssinia. In a still narrower sense, the designation was restricted to the province of Meroe, which was also called the civilized Ethiopia. African Ethiopia, which is called in the Bible the land of Cush, embraced, according to Pliny, forty-five distinct kingdoms.”—The Encyclopedia Americana, article on “Ethiopia.”

The modern name of this great stretch of territory is “the Sudan,” and it embraces divisions known as Nubia, Sennar, Kordofan, Dongola, etc. As soon as Mohammed Ali had conquered Arabia, he began preparing an expedition for the conquest of Ethiopia.

“This expedition started in February, 1820, and, after a desperate battle, completely succeeded in its object. Siwa was permanently annexed to Egypt, while certain Europeans surveyed the district, and furnished the accurate information published by Jomard in 1823.

“The main expedition for the Sudan left Cairo in July, 1820, and consisted of 3,400 infantry, 1,500 cavalry, some artillery, and a contingent of 500 friendly Ababdeh Arabs. As it passed Wadi Halfa, the remnants of the Mamelukes, who had been driven south by Ibrahim, the pasha’s eldest son, and who had formed their ordeh, or camp, at the place now known as Dongola, broke into two parties, the one surrendering to the Egyptians, while the other retired into Kordofan. Old Ibrahim Bey had recently died, and with him the famous order, which had ruled Egypt for six centuries, definitely ceased to exist.

“Leaving the White Nile, he proceeded up what was then held to be the main stream, and arrived at Sennar, where the Sultan Bady paid him homage, and was appointed the viceroy’s agent. The short campaign had been entirely successful, and Ismail sent down thousands of slaves to Assouan, where a military camp was being formed for a drilling of the new army. . . .

“Meanwhile, the viceroy had sent a third expedition under his son-in-law, Mohammed Bey Defterdor, into Kordofan, which province was annexed in 1822.”—“Egypt in the Nineteenth Century,” page 114, by Cameron.

“He Shall Have Power Over the Treasures of Gold and of Silver, and Over All the Precious Things of Egypt”

These conquests of Mohammed Ali, the Turkish governor of Egypt, required immense sums of money. Instead of the Turkish government supplying the needed funds from the national treasury, it required the governor of Egypt to finance his provinces and conquests, and in addition to send to Constantinople a large annual tribute.

“Having drained the treasury by these expenses, he levied a benevolence of 40,000 pounds [$200,000] on the Copts, and raised 250,000 pounds [more than a million dollars] by an extra tax on the fellaheen.”—Id., page 90.

But securing possession of Egypt’s treasuries was carried far beyond the levying of taxes. Paton says:—

“It was in the years 1808-10 that Mohammed Ali effected a revolutionary transfer of landed property in Egypt. Not content with greatly increasing the taxes on the soil, he ordered an inspection to be made of all title-deeds; and, on one pretext or another, his agents objected to their validity,—contesting the legitimacy of the successions, imposing additions to the land tax, and in a great multitude of instances retaining the title-deeds, which were burned. A few influential sheiks were spared; but, wherever the government chose, the land, for want of titles, gradually lapsed to the Miri; so that in a few years the pasha became landlord of nearly the whole of the soil of Egypt, some insignificant annuities being granted in compensation. Mohammed Ali’s elevation to power was, as already said, founded on public opinion; but his first acts, after the consolidation of his rule, were the most flagrant defiance of public opinion, and of the sacred rights of private property in the modern annals of Egypt.”—“History of the Egyptian Revolution, Vol. II, pages 26, 27.

“Meanwhile, too, the Wahabi fanatics of Arabia had seized the holy cities and stopped the annual pilgrimage. The Porte, therefore, ordered Mehemet Ali to fit out an expedition against them, leading him to understand that his tenure of office in Egypt depended on this act of devotion to his suzerain.

“Now the pasha was practically bankrupt, and if he must obey, then he must obtain a steady annual revenue; and, as the only important source of revenue was the cultivated soil, therefore he must bring the surface of the country under his direct control, and no voice must be raised against the execution of his will in taxation. . . . The next point was how to cultivate these lands for the crown. The middleman having been ousted, the pasha must deal direct with the peasants.

“Mehemet Ali appointed moudirs, or directors, of his reforms in the provinces, some fourteen in number.” These officers were required “to render account to Mehemet Ali, the sole proprietor of Egypt. . . . Not a clod of earth, not an ear of corn, not a piaster profit from sale of grain, belonged to any one but himself.”—“Egypt in the Nineteenth Century,” pages 83-87.

The Prophecy Fulfilled

Thus all the evidence goes to show that a remarkable change was effected by Turkey in Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, and Ethiopia following the defeat of the French at Acre. This change was entirely to the advantage of Turkey, and it was in harmony with the outlines of the prophecy:—

1. The whole Syrian province, which included Palestine, the “glorious land,” was brought under better and more complete control of the Porte.

2. Egypt was more than regained from the French. Turkey’s control of that country was made stronger than it had ever been. The French were expelled. The Mamelukes were exterminated. The land itself was wrested from the people and appropriated by the Turkish governor, thus literally turning the treasures of Egypt into the treasury of Turkey.

3. Ethiopia and Libya, with their various divisions, were conquered and annexed to Turkey’s Egyptian province.

4. Arabia was wrested from the Wahabites, and the holy cities Mecca and Medina were restored to the sultan.

Thus for a time Turkey seemed triumphant everywhere in the south. “But tidings out of the east and out of the north” brought trouble to him.

The presentation of the history that fulfilled this part of the prophecy will be considered sometime later.