Meanwhile, within the empire, ambitious valis were one by one attempting
to carve out dominions for themselves at the expense of the central
power. The ambitions of Mehemet Ali of Egypt were not yet fully
revealed; but Ali (q.v.) of Jannina, who had marched to the aid of the
sultan against the rebellious pasha Pasvan Oglu of Widdin, soon began to
show his hand, and it needed the concentration of all the forces of the
Turkish empire to effect his overthrow and death (1822). The
preoccupation of the sultan with Ali gave their opportunity to the
Greeks whose disaffection had long been organized in the great secret
society of the _Hetaeria Philike_, against which Metternich had in vain
warned the Ottoman government. In 1821 occurred the abortive raid of
Alexander Ypsilanti into the Danubian principalities, and in May of the
same year the revolt of the Greeks of the Morea began the war of Greek
Independence (see GREECE: _History_). The rising in the north was easily
crushed; but in the south the Ottoman power was hampered by the
defection of the sea-faring Greeks, by whom the Turkish navy had
hitherto been manned. After three abortive campaigns Mahmud was
compelled, infinitely against his will, to summon to his assistance the
already too powerful pasha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, whom he had already
employed to suppress the rebellious Wahhabis in Arabia. The disciplined
Egyptian army, supported by a well organized fleet, rapidly accomplished
what the Turks had failed to do; and by 1826 the Greeks were practically
subdued on land, and Ibrahim was preparing to turn his attention to the
islands. But for the intervention of the powers and the battle of
Navarino Mahmud's authority would have been restored in Greece. The news
of Navarino betrayed Mahmud into one of those paroxysms of rage to which
he was liable, and which on critical occasions were apt fatally to cloud
his usual good sense. After in vain attempting to obtain an apology for
"the unparalleled outrage against a friendly power" he issued on the
20th of December a solemn _hatti sheriff_ summoning the faithful to a
holy war. This, together with certain outstanding grievances and the
pretext of enforcing the settlement of the Greek Question approved by
the powers, gave Russia the excuse for declaring war against Turkey.
After two hardly fought campaigns (1828, 1829) Mahmud was at length, on
the 14th of September 1829, compelled to sign the peace of Adrianople.
From this moment until his death Mahmud was, to all intents and
purposes, the "vassal of Russia," though not without occasional
desperate efforts to break his chains. (For the political events of the
period between the first revolt of Mehemet Ali (Sept. 1832) and the
death of Mahmud see MEHEMET ALI.) The personal attitude of the sultan,
which alone concerns us here, was determined throughout by his
overmastering hatred of the upstart pasha, of whom he had stooped to ask
aid, and who now defied his will; and the importance of this attitude
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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