Battle of Konya

Battle of Konya
Part of Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833)
The Battle of Konya
Date 21 December 1832 Location Konya, Ottoman Empire Result Egyptian victory
Belligerents
Egypt	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Ibrahim Pasha	Reşid Mehmed Pasha (POW)
Strength
30,000 men 36-48 guns	65,000 men in total 142 guns
Casualties and losses
262 dead, 530 wounded	3,000 dead, 5,000 taken prisoner, 44 guns

The Battle of Konya (Koniah) was fought on December 21, 1832, between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, just outside the city of Konya in modern-day Turkey. By the time of the battle, Muhammad Ali of Egypt modernized the Egyptian army and economy, while the Ottoman Empire continued to lag behind. The Egyptians were led by Ibrahim Pasha, while the Ottomans were led by Reşid Mehmed Pasha. The Egyptians were victorious.

Prelude

The pretext for launching the campaign into Syria was the flight of six thousand Egyptian fellahin to Acre. The Egyptian campaign to occupy Syria began on October 29, 1831. Two to three weeks later, without encountering serious resistance, Egyptian troops occupied Gaza,Jaffa, and Haifa, and in late November 1831, they advanced to Acre, the fortress that once barred Napoleon's path. Despite a complete blockade and massive, sustained bombardment from sea and land, the city, led by Abdullah Pasha, was captured only after a six-month siege and two bloody assaults.

After this,Ibrahim Pasha began his advance into Syria. On July 8 near the city of Homs, he encountered an army led by the Pasha of Aleppo, which was routed. Then, on July 29, at the Belen Pass, he defeated another Ottoman army, this time under the command of the Pasha of Adrianople, Hussein Agha Pasha. Soon, Ibrahim captured Antakya, Adana and Tarsus, and thus crossed the Taurus Mountains and arrived in Konya, in the heart of Anatolia, on November 27. There, on December 21, his army of approximately 30,000 men and 36-48 artillery pieces had to confront the Ottoman imperial army of 65,000 men, commanded by Grand Vizier Reşid Mehmed Pasha.

The final battle of the campaign of 1831/1832, came at Konya on December 18–21, 1832. Several minor clashes between advanced elements and scouting parties of the two armies took place on December 18 and 19, and the main battle described below was on December 21.

Battle

The fighting began the 21 December in bewildering fog on a hilly battlefield. Due to the inclement weather, the visibility range dropped at times to only about 50 metres. At night, it became almost impossible to distinguish Reșid’s regiments from those of Ibrahim.

Since the Ottoman imperial army outnumbered their opponents, it was initially able to push the Egyptians back and obtain a slight advantage on the flanks by the time the fighting ended at midnight. There were around 700 casualties in total (500 Ottomans and 200 Egyptians). Both armies then pulled back, to continue the battle the next day. But the course of the war changed before dawn broke.

As it happened, earlier in the evening, before the fighting was over, Grand Vizier Reșid Mehmed Pasha had noticed that the left wing of his army was losing ground. He had then ridden towards them to put his men in order but, in the fog, he had mistaken an Egyptian cavalry unit for an Ottoman corps and gone among them. He had then fallen into the hands of the Egyptian.

When tongues began to wag later at night and the rumour spread, the Albanian and Bosnian mercenaries that Reșid Mehmed had brought from the Balkans immediately fled from the line of defence. The attacks for of the dispirited and demoralized Ottoman army the next days only further scattered it. This was a total victory for Ibrahim Pasha.

Aftermath

Konya was Ibrahim's greatest victory. He lost 262 dead and 530 wounded, whereas the Ottomans lost 3,000 dead and over 5,000 taken prisoner, including many senior officers, including Reşid Mehmed Pasha. The Egyptians remained in possession of the field and took 46 guns, and the Ottoman army was scattered. Nothing remained between Ibrahim's army and Constantinople after the battle. After Konya, Ibrahim moved toward Istanbul, where he captured Kutahya on February 2. However, at the request of Mahmud II, a 20,000-strong Russian contingent landed on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. Concerned, France and Great Britain began pressuring Egypt, leading to the conclusion of the Kutahya Convention. Under it,Egypt vacated Anatolia and recognized the Sultan's suzerainty, but received Syria in exchange.

See also

• Egyptian Armed Forces
• Egyptian Army

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Dupuy, R. Ernest and Trevor N. Dupuy, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History, HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
• Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, Basic Books, 2005.
• McGregor, Andrew James, A military history of modern Egypt: from the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War, Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., 2006.
• Grant, R. G. (14 December 2023). "Battle of Konya | Summary | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
• Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905) (in German). Vienna and Leipzig: C. W. Stern. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
• Muravyov-Karsky, Nikolay (1869). Турция и Египет в 1832 и 1833. Harvard University – via Google Books.
• Ozan Ozavci Imperialism, Security and Civil Wars in the Levant 1798-1864 | Oxford University Press., 2021.

Note

• The article cites numerous original sources in Arabic, including official archives, as well as several principal European references, all in French.

Further reading

• Chapter by Colonel Abd El-Rahman Zaki, published in Arabic in the volume commemorating Ibrahim Pasha on the centennial of his death, published in 1948 by the Egyptian Royal Society for Historical Studies. Republished 1998 by Madbouli Press, Cairo.