Palestine under the Ottomans had continued to…

Palestine under the Ottomans had continued to be linked administratively to Damascus until 1830, when it had been placed under Sidon.

In 1824, the Ottoman Sultan had requested aid from Muhammad Ali Pasha, the ethnically Albanian Wali of Egypt and Sudan, to help suppress the serious rebellion in the Greek provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

Muhammad Ali had sent his fleet and seventeen thousand troops under command of his eldest son, Ibrahim Pasha, but Britain, France and Russia had intervened to protect the Greeks.

The European Allied fleet had sunk the entire Egyptian navy, which was under Ottoman command, at Navarino in October 1827.

If the Porte had not in the least prepared for this confrontation, Muhammad Ali had been even less prepared for the loss of his highly competent and expensively assembled and maintained navy.

In compensation for this loss, Muhammad Ali has asked the Porte for the territory of Syria.

The Ottomans are indifferent to the request; the Sultan himself has asked blandly what would happen if Syria was given over and Muhammad Ali later deposed.

Could he not then use Syria and then attack the suddenly unprotected Egypt?

However, Muhammad Ali is no longer willing to tolerate Ottoman indifference.

To compensate for his and Egypt's losses, the wheels for the conquest of Syria are set in motion.