The Second Abdeen demonstration (9 September 1881)

06The Second Abdeen demonstration (9 September 1881)

Causes

• The Khedive grasped the influence of the three officers and began preparing a plan to scatter them, transferring each to a distant place.
• They charged the government with failing to keep its promise to improve the condition of the servicemen.
• Urabi agreed with his colleagues to assemble the army to confront the Khedive in Abdeen square on 9 September 1881.

Demands

• Urabi raised the demands of the army and the nation:
  • the dismissal of Riad Pasha, head of the ministry;
  • the formation of the Chamber of Deputies;
  • increasing the army to 18,000 men.

Results

• On the advice of the British and French consuls the Khedive dismissed Riad Pasha and entrusted Sharif with forming a ministry (September 1881).
• At Urabi's recommendation Baroudi took the war portfolio and Mustafa Fahmi the foreign ministry.
• Sharif began the reforms suited to the army, meeting the professional demands.
• Sharif, a civilian constitutionalist, was ill at ease under the officers' pressure, so he worked to move the three officers' units outside Cairo; Urabi agreed on condition that the Khedive declare his consent to elections for the Chamber of Deputies.
• The Khedive transferred Urabi to Sharqia and Abd al-Al Hilmi to Damietta; Urabi became active among the people and his standing grew, so a decision was issued appointing him deputy of the war ministry so that he would be under the government's supervision in Cairo (January 1882).

Comparison between the two demonstrations