*****

In the second war (1838-41) the decisive defeat of Ottoman troops at the Battle of Nizip (1839) and the desertion of the Ottoman fleet to Muhammad 'Ali led to intervention by the European powers. In July 1840 Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia agreed to end Egyptian rule in Syria, shattering Muhammad 'Ali's hopes for greater independence from the Ottoman Empire. In 1841 he and his family were granted the hereditary right to rule Egypt and the Sudan, but his power was still subjected to restraints, and the sultan's suzerain rights remained intact.

*****

Battle of Nizip, Nizip also spelled NEZIB (June 24, 1839), battle between forces of the Ottoman Empire and those of Muhammad 'Ali, viceroy of Egypt, at Nizip (now in southeastern Turkey), in which the Ottomans were defeated. Their empire was spared only by the intervention of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia.

The Convention of Kütahya (1833) that had awarded the Ottomans' Syrian provinces and Adana to Muhammad 'Ali was not satisfactory to either party, and a new war developed. The Ottoman army was decisively defeated at Nizip by Egyptian forces under Muhammad 'Ali's son Ibrahim, and the Ottoman fleet surrendered at Alexandria. The great powers, except France, intervened on behalf of the Ottomans, forcing the Egyptians to evacuate Syria in 1840. On Feb. 3, 1841, the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I signed a firman (official edict) appointing Muhammad 'Ali as hereditary governor of Egypt.

*****

Only an alliance of European powers (excluding France) saved the Ottomans from accepting disastrous terms from Egypt (Treaty of London, July 1840).