NIZIP, BATTLE OF

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 Ktahya (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 Abdlmecid I signed a firman (official edict) appointing Muhammad 'Ali as hereditary governor of Egypt.