The First Egyptian-Ottoman War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and Egypt from 1831 to 1833 when, after the Sublime Porte refused Muhammad Ali of Egypt's demand for control of Syria as a reward for aiding the Sultan during the Greek War of Independence, Egyptian forces conquered Syria and threatened Constantinople itself.
As early as 1812, Muhammad Ali harbored ambitions of extending his rule to the Ottoman Empire's Syrian provinces. However, he put this desire on hold as he consolidated his rule over Egypt, modernized its government administration, public services, and armed forces, and suppressed Mamluk and Wahhabist uprisings on behalf of Sultan Mahmud II. In 1825, Muhammad Ali came to the aid of the Sultan during the Greek War of Independence, but the Egyptian fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 and Ibrahim Pasha's army expelled from the Morea by a French expedition a year later. The defeated Muhammad Ali sought for Sultan Mahmud II to grant Syria to Egypt as a reward for Egypt's support for the Ottoman war in Greece, and, when the Sublime Porte refused, Muhammad Ali sent Ibrahim Pasha north to besiege Acre in October 1831. The city fell in May 1832, after which the Egyptians took Aleppo, Homs, Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli, and Damascus. The Sultan and his governors' armies were unable to check Ibrahim's forces, with the Battle of Homs deciding Syria's fate. The Egyptians attracted significant local support by calling his campaign one for "liberation from the Turkish yoke," and the Egyptians pressed into Anatolia in late 1832. On 21 November 1832, the Egyptians took Konya, within striking distance of the imperial capital of Constantinople, causing Mahmud to dispatch Grand Vizier Resid Mehmed Pasha with 80,000 troops to block Ibrahim's 50,000-strong army from advancing on the capital. The Egyptians routed the Ottomans in the ensuing Battle of Konya, capturing the Grand Vizier as he became lost in the fog while trying to rally his collapsing left flank.
With no military forces between the Egyptian Army and Constantinople, Egypt was prevented from marching on the capital only by a severe winter. The Sublime Porte concluded an alliance with Russia, and the Imperial Russian Army was deployed to Anatolia to block the Egyptians' march on the capital. The French and British pressured the Turkish and Egyptian rulers to make peace to prevent the balance of power from being upset, and Syria was ceded to Egypt, Ibrahim Pasha made its governor-general, and Muhammad Ali made a nominal vassal of the Sultan.