The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, with Hungary as a founding component, did not have any direct interests in the Mediterranean and in North Africa. Austria-Hungary had interests in the Balkans and in the European part of the Ottoman Empire (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Thus, indirectly it had interests in what was happening in the North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire. This is what explains the fact that the Hungarian political elite and the Hungarian public were interested in Egyptian events, especially in the movement of Urabi Pasha,[1] Leader of Fellahin
[1] Urabi or Orabi Pasha. Ahmed Mohamed Urabi Mohamed Wafi Gounem Abdullah Al-Husseiny (1841–1911) was an Egyptian nationalist, revolutionary and an officer of the Egyptian army. Urabi participated in an 1879 mutiny that developed into a general revolt against the Anglo-French dominated administration. He was promoted to Tewfik's cabinet, but the demonstrations in Alexandria of 1882 prompted a British bombardment and invasion that deposed Urabi and his allies in favour of British occupation. Urabi was tried by the restored Khedivate for rebellion, and pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was immediately commuted to one of banishment for life. He left Egypt in December 1882, and returned to Egypt in 1901. (Abdel-Moneim Ibrahim al-Gomeay, Muzakkerat al-Zaim Ahmed Urabi. Cairo, 2005, Dar el-Kotob 'The Egyptian National Library and Archives', 13–17.)