Battle of Nizip, (June 24, 1839), battle between forces of the Ottoman Empire and those of Muḥammad ʿAlī, 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 Muḥammad ʿAlī was not satisfactory to either party, and a new war developed. The Ottoman army was decisively defeated at Nizip by Egyptian forces under Muḥammad ʿAlī’s son Ibrāhīm, 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 Muḥammad ʿAlī as hereditary governor of Egypt.