Urabi was born a peasant and moved up through the ranks of the army. He was not trained at the western schools, but rather had received a traditional Islamic education. He was a galvanizing speaker. Because of his origins he was at the time, and is still often today, viewed as an authentic voice of the Egyptian people.
Egypt in the 1870s was corrupt, tyrannically misgoverned and in a state of financial ruin. Huge debts rung up by Isma'il Pasha could no longer be repaid and under pressure from the European banks that held the debt, the country's finances were being controlled by representatives of France and Britain. When Isma'il had tried to rouse the Egyptian people against this outside control he was deposed by the Europeans and replaced by his more pliable son Tawfiq.
Ahmed Urabi's first intervention in politics occurred when Khedive Tawfiq issued a new law preventing peasants from becoming officers. Urabi lead the group protesting the preference shown to Turkish officers. Urabi and his followers, which included most of the army, were successful and the law was repealed.
Urabi and his allies in the army joined with the reformers and with the support of the peasants launched a broader effort to try to wrest Egypt from foreign control, and also to end the absolutist regime of the Khedive. The revolt spread to express resentment of the undue influence of foreigners in general, and of Christians, both foreign and Copts, in particular.
Urabi was first promoted, then made under-secretary for war, and ultimately a member of the cabinet. Plans were begun to create a parliamentary assembly.
Feeling threatened, Khedive Tawfiq called on the sultan to quell the revolt, but the Sublime Porte hesitated to employ troops against Muslims who were opposing foreign Christian interference. The British were especially concerned that Urabi would default on Egypt's massive debt and that he might try to gain control of the Suez Canal. Thus when anti-Christian riots broke out in Alexandria in 1882 the British fleet opened fire on the city's forts. In September of that year a British army was landed in the Canal Zone and on September 13, 1882 they defeated Urabi's army at the Battle of Tel al-Kebir. Urabi was captured. The khedive and his cabinet sentenced him to death, but under pressure from Lord Dufferin, the British ambassador at Constantinople, who had been sent to Egypt as high commissioner, the sentence was commuted and Urabi was exiled to the British colony of Ceylon, where he spent the rest of his life.
While the British intervention was meant to be short term, it in fact persisted until 1952. Egypt was effectively made a colony until 1922. Urabi's revolt also had a long lasting significance as the first instance of Arab anti-colonial nationalism, which would later play a very major role in Egyptian history. Especially under Nasser, Urabi would be regarded as an Egyptian patriot, a national hero.