Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

90 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTmarched,” Bonaparte told his political masters in Paris, “for long days towardSyria, always pushing before us Ibrahim Bey and the army he commanded.” Atlength, on 11 August, they arrived at Salahiya, which the commander in chiefcalled “the last inhabited place in Egypt where there is good water.” It was notfar from the desert frontier with the Sinai, beyond which lay Syria. They had finallycaught up with Ibrahim Bey and his troops. Alerted, the latter began withdrawingin haste. The Ottoman chronicler Darendeli wrote that on their arrivalin Salahiya, the Bedouin had driven a bargain with Ibrahim Bey and his men.The Bedouin chieftain is said to have pointed out, “If the French attack youhere, it will be difficult for you to go out to meet them, since you have all thesewomen and children with you. I advise you to hasten some hours to encounterthem, and we will undertake to protect your women, children, and wealth in thisplace, and guarantee you against any misfortune befalling them.”The French were anxious. Were the emirs and slave soldiers to escape intothe desert, Bonaparte’s force had no supplies and no means of pursuing them.Worse, out of concern that his prey might escape, Bonaparte had set off earlythat day without waiting for the infantry division of Lannes. He thereforemainly had cavalry to throw at the mounted emirs and Bedouin. The latter twohad acquitted themselves formidably when fighting cavalry-on-cavalry battleswith the French. Night, the commander in chief recalled, was approaching andthe horses were exhausted. Scouts spotted Ibrahim and his officers in a nearbycoppice frantically loading their baggage and saddling their horses, said Detroye.Bonaparte ordered his cavalrymen to halt and wait for Lannes’s infantry,which was marching on the double without their general, who had gotten lost.Abruptly, the Ottoman-Egyptian column exited the wood and followed, ingood order, the route toward the desert, their camels richly loaded. Their rearguard waited patiently behind until the departing column was half a leaguefrom the trees.Despite the dangers, Bonaparte had General Leclerc charge Ibrahim’s rearguard. Bonaparte reported, “I pursued him with the small cavalry I had. We sawfile before us his immense saddle bags.” The immense saddle bags bulked largerin his memory than did the bey. Desvernois also remembered the emirs’ camelsweighed down with treasure and their ladies mounted in palanquins. Bonapartesaid that a party of 150 Bedouin horsemen at that point deserted Ibrahim Bey’sparty and approached the French, proposing to fight alongside the Europeans inexchange for a share of the booty. Bedouin, always illiterate, often wore theirIslam lightly and made their political alliances on practical rather than highmindedreligious grounds. Al-Jabarti wrote that the Bedouin informed the