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

96 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTmore ships at Alexandria inspired alarm in the populace. Ibrahim and Muraddispatched generals to the port of Rosetta in an attempt to ensure that it wouldbe properly defended, and they made a defense pact with the Hanadi Bedouinsof the region.In July 1786, the Ottoman commodore, Hasan Pasha, arrived in Alexandriawith a small contingent of troops. After his envoy conducted inconclusive negotiationswith Ibrahim Bey, he marched on Rosetta. He sent couriers to the villagesof the Delta announcing that the Ottoman sultan had decided to muchreduce their taxes. If loyalty to their sultan and the prestige of the imperial centerhad not been enough to decide the issue for the peasants, this pledge of arestoration of the rule of law brought them over with enthusiasm, said thechronicler al-Jabarti.Their backs increasingly against the wall, Ibrahim, Murad, and some otherleading beys “proclaimed open rebellion and resolved to go to war.” They hidtheir treasures in small safe houses and then went across the Nile to establish amilitary camp, with some other Mamluk commanders, at Imbaba. On receivingthe petition now drawn up by Sheikh Mustafa al-Sawi and the other prominentclerics, Hasan Pasha pocketed it, declaring it unnecessary to pass it along to hismaster, given that he was the sultan’s honored adviser. Likely he perceived adanger that the prestige of the al-Azhar might indeed prove persuasive at theSublime Porte and did not want to risk a weakening of the imperial will.Ibrahim Bey wanted to make a united stand at Imbaba but could not convincehis partner. His plan was that if they could not hold Cairo, they would retreatto Upper Egypt and wait for an opportunity to come back to power.Murad Bey, said to have found this suggestion cowardly, insisted on going up tomeet the sultan’s army at Rahmaniya. His force was defeated, and boats broughtback wounded slave soldiers and remnants of fighting units. Panic spread inCairo. The Christian population, Spanish sources reported, feared reprisalsfrom the beys, since it was rumored that non-Muslims had provoked the invasionby their complaints to the Sublime Porte. Ibrahim Bey set off for theCitadel with the intention of barricading himself inside it, but the Ottomangovernor had succeeded in retaining the loyalty of the Azeban barracks, and hehad them lock the rebellious grandees out of the fortress. The governor thendemanded that the great scholars of al-Azhar join him at the Citadel as a sign oftheir loyalty to the empire. Sayyid Khalil al-Bakri did so immediately, but othersdragged their feet and declined to condemn the beys. 13The Ottoman governor, Mehmet Pasha, sent word to his colleague, CommodoreHasan Pasha, that he should bring his men up to Cairo immediately,