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

THE FLIGHT OF IBRAHIM BEY97even though the bulk of the imperial troops (numbering, according to the Spanishambassador in Istanbul, 25,000) had not yet landed. The governor assembledthe lower-ranking rebels at Kara Maydan and Rumayla squares, andinformed them that only Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey were wanted men andthat amnesty would be granted all who asked for it. The offer was rejected bythe powerful grandees, including Süleyman Bey and Eyyub Bey the Elder, whochased the governor’s messenger away, tore up his decree, and remained loyal toIbrahim and Murad. The rebels attempted to raid the camel stables for offensivecavalry steeds, but the North African corps of the Egyptian military thatguarded the camels had declared loyalty to the Ottoman governor and chasedoff the Mamluks. Mehmet Pasha had heard that the Janissaries had been withouttheir daily ration for some time and that their will was sapped by resentment(and their strength sapped by hunger). He therefore had money spread aroundamong them, and they rallied to him.Ibrahim and Murad, who had been briefly estranged over the disastrousRahmaniya campaign against the invading imperial troops, now made up. Theirmen raided the city for goods, foodstuff, beasts of burden, and ships. Cairo dividedagainst itself in a civil war, with the area just below the Citadel loyal to thegovernor. Murad began constructing barricades at Bulaq, defended by his riverinenavy. But the Ottoman vessels arrived before he was ready, and he and hismen had to scatter. The imperial forces approached the city in great numbersnow, firing cannon and gaining the loyalty of the Cairenes. Murad and Ibrahimdejectedly fired off a letter to Mehmet Pasha in the Citadel, affirming their repentancefor rebelling and offering to come back into the fold. Al-Jabarti attributesthese words to the cynical governor: “God be praised! How often will theyrepent and return?”That evening, Hasan Pasha arrived at the Bulaq harbor to enormous popularacclaim and a cannon salute. “The people were happy and full of joy andtook him for the Mahdi of the age.” In folk Islam, people expected the comingat the last days of a savior figure, the Guided One, or Mahdi, who would restorejustice to the world. Al-Jabarti, in invoking this belief here, was probably justengaging in rhetorical flourish, but millenarian ideas did abound in eighteenthcenturyEgypt. The commodore at length entered the city and went up to theCitadel to confer with the governor, Mehmet Pasha. They opened the gates ofthe fortress, and order was gradually established in the city. Some crowds lootedIbrahim’s and Murad’s mansions, but al-Jabarti maintains that when HasanPasha heard of it, he ordered his troops to put a halt to the pillage and to shootthe looters even if they were his own men. Al-Jabarti’s fond depiction of Hasan