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

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL NILE THAT HAS EVER BEEN111delivering them from the yoke of the beys, we found all against us: mamelukes,Arabs and fellahs. No Frenchman was secure of his life who happened to strayhalf a mile from any inhabited place, or the corps to which he belonged. 8Desvernois remembered the thinking among the officers that, given theirinability to leave Egypt, they would have to find a way to survive there and to“attach the inhabitants to the French cause.” They would even have to recruitEgyptian troops, “just as the Mamluks had succeeded in doing.” 9 The Frenchreadiness to accept local soldiers in their Republican army demonstrates that,whatever racist ideas they may sometimes have professed, ultimately the universalismof their revolutionary ideology convinced them that other peoples, eventhe most exotic, could be successfully integrated into it. Indeed, Bonaparte soongave practical expression to this sentiment. Miot recalled, “He ordered that allthe young Mamluks, those more than eight years and less than sixteen years old,and all the boys who had been slaves, whether black or white, abandoned inCairo, should be incorporated into the demi-brigades, whether as soldiers ordrummer boys.” 10 Thus, unfortunately, the same universalism could lead therevolutionary French to insist on and coerce such participation in their cause.Nor were they above making invidious distinctions. Initially, their printed letterheadin Egypt carried the words “Army of the Orient” alongside the inscriptions“Liberty” and “Equality” and “The French Republic.” Only a little over ayear after they arrived, some letterhead was inscribed simply, “Colonies,”though they retained the other elements, incongruously enough. 11Bonaparte had first of all to deal with the discontents in his own officercorps. The commander in chief asked Gen. Charles Joseph Dugua, who had distinguishedhimself at the Battle of the Pyramids, to dinner. He requested that hein turn invite a number of generals, including Murat and others whom henamed, to join them. Dugua did as requested. When the meal was over, Bonaparteinquired of his colleagues how they were doing in Egypt. They all responded,“Marvelous!”Bonaparte replied, “All the better!” He continued, “I know that many generalsare fostering mutinies and preaching revolt. . . . They should take care.The distance of a general and of a drummer boy to me is the same, and if the occasionpresents itself, I will have the one shot as easily as the other.” The groupis said to have fallen “respectfully” silent. 12The Cairenes’ tongues began to wag. The chronicler al-Jabarti told thestory of how a great soap merchant, Sayyid Ahmad al-Zarw, was gossiping aboutthe French naval defeat at Abuqir. 13 Al-Zarw made the mistake of talking about