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

8THE CONSTANT TRIUMPHOF REASONIn late August Kléber wrote Bonaparte from Alexandria that the mayor ofDamanhur, Emir Ibrahim Çurbaci, had visited him and had advised himthat there would be no peace with the tribes in that area unless he tookhostages from them. Ibrahim had earlier been involved in the revolt against theFrench, but had been persuaded to accept their rule, and Kléber recommendedclemency for him. He was now willing to cooperate in bringing water toAlexandria from Rahmaniya (or rather, ensuring that it was not siphoned offalong the way) on condition that he received the same payment for thesearrangements as he had under the Ottoman Beylicate. 1Despite Emir Ibrahim’s advice and help, however, the temptation of thewater-hungry villagers to siphon off water from the canals that should have beendelivering it to Alexandria was often too much to resist, more especially sincethey saw such an act as both lucrative and a show of defiance to the Europeanoccupier. The village of Birkat Gitas made an alliance with the Awlad AliBedouin and blocked the water flow, prompting Kléber to send six hundred soldiersdown on 13 September to punish them. He ordered that the heads of themen killed in the village be cut off and mounted on poles so that passersby couldsee them, and then, he said, they should burn down the village, after havingspared women, children, and the aged. When the detachment returned on 16September, they had killed fifty Egyptians and carried away a good many livestock.Kléber sent pamphlets up and down the Nile threatening other villagerswith the same fate if they interfered with the canal. 2Although the revolt at Mansura had been put down in mid-August, theprovince remained restive. General Dugua reported a lively insurrection at thenearby village of Sonbat. He reported, “It is in part inhabited by three or four