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

154 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTlight artillery for Selim’s military reforms. A pro-French party grew up insidethe Ottoman government that advocated liberal reforms and had begun pursuingthem.Aubert-Dubayet died in office in late 1797. Talleyrand saw his passing as anopportunity to begin a new policy toward Istanbul, centered on Bonaparte’s Egyptianambitions. He proposed himself as the new ambassador but put off going. 19 Helater made the chargé d’affaires at the Istanbul embassy, Pierre-Jean-Marie Ruffin,the acting ambassador. In secret correspondence in late spring, 1798, he alertedRuffin to the Directory’s decision to take Egypt and promised that he would besending a high-level envoy to explain to the Ottoman government why the Frenchoccupation of Egypt was actually a sign of friendship toward the sultan.Selim III was initially worried that the Toulon fleet would head for Crete,Cyprus, or the Morea (now southern Greece) to bolster a French presence inthe eastern Mediterranean following on their establishment of a beachhead onthe Adriatic. 20 When the French took Malta, the Sublime Porte called Ruffin into explain it, and he denied any aggressive intent toward the Ottomans. In lateJuly, the sultan communicated to Talleyrand the threat that any aggression onOttoman territory would result in an immediate declaration of war. Talleyrandreplied with a lie, suggesting that the French and Ottoman fleets might soon bein a position to cooperate against the Russians in the Adriatic and Black Seas.Ruffin wrote to Talleyrand on 1 August, emphasizing that it was essential thatthe negotiator from Paris arrive immediately, so that he could retain his credibilityand stop keeping secrets. 21 He observed, “My experience has also taughtme that this people is, at base, less exercised by our enterprise in Egypt than bythe ineptitude and tyranny of the current government.” Ruffin’s remarks were atriumph of conviction over reality, as though saying it made it so.Once news of the conquest of Cairo reverberated through the towns ofSyria, Iraq, and Anatolia, reaching the metropolis itself, Ruffin abruptly becameless sanguine. He reported on 10 August that he had had two troubling meetingswith high Ottoman officials. The first was attended by the chief Sunni jurist,or mufti, who reported the mood on the street in Istanbul: “Theeffervescence of spirits is every day taking on a more alarming character.” Ruffinrecalled how Izzet Mehmet Pasha, the grand vizier, was “weighed down by thediscontent of the people” and also disturbed that Bonaparte had given it out thathe invaded Egypt with the permission of the sultan. Ruffin denounced the allegationas a calumny. The grand vizier assured him that he had solid evidence forit. Even empires had to take popular opinion into account, and it was clear tothe chief minister that the Ottoman public would not stand for inaction.