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

162 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTThe lake people of Matariya, insular and inbred, forbade their neighbors tofish in the lake, so they had little communication with them. They were almostalways naked in the water, performing hard labor. Millet described them asstrong and vigorous, skins bronzed by the sun, hair and beards black and rough,giving them a savage appearance. When they found themselves in the presenceof their enemies, they would beat on a sort of tambourine or on the bow of theirboats and “emit a thousand barbaric cries in a furious tone.” Tubar ruledthrough four chiefs.Sheikh Hasan Tubar’s position as virtual king of the northeast Delta regionarose from his riches, from the many loans he had made to clients, from his phalanxof sons, from the large number of stipends he provided, and from the supportof the Bedouin tribes. He gave the latter land to cultivate, Niello Sargyexplained, and plied their chieftains with opulent gifts. Niello Sargy maintainedthat, despite his nominal position as vassal of the Ottoman-Egyptian state, hehad not paid it tribute for some years.Captain Moiret had a contrasting view. He wrote that Tubar in fact deliveredto his liege lords some 500,000 francs a year. He had been among the few,Niello Sargy alleged, to accumulate large estates under the nose of the Cairomagnates, who occasionally had attempted to mulct him, but were alwaysbeaten back by his Bedouin troops and lake-faring villagers. His terrain—of lagoon,marshland, and desert—proved an ideal barrier to penetration by thestate. On Bonaparte’s advent, Tubar had transferred his chief wife and her children,along with much of his treasure, to Damascus, and he vowed that, werethe French to occupy his district, he would make for that destination as well.Since an Ottoman riposte to the French invasion might well come from thatquarter, this boast was a threat that he would throw his resources to preciselythe Ottoman forces that might eventually defeat the French. Turk maintainsthat Tubar was encouraged to go into revolt by Ibrahim Bey, and by the viceroyof the sultan at Sidon, Cezzar Pasha, whom Selim III had put in charge of ripostingto the French invasion from Syria.Capt. Pierre-François Gerbaud observed that there were no Western Europeanmerchants based in Damietta, because all of its commerce was with Syria,Cyprus, and what is now Turkey. 2 Its population was probably on the order of12,000. Millet described the streets as “very narrow” but said that there was apretty city square. “The Greek quarter surrounds . . . [that square] and rendersit even more beautiful.” They had constructed inns and cafes to the Europeantaste and followed their own laws and customs even while subordinate to theMuslims. Gerbaud observed of Damietta, “There are many small boutiques and