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

THE OBJECT OF HIS DESIRES187through the streets, preceded by drummers. They passed al-Saliba district andarrived at Rumayla, where they bound the hands of this scion of the house of theProphet and then dispatched him by firing squad, “as is their custom with regardto executions.” Al-Jabarti recalled, “They cut off his head and raised it on astaff, parading it around Rumaylah. Their crier called out, ‘This is the retributionfor all who oppose the French.’” His slaves came to collect his head andburied it with his body.Bonaparte had issued the death warrant on 5 September: “Sayyid Muhammadal-Kurayyim, convicted of treason, of having continued his intelligenceswith the Mamluks after having sworn fidelity to the Republic, of having servedas a spy for them, shall be shot in the afternoon tomorrow. All of his assets, liquidand immovable, will be confiscated for the profit of the Republic.” He apparentlyhad not made the proclamation public, however, lending some supportto al-Jabarti’s account of a French attempt to extort money for his release. On 6September the general added a postscript before publishing it: “The executionof the above judgment took place today at noon, at the square of the Citadel.The head of Kurayyim was paraded around the streets of Cairo.” Turk recalledthat there were several reasons for a building hatred of the French, “includingthe killing of Sayyid Muhammad Kurayyim, for he was a sharif.” 11Niello Sargy watched the frustrations of the Cairenes build. 12 They resentedthe “overly minute” precautions the French took against the spread ofplague, which included making the Egyptians spread their clothing and underthings in the sun, exposing them to public view. General Dupuis, in charge ofthese measures, made himself particularly hated when he said in one proclamationthat “the slovenliness of the houses and streets gave the inhabitants diseasesunknown in Europe.” Muslims disliked the sight of French troops guarding themosques, though Bonaparte put them there to ensure that no soldiers insultedbelievers at prayers. The commander in chief issued a decree allowing Greeks towear turbans of all colors, whereas they had earlier been confined to wearingwhite, a measure that displeased the Muslims insofar as it underlined their ownreduction in status. Also, a money famine bedeviled the Cairenes, making it difficultto buy basic commodities. A “crowd of Jews, Copts, Greeks, and Europeans”had come to Egypt to offer their services to the beys in “pillaging thepeople,” and they were employed by the French for the same purpose. “Theymade the French loathed,” Niello Sargy remembered, “by their depredations.”The French dalliances with Egyptian women were also a source of humiliationand friction for the Cairo populace. 13 A few women attached themselves tothe French and began going about unveiled. To conservative Middle Easterners,