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

52 NAPOLEON’S EGYPThe says, and 1,500 cannon shots were fired during the action. He seemed unawareof the disaster aboard Commodore Kürdlü’s flagship.As for the land battle, the French estimates of Murad Bey’s attacking forceof Mamluk cavalrymen range wildly, from a few hundred to four thousand. Inneither numbers could they have hoped to defeat thousands of French infantrymenbacked by artillery. The 6,000 Ottoman-Egyptian cavalrymen, who haduntil then proved sufficient to control some 4 million Egyptians, now had tocontend with the new dimensions of warfare introduced by the French Revolutionand the advent of mass conscription. The reports of the battle ofShubrakhit that reached Cairo cast Murad Bey and his cavalrymen in a poorlight. “It was only an hour,” al-Jabarti observes, “before Murad Bey and thosewith him were defeated. No proper battle occurred, only a skirmish with thevanguard of his troops, such that few were killed on either side, though MuradBey’s ships, with their provisions and instruments of war, were burned.” He gavemore credit to naval artillery commander Halil Kürdlü, who perished in theblaze, but who had risen like a lion to bombard the French vessels from his ownon the Nile. Al-Jabarti thought this naval disaster was key to Murad Bey’s decisionto withdraw to his base at Cairo and leave behind him many of his fieldpieces and other heavy armaments.Despite having defeated the emirs, many French soldiers found themhighly impressive. One wrote, “That first battle, which received the name ‘theBattle of Shubrakhit,’ taught us that we would face, in Egypt, the best cavalry inthe world.” Miot somewhat later attempted an assessment of his foes as fightingmen. “The Mamluks,” he wrote, “taken from all the groups of the world, are habituatedto the management of horses and arms from their tender infancy.” 12They insisted that their horses be absolutely obedient and that they be able tohalt immediately; they employed for this purpose a curb bit with a long shankand a curb chain against the animal’s chin groove that came into action againstthe jaw in a way that made disobedience unthinkable. They were also expert inusing their sharp stirrups as weapons in battle. “Among Europeans, who marchin order, these sorts of stirrups could not be employed, everyone would woundhis neighbor. But the Mamluks have no other line than that which indicatescourage or timidity.” Their saddles allowed them to sit back, as they would onthe ground, and they could remain in them even if wounded. Their horses werenever used to carry baggage, but were rather purely warriors, like their masters,and went to war only with battle gear. The clothing of the Cairene horsemenwas designed to blunt the slashes of a saber. They had pistols in their belts andin their saddles carried more pistols, along with axes, sabers, a musket, and a