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

GRAND CAIRO69Moreover, French artillery and muskets were indisputably far more powerfuland had far greater range than those in the hands of the Egyptians. The Frenchinfantry squares, equipped with bayonets, proved virtually impenetrable to anycavalry not backed by even more powerful artillery. 4 A French intellectual laterreported, “The Mamluks said of the French army, which marches in tightsquares, that the French are linked with one another, and that they march likethe pyramids.” 5 Bonaparte’s skill is not debatable, since his brilliance as an operationalcommander gave him victories over many organized European armies inthe succeeding decade and a half as well. Finally, the emirs and the Egyptian populacegenerally were not at the height of their form in 1798. The eighteenth centuryhad been a disaster for the country, with annual Nile flood waters often toolow, drought, urban over-taxation, and internecine wars among the beys.General Desaix pursued Murad Bey’s retreating forces to near Giza, wherethe two fought a pitched battle that lasted for two hours, until nightfall. That iswhere Murad was wounded in the face and his cavalry was decisively defeated.He and his men decided to flee. Initially, they wanted to take a large galleonwith them, but the Nile was low and it ran aground. Since it contained a bigstore of arms and ammunition, Murad set it afire to deny it to the French.Flames leapt high into the evening sky, further terrifying the Cairo populace.Murad and his men then escaped into the southern desert.The French now controlled the west bank of the Nile, and prepared tocross over to Cairo. They feared they would face a determined resistance fromIbrahim Bey’s contingents, ensconced on the other bank. But the capital’s remainingsoldiers had decided that they could not prevail against the French inconventional combat, and they set about burning merchant boats and their fineresidences to deny them to the enemy and then deserted the capital. In less thana month, the French had conquered all of Lower Egypt and overthrown the Ottomanbeylicate.Al-Jabarti said that hordes of civilians, thinking that the burning vesselswere the result of vindictive French vandalism, ran from Bulaq “like waves ofthe sea,” kicking up dust and having it blown into their eyes by the strong windsthat prevailed that day. Women wailed from their balconies. Ibrahim Bey abandonedhis fortifications at Bulaq and sent for his wives, as did the officers in hisentourage. “Whoever could do so, had his wife or daughter ride, while hewalked, but most of the women exited unveiled and on foot, their children ontheir shoulders, crying in the black of night.” 6 Al-Jabarti was probably speakingof women of the notable class, for whom being forced to walk in the street unveiledin public was a humiliation almost as bad as having to flee their homes.