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

GRAND CAIRO71enty-five city quarters, each with a popularly selected head approved byIbrahim Bey.Lieutenant Laval recalled entering Cairo on 24 July. “All the people were ingreat consternation.” 9 The killing of so many of the Ottoman-Egyptiangrandees, most of whom had contracted marriage alliances within the city, madethe mourning families indisposed toward the newcomers. “The first days, wefound nothing in the city. Everything was closed up.” A junior officer and brilliantmathematician, Étienne Malus, said that if it were not for the cries of thewomen ringing out from the harems, one wouldn’t have known that the city wasinhabited. Slowly, Laval wrote, the French made contacts with local Egyptiansand found ways of purchasing provisions. Once the local merchants discoveredthat the French paid well, he said, they began letting the foreigners know whenthere was something to buy. Al-Jabarti reported that the soldiers were offeringEgyptians what were essentially European prices for products such as eggs,bread, sugar, soap, tobacco, and coffee, so that soon shopkeepers “becamefriendly.” Communication was a difficulty, and the troops were forced to resortto sign language. Laval remembered, “It took time to learn a little Arabic. SomeJews who spoke a bit of Italian explained things, and often served as interpreters.”The 1,500 cafés and public places began attracting French customers.On arriving in the city in late July, another Bonaparte aide-de-camp, Antoine-MarieChamans de Lavalette, was struck by how, from time to time Muslimnotables mounted on mules moved through the crowds, “preceded by menwith sticks, who beat above all anyone who blocked their passage, but even justthose men who did not rise at their approach.” Beggars, faces covered, utteredcries that sounded to him more like angry shouts than importuning. Cairo, andthe Middle East generally, lacked wheeled carts and other vehicles because thepervasive dust and sand would just have bogged them down (it was hard to keepthem greased, and the wheels just could not cross some terrain). Likewise, muchof the Delta was a swamp in the late summer and fall because of the Nile inundation,making it inhospitable to wagons. Without wheeled vehicles, there wasno reason to construct broad, straight streets, for camels and mules could navigatenarrow, winding alleyways. 10 In Egypt, given that almost all habitation isalong the Nile or easily within range of canals built out from it, and since watertransport was far cheaper than overland, the premodern economy may not havebeen much disadvantaged by the lack of wheels. It did matter, however, thatwheeled cannon are a great deal more maneuverable than those without, whichhelped the French win their victory. Lavalette sniffed that the narrow streets ofCairo were dusty and beset “by I don’t know what odor of mummies.” He also