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

82 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTThe other group to whom the cash-starved Bonaparte turned was the greatmerchants and guilds of the capital. 29 Greater Cairo at the time of the invasionhad nearly two hundred such guilds, though the number had declined, alongwith the economy, in the eighteenth century. They included wealthy goldsmiths,useful water carriers, and disreputable pimps. Bonaparte decreed thatthe Coptic merchants were to pay 60,000 talari, and the coffee merchants(among the richest in the country) were to pay 134,000 talari. 30 The Egyptiancoffee merchants were still formidable commercial powerhouses, though theyfaced new competition from colonial European coffee plantations in Brazil andthe Dutch East Indies. Most of his victims were in the old al-Qahira district,which housed the famed Khan al-Khalili covered bazaar and markets for goldjewelry, copper ware, carpets, cloth, spices, and leather goods. Some ninety percentof the money made from trade in Cairo was made in al-Qahira. 31 Al-Jabartithought Bonaparte’s assessment far too optimistic, saying that the French calledthe members of the merchant guilds based in the markets for a meeting, atwhich they imposed on them an enormous loan advance. The merchants raised“a hue and cry,” and went to the al-Husayn and al-Azhar area to appeal to theMuslim clerics for help. The clerics, now the divan of Egypt, interceded forthem and convinced the French to reduce the amount to half that originally demandedand to give the merchants more time to come up with the money. Theclerics and notables had long played such an intercessory role between the merchantsand the beys, and were here instructing the French in their traditions ofconsultative government. 32Bonaparte was master of Cairo, but was not yet master of Egypt. IbrahimBey and Murad Bey might still rally to recover their lost province. Ibrahim andhis 2,000 cavalrymen had taken control of the adjacent Sharqiya Province, withits capital at Bilbeis, and he had with him Ebu Bekir Pasha, the Ottoman governorof Egypt and a symbol of legitimacy for many Egyptians. On the other sideof the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula, the Ottoman governor of the province ofSyria and the freebooting Ottoman vassal who ruled the region of Acre, AhmedCezzar Pasha, could offer Ibrahim Bey strategic depth and support. Worse, theymight ride to his aid. Bonaparte determined to pursue Ibrahim Bey. Since thisleader had also carried off an enormous treasure in gold and other valuablesfrom the capital, Bonaparte wanted his resources as much as he wanted the beyhimself. Detaining the Ottoman governor would also give him an importanthostage and defuse a potential threat.The Corsican began by reorganizing the army. He attached the 7th Hussarsto Reynier’s division and charged him with taking the province of Sharqiya.