Islam at War: A History

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70 ISLAM AT WAR


thus extinguished and the land became a province of the rising Ottoman
empire. However, the great distance from the Ottoman capital in Con-
stantinople would begin to tell. In 1586 the Janissary garrison of Cairo
mutinied and arrested the Ottoman viceroy. Further military mutinies oc-
curred in 1589, 1591, and 1601.
When the garrison was disloyal, the Ottoman viceroy was obliged to
call on the leading Mamluk families for support. In 1605 the viceroy, after
trying to discipline the Janissary garrison, was murdered, and in January
1609 the Spahis mutinied, fighting a battle with the Mamluks outside
Cairo. The Mamluk beys (formerly emirs) now controlled Egypt once
again. In 1631 they suspended the viceroy and took over. They soon re-
turned to their practices of political corruption, as each family struggled
to dominate the others and rule the country. By 1711 the Ottoman viceroys
were reduced to utter impotence and the feud between the Qasimiya and
Faqariya Mamluk families dominated Egyptian politics. It was the old
story of Nur-Al-Din and Saladin over again. Egypt, technically a vassal
state of a greater power, was actually independent in all but name. The
independence fostered corruption unchecked by competent authority, and
the cycle continued.
This internecine feuding continued throughout the eighteenth century.
Egypt became a backwater suffering equally from Turkish indifference,
internal feuding, and lack of revenue. The great events of the outside world
would catch up to her by the end of the century, though.
The rising star of the French army, Napoleon Bonaparte, saw an op-
portunity for greater glory, and the French government saw in Napoleon’s
planned attack on Egypt a way to get him out of Europe. A fleet was
organized, an army drawn together, and after a harrowing trip across the
Mediterranean, the French landed 5,000 troops outside Alexandria. The
landing was unopposed and incurred only a few minor engagements with
Mamluk forces before the French arrived at the gates of the ancient port
city.
The Sherif Seyd Muhammad el-Kortaim, a descendant of the family of
the Prophet, was governor of Alexandria, which he ruled with extortions
and tyrannies. He was a representative of the Turkish pasha, but had been
secretly bought off by the Mamluks, with whom he split the spoils that
they stripped out of his tributes. At the first news of the invasion, he made
preparations for the defense. The citadel received munitions, the militia
was armed, and a cloud of Bedouins was drawn out of the desert and
encamped near Alexandria.
Having no artillery, Napoleon was reduced to launching an assault on
as many points as possible. The population of Alexandria manned the

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