Muhammad Ali's Seizure of Power - Defeat of The Mamelukes

Defeat of The Mamelukes

Muhammad Ali now possessed the title of Governor of Egypt, but beyond the walls of Cairo his authority was everywhere disputed by the forces of the Mameluke beys, who were joined by the army of the silahdar of Khorshid, as well as many Albanians who had deserted from his ranks. To replenish his empty coffers, Muhammad Ali Pash resorted to the levying of heavy exactions, principally from the Copts.

A plan was soon conceived to destroy the Mameluke beys encamped north of Cairo. On August 17, 1805, they were informed that the dam of the canal of Cairo was to be cut, and some chiefs of Muhammad Ali's party wrote the Mamelukes, informing them that the Pasha would go there early that morning with most of his troops to witness the ceremony, thus presenting the Mamelukes with an opportunity to enter and seize the city. To further the deception, the double agents negotiated for monetary rewards for detailed information.

The dam, however, had been cut early in the preceding night, without any ceremony, and Muhammad Ali Pasha's forces were positioned to ambush the Mamelukes. On the following morning, the Mameluke beys, at the head of sizeable forces, broke open the gate of the suburb al-Husainia, and gained admittance into the city from the north through the gate called Bāb frel-Futuh. They marched along the principal street for some distance, with kettle-drums thudding behind each company, and were received with apparent joy by the citizens. At the mosque called the Ashrafia they separated, one party proceeding to the Al-Azhar Mosque and the houses of certain sheiks, and the other continuing along the main street and through the gate called Bab Zuweyla, where they turned up towards the Cairo citadel. Here they were fired upon from the surrounding houses by forces loyal to Muhammad Ali Pasha, which was a prelude to a massacre of the ambushed Mamelukes.

Falling back towards their companions, the Mamelukes found the side streets blocked; and in that part of the main thoroughfare called Bain al-Kasrain they were caught between two fires. Thus shut up in a narrow street, some sought refuge in the collegiate mosque Barkukia, while the remainder fought their way through the encircling cordon, abandoned their horses, and escaped over the city-wall on foot.

Two Mamelukes had in the meantime succeeded, by great exertions, in giving the alarm to their comrades in the vicinity of the Al-Azhar Mosque, thus enabling that faction to escape by the eastern gate called Bib al-Ghoraib.

A horrible fate awaited those who had shut themselves up in the Barkukia. Having begged for quarter first and surrendered, they were immediately stripped nearly naked, and about fifty were slaughtered on the spot, while about the same number were dragged away. Among them were four beys, one of whom, driven to madness by Muhammad Ali's mockery, asked for a drink of water; but when his hands were untied that he might take the bottle, he snatched a dagger from one of the soldiers, rushed at the pasha, and fell covered with wounds. The wretched captives were then chained and left in the court of the pasha's house; and on the following morning the heads of their comrades who had perished the day before were skinned and stuffed with straw before their eyes.

One bey and two others paid their ransom and were released; the rest were tortured and put to death in the course of the ensuing night. Eighty-three heads (many of them those of Frenchmen and Albanians) were stuffed and sent to Constantinople, with a boast that the Mameluke chiefs were utterly destroyed. Thus ended Muhammad Ali's first massacre of his too-confiding enemies.

The Mameluke beys appear to have despaired of regaining their ascendancy after this, and most of them retreated to Upper Egypt, from where attempts at compromise failed. Al-Alfi offered his submission on the condition of the cession of the Fayum and other provinces; but this was refused, and that chief gained two successive but indecisive victories over Muhammad Ali Pasha's troops, many of whom deserted to the Mamelukes.

At length, after remonstrances of the British and a promise made by al-Alfi of 1500 purses, the Ottoman Porte consented to reinstate twenty-four Mameluke beys and to place al-Alfi at their head. This measure met with the opposition of Muhammad Ali, as well as the determined resistance of the majority of the Mamelukes, who, rather than have al-Alfi at their head, preferred their present condition; for the enmity of al-Bardisi had not subsided, and he commanded the voice of most of the other beys.

Proceeding however with its plans, the Ottomans sent a naval squadron under Salih Pasha, shortly before appointed high admiral, which arrived at Alexandria on 1 July 1806 with 3000 regular troops and a successor to Muhammad Ali, who was to receive the pashalik of Salonika.

Muhammad Ali professed his willingness to obey the commands of the Porte, but stated that his troops, to whom he owed a vast sum of money, opposed his departure. He induced the ulema to sign a letter, praying the sultan to revoke the command for reinstating the beys, persuaded the chiefs of the Albanian troops to swear personal allegiance to him, and sent 2000 purses contributed by them to Istanbul.

Al-Alfi was at that time besieging Damanhur, and he gained a signal victory over the Pasha's troops; but the dissensions of the Mameluke beys squandered their last chance at regaining power. Al-Alfi and his partisans failed to raise the sum promised to the Porte; Salih Pasha received plenipotentiary powers from Istanbul, but in consequence of the letter from the ulema; and, on the condition of Muhammad Ali's paying 4000 purses to the Porte, it was decided that he should continue in his post as governor of Egypt, and the reinstatement of the beys was abandoned.

Fortune continued to favor Muhammad Ali, for in the following month al-Bardisi died, aged forty-eight years; and soon after, a scarcity of provisions caused al-Alfi's troops to revolt and mutiny. They reluctantly raised the siege of Damanhur, being in daily expectation of the arrival of a British army; and at the village of Shubra-ment, al-Alfi was struck by a sudden illness, and died on January 30, 1807, at the age of fifty-five. Thus was Muhammad Ali relieved of his two most formidable enemies; and shortly after he defeated Shahin Bey, with the loss to the latter of his artillery and baggage and 300 men killed or taken prisoners.