At this period another calamity befell Egypt; about 3000 Delīs (Kurdish troops) arrived in Cairo from Syria. These troops had been sent for by Khorshīd in order to strengthen himself against the Albanians; and the events of this portion of the history afford sad proof of their ferocity and brutal enormities, in which they far exceeded the ordinary Turkish soldiers and even the Albanians. Their arrival immediately recalled Mehemet Ali and his party from the war, and instead of aiding Khorshīd was the proximate cause of his overthrow.
Cairo was ripe for revolt; the pasha was hated for his tyranny and extortion, and execrated for the deeds of his troops, especially those of the Delīs: the sheiks enjoined the people to close their shops, and the soldiers clamoured for pay. At this juncture a firmān arrived from Constantinople conferring on Mehemet Ali the pashalic of Jedda; but the occurrences of a few days raised him to that of Egypt.
On the 12th of Safar 1220 (May 12th, 1805) the sheiks, with an immense concourse of the inhabitants, assembled in the house of the ḳāḍī; and the ulemā, amid the prayers and cries of the people, wrote a full statement of the heavy Struggle between Khorshīd and Mehemet Ali. wrongs which they had endured under the administration of the pasha. The ulemā, in answer, were desired to go to the citadel; but they were apprised of treachery; and on the following day, having held another council at the house of the ḳāḍī, they proceeded to Mehemet Ali and informed him that the people would no longer submit to Khorshīd. “Then whom will ye have?” said he. “We will have thee,” they replied, “to govern us according to the laws; for we see in thy countenance that thou art possessed of justice and goodness.” Mehemet Ali seemed to hesitate, and then complied, and was at once invested. On this, a bloody struggle began between the two pashas. Khorshīd, being informed of the insurrection, immediately prepared to stand a siege in the citadel. Two chiefs of the Albanians joined his party, but many of his soldiers deserted. Mehemet Ali’s great strength lay in the devotion of the citizens of Cairo, who looked on him as a deliverer from their afflictions; and great numbers armed themselves, advising constantly with Mehemet Ali, having the sayyid Omar and the sheiks at their head, and guarding the town at night. On the 19th of the same month Mehemet Ali began to besiege Khorshīd. After the siege had continued many days, Khorshīd gave orders to cannonade and bombard the town; and for six days his commands were executed with little interruption, the citadel itself also lying between two fires. Mehemet Ali’s position at this time was very critical: his troops became mutinous for their pay; the silāhdār, who had commanded one of the expeditions against the Mamelukes, advanced to the relief of Khorshīd; and the latter ordered the Delīs to march to his assistance. The firing ceased on the Friday, but began again on the eve of Saturday and lasted until the next Friday. On the day following (May 28th) news came of the arrival at Alexandria of a messenger from Constantinople. The ensuing night in Cairo presented a curious spectacle; many of the inhabitants, believing that this envoy would put an end to their miseries, fired off their weapons as they paraded the streets with bands of music. The silāhdār, imagining the noise to be a fray, marched in haste towards the citadel, while its garrison sallied forth and began throwing up entrenchments in the quarter of Arab al-Yesār, but were repulsed by the armed inhabitants and the soldiers stationed there; and during all this time the cannonade and bombardment from the citadel, and on it from the batteries on the hill, continued unabated.
The envoy brought a firmān confirming Mehemet Ali and ordering Khorshīd to go to Alexandria, there to await further orders; but this he refused to do, on the ground that he had been appointed by a hatt-i-sherīf. The firing Mehemet Ali granted the pashalic. ceased on the following day, but the troubles of the people were rather increased than assuaged; murders and robberies were daily committed by the soldiery, the shops were all shut and some of the streets barricaded. While these scenes were being enacted, al-Alfī was besieging Damanhur, and the other beys were returning towards Cairo, Khorshīd having called them to his assistance; but Mehemet Ali forced them to retreat.
Soon after this, a squadron under the command of the Turkish high admiral arrived at Aboukir Bay, with despatches confirming the firmān brought by the former envoy, and authorizing Mehemet Ali to continue to discharge the functions of governor. Khorshīd at first refused to yield; but at length, on condition that his troops should be paid, he evacuated the citadel and embarked for Rosetta.
Mehemet Ali now possessed the title of Governor of Egypt, but beyond the walls of Cairo his authority was everywhere disputed by the beys, who were joined by the army of the silāhdār of Khorshīd; and many Albanians deserted from his ranks. To replenish his empty coffers he was also compelled to levy exactions, principally from the Copts. An attempt was made to ensnare certain of the beys, who were encamped north of Cairo. On the 17th of August 1805 the dam of the canal of Cairo was to be cut, and some chiefs of Mehemet Ali’s party wrote, informing them that he would go forth early on that morning with most of his troops to witness the ceremony, inviting them to enter and seize the city, and, to deceive them, stipulating for a certain sum of money as a reward. The dam, however, was cut early in the preceding night, without any ceremony. On the following morning, these beys, with their Mamelukes, a very numerous body, broke open the gate of the suburb al-Husainia, and gained admittance into the city from the north, through the gate called Bāb el-Futūḥ. They marched along the principal street for some distance, with kettle-drums 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 Azhar and the houses of certain sheiks, and the other continuing along the main street, and through the gate called Bāb Zuwēla, where they turned up towards the citadel. Here they were fired on by some soldiers from the houses; and with this signal a terrible massacre began. Falling back towards their companions, they found the bye-streets closed; and in that part of the main thoroughfare called Bain al-Kasrain they were suddenly placed 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 their enemies and escaped over the city-wall with the loss of their horses. Two Mamelukes had in the meantime succeeded, by great exertions, in giving the alarm to their comrades in the quarter of the Azhar, who escaped by the eastern gate called Bāb al-Ghoraib. A horrible fate awaited those who had shut themselves up in the Barkukia. Having begged for quarter First massacre of the Mamelukes. and surrendered, they were immediately stripped nearly naked, and about fifty were slaughtered on the spot; and about the same number were dragged away, with every brutal aggravation of their pitiful condition, to Mehemet Ali. Among them were four beys, one of whom, driven to madness by Mehemet Ali’s mockery, asked for a drink of water; his hands were untied that he might take the bottle, but 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, without exception, 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 Mehemet Ali’s first massacre of his too confiding enemies.
The beys, after this, appear to have despaired of regaining their ascendancy; most of them retreated to Upper Egypt, and an attempt at compromise failed. Al-Alfī 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 victories over the pasha’s troops, many of whom deserted to him.
At length, in consequence of the remonstrances of the English, and a promise made by al-Alfī of 1500 purses, the Porte consented to reinstate the twenty-four beys and to place al-Alfī at their head; but this measure met with the opposition of Mehemet Ali and the determined resistance of the majority of the Mamelukes, who, rather than have al-Alfī at their head, preferred their present condition; for the enmity of al-Bardīsī had not subsided, and he commanded the voice of most of the other beys. In pursuance of the above plan, a squadron under Sālih Pasha, shortly before appointed high admiral, arrived at Alexandria on the 1st of July 1806 with 3000 regular troops and a successor to Mehemet Ali, who was to receive the pashalik of Salonica. This wily chief 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 ulemā to sign a letter, praying the sultan to revoke the command for reinstating the beys, persuaded the chiefs of the Albanian troops to swear allegiance to him, and sent 2000 purses contributed by them to Constantinople. Al-Alfī was at that time besieging Damanhur, and he gained a signal victory over the pasha’s troops; but the dissensions of the beys destroyed their last chance of a return to power. Al-Alfī and his partisans were unable to pay the sum promised to the Porte; Sālih Pasha received plenipotentiary powers from Constantinople, in consequence of the letter from the ulemā; and, on the condition of Mehemet Ali’s paying 4000 purses to the Porte, it was decided that he should continue in his post, and the reinstatement of the beys was abandoned. Fortune continued to favour the pasha. In the following month al-Bardīsī died, aged forty-eight years; and soon after, a scarcity of provisions excited the troops of al-Alfī to revolt. That bey very reluctantly raised the siege of Damanhur, being in daily expectation of the arrival of an English army; and at the village of Shubra-ment he was attacked by a sudden illness, and died on the 30th of January 1807, at the age of fifty-five. Thus was the pasha relieved of his two most formidable enemies; and shortly after he defeated Shāhīn Bey, with the loss to the latter of his artillery and baggage and 300 men killed or taken prisoners.
On the 17th of March 1807 a British fleet appeared off Alexandria, having on board nearly 5000 troops, under the command of General A. Mackenzie Fraser; and the place, being disaffected towards Mehemet Ali, opened its The British expedition of 1807. gates to them. Here they first heard of the death of al-Alfī, upon whose co-operation they had founded their chief hopes of success; and they immediately despatched messengers to his successor and to the other beys, inviting them to Alexandria. The British resident, Major Missett, having represented the importance of taking Rosetta and Rahmanieh, to secure supplies for Alexandria, General Fraser, with the concurrence of the admiral, Sir John Duckworth, detached the 31st regiment and the Chasseurs Britanniques, accompanied by some field artillery under Major-General Wauchope and Brigadier-General Meade, on this service; and these troops entered Rosetta without encountering any opposition; but as soon as they had dispersed among the narrow streets, the garrison opened a deadly fire on them from the latticed windows and the roofs of the houses. They effected a retreat on Aboukir and Alexandria, after a very heavy loss of 185 killed and 281 wounded, General Wauchope and three officers being among the former, and General Meade and nineteen officers among the latter. The heads of the slain were fixed on stakes on each side of the road crossing the Ezbekīa in Cairo.
Mehemet Ali, meanwhile, was conducting an expedition against the beys in Upper Egypt, and he had defeated them near Assiut, when he heard of the arrival of the British. In great alarm lest the beys should join them, especially as they were far north of his position, he immediately sent messengers to his rivals, promising to comply with all their demands if they should join in expelling the invaders; and this proposal being agreed to, both armies marched towards Cairo on opposite sides of the river.