by admin » Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:11 am
CHAPTER III. Accurate of Ali-Bek's story[77]
The birth of Ali-bek is subject to the same uncertainties as that of most Mamlouks. Sold at a young age by their parents, or kidnapped by enemies, these children retain little memory of their origin and their homeland, often they even hide them. The more accredited opinion about Ali is that he was born among the Abazans, one of the peoples who inhabit the Caucasus, and whose slaves are the most sought after. [78] The merchants who carry out this trade transported it, in one of their annual cargoes, to Kaire: it was bought there by the brothers Isaac and Yousef, Jewish customs officers, who presented it to Ybrahim Kiâya. It is estimated that he could have been 12 to 14 years old then; but Orientals, both Muslims and Christians, do not keep birth registers, we never know their precise age. Ali, with his new boss, fulfills the functions of the Mamlouks, which are almost in all those of the pages of the princes. He received the customary education, which consists in handling a horse well, in drawing the rifle and the pistol, in throwing the djerid, in striking the saber, and even a little, in reading and writing. In all these exercises, he showed a petulance which earned him the Turkish nickname of djendâli, that is to say, crazy. But the worries of ambition succeeded in calming him. Around the age of 18 to 20, his boss let him grow a beard, that is to say, he freed him; for among the Turks a face without mustache and without beard belongs only to slaves and women, and hence the unfavorable impression which they receive from the first appearance of every European. By emancipating him, Ybrahim gave him a wife, income, and promoted him to the rank of kachef or district governor; finally he put it among the 24 beks. These various ranks, the credit and the wealth he acquired there, aroused Ali-bek's ambition. The death of his boss, which happened in 1757, opened up a free career for his projects. He got involved in all the intrigues which were carried out to raise or supplant the commanders. Rodoan Kiâya owed him his ruin. After Rodoan, various factions took turns carrying their leaders in his place. The one who occupied it in 1762 was Abd-el-Rahmân, not very powerful in himself, but supported by several confederate houses. Ali was then chaik-el-beled; he seized the moment that Abd-el-Rahmân was leading the caravan of the Mekke, to make him exile; but he himself soon had his turn, and was condemned to go to Gaze. Gaze, dependent on a Turkish pasha, was neither a pleasant enough nor a safe enough place for him to accept this exile; so he only took the road by feint, and on the third day he turned towards Said, where he was joined by his supporters. It was in Djirdjé that a stay of 2 years matured his mind, and that he prepared the means to obtain and ensure the power he aspired to. The friends his money made him in Kaire having finally recalled him in 1766, he suddenly appeared in this city, and in a single night he killed 4 beks of his enemies, exiled 4 others, and henceforth found himself leader of the party. more numerous. Having become the depositary of all authority, he resolved to use it to expand still further. His ambition was no longer limited to the simple title of commander or quaiem-maquam. The suzerainty of Constantinople offended his pride, and he aspired no less than the title of Sultan of Egypt. All his steps were relative to this goal: he drove out the Pasha, who was no more than a representative being; he refused the customary tribute; finally, in 1768, he minted money at his own corner [79]. The Porte did not see these attacks on its authority without indignation; but to suppress them would have required open war, and the circumstances were not favorable. The Arab Dâher, established in Acre, held Syria in check; and the divan of Constantinople, occupied with the affairs of Poland and the pretensions of the Russians, paid attention only to the North. They tried the customary way of the capidjis; but the poison or the dagger always knew how to prevent the cord which they wore. Ali-bek, taking advantage of the circumstances, pushed his enterprises and successes more and more. For several years, part of the Said had been occupied by little submissive Arab chaiks. One of them, named Hammâm, formed there a power capable of disturbing. Ali began by getting rid of this concern, and under the pretext that this chaik concealed a deposit entrusted by Ybrahim Kiâya, and that he received rebels, he sent against him, in 1769, a body of Mamlouks commanded by his favorite Mohammad- bek which destroyed in a single day Hammâm and its power.
The end of that same year saw another expedition, the consequences of which were to spill over into Europe. Ali-bek armed ships at Suez, and charging them with Mamlouks, he ordered the bek Hasan to go and occupy Djedda, port of the Mekke, while a body of cavalry, under the leadership of Mohammad-bek, marched on the ground. to Mekke itself, which was taken without firing a shot and given over to plunder. His design was to make Jeddah the warehouse of Indian commerce; and this project suggested by a young Venetian merchant[80] admitted to his confidence, had to abandon the route by the Cape of Good Hope, and replace it with the old route of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. But, not to mention the setback that ended this business[81], the sequence of events has shown that we were in too much of a hurry, and that before introducing gold into a country, laws must be established there.
However Ali-bek, winner of a chaik of Saïd, and of the sherif of Mekke, believed himself henceforth made to command the whole world. His courtiers told him that he was as powerful as the Sultan of Constantinople, and he believed him as his courtiers. A little reasoning would have shown him that the proportion of Egypt to the rest of the empire made it only a very small state, and that 7 or 8,000 cavalrymen he commanded were little compared to 100,000 janissaries. which the sultan could dispose of; but the Mamlouks know no geography; and Ali, who saw Egypt up close, found it larger than the Turkia he saw from afar. He therefore resolved to begin the course of his conquests. Syria, which was at his doorstep, was naturally the first that he proposed to himself: everything favored his views. The Russian War, which began in 1769, occupied all the forces of the Turks in the north. The chaik Dâher, revolted, was a strong and staunch ally; finally, the concussions of the Pasha of Damascus, by disposing of minds to revolt, offered the finest occasion to invade his government, and to merit the title of liberator of the people. Ali grasped this set very well, and he did not delay setting in motion, except as long as the necessary preparations required. All measures being taken, he published, in December 1770, a manifesto against Osman, Pasha of Damascus, and he sent 500 Mamlouks to occupy Gaze, to ensure the entry of Palestine. Osman did not hear of the invasion sooner than he came running. The Mamlouks, afraid of his diligence and of the number of his troops, stood, bridle in hand, ready to flee at the first signal; but Dâher, the most diligent man whom Syria had seen for a long time, Dâher ran up from Acre, and got them out of their embarrassment. Osman, encamped near Yâfa, fled without giving up a fight. Dâher occupied Yâfa, Ramlé and all of Palestine, and the road remained open to the expected great army.
It arrived at the end of February 1771: the gazettes du temps, which numbered 60,000 men, led Europe to believe that it was an army similar to those of Russia or Germany; but the Turks, and especially those of Asia, differ even more from Europeans by military status than by customs and manners. It is far from 60,000 men, at home, to be 60,000 soldiers like ours. The army in question is an example: it could really amount to 40,000 heads, which must be classified as follows; namely, 5,000 Mamlouks, all on horseback, and that was the real army; about 1,500 barbarians on foot, and no other infantry. The Turks do not know of any; with them, the man on horseback is everything. In addition, each Mamlouk having in his suite two footmen armed with a stick, the result is 10,000 footmen; more, a surplus of jacks andserrâdjs or valets on horseback for beks and kasks, valued at 2,000, and all the rest vivandiers and goujats: here is this army, as portrayed in Palestine by people who saw and followed her. It was commanded by the favorite of Ali-bek, Mohammad-bek, nicknamed Aboudâhâb, or father of gold, because of the luxury of his tent and his harnesses. As for order and discipline, they should not be mentioned. The armies of the Mamlouks and Turks are but a confused mass of horsemen without uniforms, horses of all sizes and colors, marching without observing either ranks or distributions. This crowd moved towards Acre, leaving traces of its indiscipline and rapacity in its path: there was the meeting of the troops of the chaik Dâher, which consisted of 1,500 Safadians.[82] on horseback, commanded by his son Ali; into 1,200 Mottouâlis cavalrymen, headed by the chaik Nâsif, and about 1,000 Barbaresques on foot. Once this meeting had taken place, and the plan had been agreed, we marched towards Damascus in the course of April. Osman, who had had time to prepare himself, had for his part assembled a large and equally ill-ordered army. The pashas of Saïd[83], Tripoli and Aleppo joined him, and they awaited the enemy within the very walls of Damascus. We must not imagine here combined movements, such as those which, for 100 years, have made war among us a science of calculation and reflection. Asians do not have the first elements of this behavior. Their armies are mobs, their marches pillage, their campaigns incursions, their battles batteries; the stronger or the more daring will seek the other, who often flees without a fight; if he waits firmly, we approach each other, we mingle; they fire rifles, break spears, cut each other with sabers; one hardly ever has a cannon, and when there is, it is of little use. Terror often spreads for no reason: a party flees; the other presses him, and shouts victory. The vanquished is subject to the victorious law, and often the campaign ends with the battle.
Such was in part what happened in Syria in 1771. The army of Ali-bek and Dâher marched against Damascus. The pashas awaited him; they approached, and on June 6 they came to a decisive affair: the Mamlouks and the Safadians attacked the Turks with such fury that the latter, terrified by the carnage, fled; the pashas were not the last to escape; the allies, masters of the ground, seized effortlessly the city which had neither soldiers nor walls. The castle alone resisted. Its ruined walls did not have a cannon, let alone cannoneers; but there was a marshy ditch, and behind the ruins a few fusiliers; and that is enough to stop this army of horsemen: however, as the besieged were defeated by public opinion, they capitulated on the third day, and the place was to be delivered the next day, when the break of day brought the strangest of revolutions. While awaiting the signal of surrender, Mohammad suddenly calls for retreat, and all his horsemen turn towards Egypt. In vain Ali-Dâher and Nâsif surprised, run up and ask for the cause of such an incredible return: the Mamloukresponds to their requests only with a haughty threat, and everything decamps in confusion. It was not a retreat, but a flight; one would have said that the enemy was driving them away with sword in the back; the road from Damascus to Kaire was covered with pedestrians, scattered horsemen, ammunition and abandoned baggage. This bizarre adventure was attributed in time to an alleged rumor of Ali-bek's death; but the real crux of the enigma was a secret conference that took place overnight in Mohammad-bek's tent. Osman having seen that force was unsuccessful, employed seduction. He found a way to introduce into the Egyptian general a loose agent who, under the pretext of treating of pacification, tried to sow revolt and discord. He insinuated to Mohammad that the role he played was as unsuitable for his honor as to his safety; that he was mistaken if he believed that the Sultan should have left Ali-bek's protests unpunished; that it was a sacrilege to violate a holy city like Damascus, one of the two gates of the Kîabé[84]; that he was astonished that he Mohammad preferred to favor the sultan that of one of his slaves, and that he placed a second master between his sovereign and himself; that, moreover, we knew that this master, by exposing him every day to new dangers, sacrificed him, and to his personal ambition, and to the jealousy of his kiâya, the Coptic Rezq. These reasons, and especially these last two, which related to known facts, strongly struck Mohammad and his beks: immediately they deliberated, and bound themselves by oath on the sword and the Qoran.; they decided that we would leave without delay for Kaire. It was in consequence of this design that they decamped so abruptly, abandoning their conquest: they marched with such haste that the rumor of their arrival preceded them to Kaire by only six hours. Ali-bek was terrified, and he would have liked to punish his general on the spot; but Mohammad seemed so well accompanied that there was no way to try anything against his person: he had to conceal himself, and Ali-bek submitted to it all the more easily, as he owed his fortune much more. to this art than to his courage.
Suddenly deprived of the fruits of an expensive war, Ali-bek did not give up his plans. He continued to send aid to his ally Dâher, and he prepared a second army for the year 1772; but fortune, weary of doing more for him than prudence, ceased to favor him. A first setback was the loss of several cayasor boats that a Russian corsair took away from Damiat's sight, when they were carrying rice to Dâher; but another much more serious accident was the escape of Mohammad-bek. Ali-bek found it difficult to forget the Damascus affair; nevertheless, by a remnant of this love that one has for those to whom one has done good, he could not make up his mind at a violent blow, when a remark slipped by the Venetian merchant who enjoyed his confidence, came determine it there. "The sultans of the Franks," Ali-bek once said to this European, from whom I got it, "do the sultans of the Franks have children as rich as my son Mohammad? No, lord, replied the courtier, they are taking good care of it; because they claim that oversized children are often in a hurry to inherit from their fathers. This word penetrated like a line in Ali-bek's heart. From that moment he saw in Mohammad a dangerous rival, and he resolved his downfall. To carry out it without risk, he first sent an order to all the doors of Kaire not to let any Mamlouk go out in the evening or during the night; then he sent word to Mohammad to go immediately into exile in Said. He counted, by this contradiction, that Mohammad would be stopped at the gates, and that the guards would seize his person, it would be cheap; but chance deceived these vague and timid measures. Fortune would have it that by a misunderstanding, Mohammad was charged with particular orders from Ali. He was allowed to pass with his retinue, and from that moment all was lost. Ali-bek, informed of the mistake, had him prosecuted; but Mohammad held on such a threatening countenance that no one dared attack him. He retreated to Said, quivering with anger and longing for revenge. Another danger awaited him there. Ayoub-bek, Ali's lieutenant, pretending to enter into the resentments of the exile, welcomed him with transport, and swore on the sword and the Qôran to make common cause with him. Shortly after letters from this Ayoub to Ali were found, by which he incessantly promised him the head of his enemy. Mohammad, having discovered the weft, seized the traitor; and, having cut off his fists and his tongue, he sent him to Kaire to receive his patron's reward.
However, the Mamlouks, jealous of fortune and weary of Ali-bek's heights, deserted in crowds towards his rival. The Arabs of Hammâm, out of resentment and hope of booty, joined them. In forty days Mohammad saw himself strong enough to descend from Said and come and camp 4 leagues from Kaire. Ali-bek, disturbed by his approach, hesitated on the course he should take, and took the worse. Fearing that he would be betrayed if he marched in person, he made a body of troops advance under the leadership of Ishmael-bek, whom he had reason to be wary of, and he himself encamped with his house at the gates of Kaire. Ishmael, who had been involved in the Damascus affair, was no sooner in the presence of the enemy than he passed over to his side; his troops, disconcerted, retreated, fleeing towards Kaire: while they were joining the reserve corps, the Arabs and the Mamlouks who were pursuing them attacked them so suddenly that the rout became general. Ali-bek, losing courage, thought only of saving his treasures and his person. He rushed back into the city, and, hastily plundering his own house, fled to Gaze, followed by 800 Mamlouks who clung to his fortune. He wanted to go immediately to Acre, to his ally Dâher; but the inhabitants of Nâblous and Yâfa closed the road to him. Dâher himself had to come and remove the obstacles. The Arab received him with that simplicity and that frankness which has always been the character of his nation, and he took him to Acre. Saïde then besieged by the troops of Osman and the Druze, asked for help. He went to carry them, and Ali accompanied him there. Their united troops formed about 7,000 cavalry. At their approach the Turks raised the siege, and retired a league north of the city, on the river of Arabe received him with that simplicity and that frankness which has always been the character of his nation, and he took him to Acre. Saïde then besieged by the troops of Osman and the Druze, asked for help. He went to carry them, and Ali accompanied him there. Their united troops formed about 7,000 cavalry. At their approach the Turks raised the siege, and retired a league north of the city, on the river of Arabe received him with that simplicity and that frankness which has always been the character of his nation, and he took him to Acre. Saïde then besieged by the troops of Osman and the Druze, asked for help. He went to carry them, and Ali accompanied him there. Their united troops formed about 7,000 cavalry. At their approach the Turks raised the siege, and retired a league north of the city, on the river ofAoula. It was there that was delivered, in July 1772, the most important and most methodical battle of all this war. The Turkish army, three times stronger than that of the two allies, was completely defeated. The seven pashas who commanded it fled, and Saïde remained in Dâher, and his governor Degnizlé. Back in Acre, Ali-bek and Dâher went to chastise the inhabitants of Yâfa, who had revolted to keep for their benefit a deposit of ammunition and clothing that an Ali flotilla had left there before he was driven out. of Kaire. The city, occupied by a chaik of Nâblous, closed its doors, and it was necessary to besiege it. This expedition began in July, and lasted 8 months, although Yâfa only had for enclosure a real garden wall without a ditch; but in Syria and in Egypt people are even more novices in the siege war than in that of the countryside: finally the besieged capitulated in February 1773. Ali, now free, thought only of returning to Kaire. Dâheroffered him help; the Russians, with whom Ali had made an alliance in dealing with the privateer business, promised to assist him: only time was needed to collect these scattered means, and Ali was growing impatient. Rezq's promises, his oracle and his kiaya, further irritated his petulance. This Copt kept telling him that the hour of his return had come; that the stars presented the most favorable signs of it; that the loss of Mohammad was most predicted certain. Ali, who, like all Turks, firmly believed in astrology, and who trusted Rezq all the more because his predictions were often successful, could no longer endure delays. The news from Kaire made him lose patience. In the first days of April letters were handed to him, signed by his friends, in which they indicated to him that they were tired of his ungrateful slave, and that only his presence was expected to drive him away. He immediately stopped his departure, and without giving the Russians time to arrive, he left with his Mamlouks and 1,500 Safadians commanded by Osman, son of Dâher.; but he did not know that Kaire's letters were a ruse from Mohammad; that this bek had demanded them by violence to deceive him and lure him into a trap which he was setting for him. Indeed, Ali, having engaged in the desert which separates Gaze from Egypt, met near Salêhie a body of 1,000 elite Mamlouks who were waiting for him. This body was led by the young bek Mourâd, who, in love with Ali-bek's wife, had obtained it from Mohammad in case he gave up the head of this illustrious unfortunate man. Scarcely had Mourad seen the dust which announced the enemies in the distance, than, swooping down on them with his troop, he put them in disorder; to make matters worse he met Ali-bek in the fray, attacked him, wounded him in the forehead with a cut of a saber, took him and led him to Mohammad. This one, camped two leagues behind, received his former master with that exaggerated respect so familiar to the Turks and that sensibility that perfidy can feign. He gave her a magnificent tent, recommended that the greatest care be taken, said to himself a thousand times his slave, kissing the dust of his feet; but on the third day this spectacle ended with the death of Ali-bek, due, according to some, to the consequences of his injury, according to others, to poison: the two cases are so equally probable that one cannot can not decide anything.
Thus ended the career of this man, who for some time had fixed the attention of Europe, and given many politicians the hope of a great revolution. It cannot be denied that he was not an extraordinary man; but we get an exaggerated idea of it, when we put him in the class of great men: what reliable witnesses tell about him proves that if he had the germ of great qualities, the lack of culture prevented them from taking this development which makes them great virtues. Let us pass on his credulity in astrology, which more often determined his actions than reflected motives. Let us also pass on his betrayals, his perjuries, the very assassination of his benefactors[85], by which he acquired or maintained his power. Without doubt, the moral of a anarchic society is less severe than that of a peaceful society; but judging the ambitious by their own principles, we will find that Ali-bek misunderstood or followed badly his plan of enlargement, and that he himself prepared his downfall. Above all, we have the right to reproach him for three faults: 1. This imprudent passion for conquests, which fruitlessly exhausted his income and his strength, and made him neglect the internal administration of his own country. 2 ° The precocious rest to which he gave himself up, doing nothing except through his lieutenants; which lessened among the Mamlouks the respect which they had for him, and emboldened spirits to revolt. 3 ° Finally, the excessive wealth which he piled up on the head of his favorite, and which gave him the credit which he abused. Assuming righteous Mohammad, Shouldn't Ali fear the seduction of worshipers, who in all countries gather around wealth? However, one must admire in Ali-bek a quality which distinguishes him from the crowd of tyrants who ruled Egypt: if the vices of a bad education prevented him from knowing true glory, it is at least constant that he had the desire; and this desire was never that of vulgar souls. It only missed being approached by men who knew its routes; and among those who rule, there are few that can be praised. prevented from knowing the true glory, it is at least constant that he wanted to; and this desire was never that of vulgar souls. It only missed being approached by men who knew its routes; and among those who rule, there are few that can be praised. prevented from knowing the true glory, it is at least constant that he wanted to; and this desire was never that of vulgar souls. It only missed being approached by men who knew its routes; and among those who rule, there are few that can be praised.
I cannot ignore an observation that I heard in Kaire. Those of the European negotiators who saw Ali-bek's reign and its ruin, after having praised the kindness of his administration, his zeal for justice and his benevolence for the Franks, add with surprise that the people did not regret him; they take the opportunity of repeating those reproaches of inconstancy and ingratitude which are customarily made to the people; but looking at all the accessories, this fact did not strike me as so bizarre as it looks. In Egypt, as in all countries, the judgments of the people are dictated by the interest of their subsistence; it is according to whether his governors make it easy or difficult for him, whether he loves them or hates them, blames them or approves them: and this way of judging can be neither blind nor unjust. In vain will they tell him that the the honor of the empire, the glory of the nation, the encouragement of commerce and the fine arts demand this or that operation. The need to live must come first; and when the multitude lacks bread, it at least has the right to refuse its recognition and admiration. What did the people of Egypt care if Ali-bek conquered Said, Makkah and Syria, if his conquests did not improve their lot? And it got worse; for these wars aggravated the contributions by their expense. The Mekke's expedition alone cost France twenty-six millions. The outflows of wheat caused by at least she has the right to refuse her recognition and admiration. What did the people of Egypt care if Ali-bek conquered Said, Makkah and Syria, if his conquests did not improve their lot? And it got worse; for these wars aggravated the contributions by their expense. The Mekke's expedition alone cost France twenty-six millions. The outflows of wheat caused by at least she has the right to refuse her recognition and admiration. What did the people of Egypt care if Ali-bek conquered Said, Makkah and Syria, if his conquests did not improve their lot? And it got worse; for these wars aggravated the contributions by their expense. The Mekke's expedition alone cost France twenty-six millions. The outflows of wheat caused by armies, joined to the monopoly of a few favored merchants, caused a famine which devastated the country throughout the course of 1770 and 1771. Now, when the inhabitants of Kaire and the peasants of the villages were starving, were they wrong to murmur against Ali-bek? were they wrong in condemning the commerce of India, if all its advantages were to be concentrated in a few hands? When Ali spent 225,000 pounds on a useless handful of a kandjar[86], if the jewelers praised its magnificence, didn't the people have the right to detest its luxury? This liberality, which his courtiers called virtue, was not the people, at whose expense it exercised, right in calling it vice? Was it a merit for this man to lavish gold which cost him nothing? Was it justice to satisfy, at the expense of the public, his affections or his particular obligations, as he did with his baker[87]? We can't To deny it, most of Ali-bek's actions offer far less the general principles of justice and humanity, than the motives of personal ambition and vanity. Egypt was in his eyes only a domain, and the people a flock which he could dispose of as he pleased. Should we be surprised after that, if the men whom he treated as imperious master, judged him as discontented mercenaries?