After receiving the disturbing news in cairo about the french campaign which arrived to alexandria, there was a state of panic and disorder in cairo in elite society and other normal people, the inhabitants were afraid of lack of food and security in their life, meanwhile the mamluks and elite were also afraid about their positions and wealth which were collected by force from Egyptians.
The first one who received the news of this campaign from Alexandria’s governor was Murad bak – who was one of the two main leaders of Mamluks in Egypt- became very angry lost his self-control and asked the elite and nobles for a meeting to discuss these news, in order to be ready for a suitable reaction.
At this time, the meeting was in Ibrahim bek’s palace which lies in the “al qasr el ainy” area -nowadays close to the garden city suburb-.
In this meeting were; nobles, traders of Egypt, sheiks of al Azhar, the pash which was the representative of the Ottoman sultan ruling Egypt, and mamluks.
They tried to analyze the reason behind this campaign, but according to the news from Alexandria, they knew; Napoleon declared, he and France don’t have any kind of hostility against the Ottoman sultan of the ottoman empire, even though he consider the Ottoman sultan a friend of France, and the main argument of this campaign is to secure french traders and their caravans from mamluks and to help Christian to live better and faire in this country!.
So the Mamluks at this time assumed it was a maneuver between France and the Ottoman sultan to vanish the Mamluk’s power and position in Egypt and they are the scapegoat of this expedition.
This assumption was not accepted by the “pasha” the official ruler of Egypt, saying that the sultan don’t need any maneuvers with the French to destroy their power if he has any kind of conflict with mamluks, even though it is not logical to ask a Christian country to help him with Islamic land relates back to him!
So they became more calm and started to think logically and started to defend Cairo from this campaign and worked on retreating back to Europe, but in fact, they were not worried about Egypt but rather about their wealth and positions, and source of income in Egypt.
On the other side of this conflict, Napoleon finished all his tasks which he thought must be approved and achieved as soon as possible to guard his back and his connection to Europe through France and left there a power of soldiers under the authority of Kleber who was injured during the first attacks by the arrival to Alexandria, he asked him to keep control over Alexandria and follow up the French fleet till it will be in a safe place and strategic whether will be a conflict with the French fleet and to try to invade and control the city of Rosetta which lies around 40 km to the west of Alexandria.
Afterward, the next step is to choose the proper way to Cairo, the French at this time had two options; first, one through the river Nile through the Rosetta branch of Nile which was under the control of mamluks, and the second through the desert close to Nile delta.
Napoleon chose the second option which was through the desert since by his strategic sense he wanted to avoid any secondary battle that could waste his power to obtain Cairo as quickly as possible.
While Napoleon started to move with his soldiers through the desert of Bahira province they found the best way to have a battle with them in “shubrakheat”.
This place was the first confrontation between the mamluks and the French, under the leadership of murad bek, who had his soldiers in this area waiting for the French, and during this battle, the start mamluks played a great role to defeat the French and they penetrated the French forces.
But the French fleet arrived through the Nile of this area and they started to shoot the other army, and because of bad luck they shot the ship which had all their weapons, so there was a lack of control in their power and they had to retreat back, and then due to the main secret of Genuity of napoleon which was elasticity and ability to react quickly, the French winner this first confrontation with mamluks
After this confrontation, the mamluks went back unorganized to Cairo, and the news about their defeat was spread in all habitants of Cairo, so there were lots of issues out of control and fear of an unknown future.
and one of the most important features was in this time is that; mamluks asked the Egyptians to show all their savings to use it to guard Cairo, and they threatened all Egyptian that it would be punishment for any one to hide his savings, while they collected all their wealth of gold, silver, and precious light things to hide a way !!!!!!!!
The sheikhs and people started to pray to god asking him in various rituals to stop this invasion and keep Egypt safe from the new invaders.
But it is highly important to mention that the Mamluks used all their experience to prepare their weapons and start to guard the capital of Egypt, for the next battle which will have great consequences, and will open a new period for the French in Cairo.