The French had no rest during their campaign in Egypt, especially after the battles with the Mamelukes, and the Egyptians themselves also played an important role in bringing the campaign to an end as quickly as possible.
Less than five months after the expedition arrived in Cairo, riots and protests by elites and ordinary citizens against the French broke out in October, and these events are referred to in Arabic as the ‘First Cairo Revolution’.
In my opinion, this is not the right term for these events because they were not properly organised, they were spontaneous, without a leader and, moreover, they did not even have specific demands.
It was more of a revolt, rebellion or strike than a revolution. In my opinion, as I mentioned in my previous post, the Egyptians did not feel any difference between the French and the Mamelukes – only their names changed. They continued to pursue the same policy of invading and acquiring Egypt’s wealth and imposing high taxes on the inhabitants.
In order to be able to know and understand this part of the expedition well, I have decided to divide this topic into 3 main parts.
The causes of the revolt.
The motives behind the revolt in Cairo vary greatly, depending on the point of view of everyone involved in the revolt against the French.
The French believed that there were two main reasons;
1- the maneuvers of the Mamelukes and their supporters, who remained still in Cairo and tried to incite the inhabitants against the French.
2- They believed that the reason was sheikhs or scholars from Al-Azhar who envied their colleagues who participated in the system of governance created by Napoleon Bonaparte.
One French scholar also assumed that rich merchants, who admittedly usually seek stability to maintain their business, were behind the uprising, but revolted after the new regime imposed high taxes.
However, after analysing the reasons mentioned above, it must be concluded that the main reason for this rebellion, as indeed for most rebellions around the world, was economic, i.e. the low standard of living and high taxes levied on Egyptians.
Revolt scenario.
Usually, according to the Egyptian mentality, people used to complain during revolts to one of the authorities. Many people believe that Egyptians are polite to a point of exaggeration and could agree to anything. However, I would like to figure out that one of the oldest strikes in the world, if not the oldest, took place in Egypt.
It took place during the reign of King Ramses the Third around 1152, when workers who worked on the construction of tombs and temples did not receive the money they were owed. During the aforementioned strike, they turned to the governor of Thebes, saying: we have no income, we are unable to feed our children, etc.
From this time onwards, the practice of strikes and revolts began, with Egyptians turning to one of their nobles or leaders, presenting their complaint and demanding that the Egyptian ruler reduce taxes.
Even less than 20 years before Napoleon, there was a kind of revolt in Egypt because of this, and the people went to the grand imam AL ZHAR, who accepted the refusal. However, there were other compromises whereby he achieved his goal and thus obtained the same revenue.
However, on the day of this revolt, a different atmosphere prevailed. On 21 October 1798, the inhabitants gathered near the house of the chief magistrate of Egypt, who was a Turk called ‘Ibraheam Afandi’, asking him to exempt or reduce their taxes, and he refused to meet with them. His refusal to meet or even listen to their demands was due to his poor character, further complicating the situation. The population was becoming more and more numerous, mixed between Egyptians, Syrians and Moroccans, and then the commander of the French soldiers “Dominique Dubuy ” appeared to check the reason for the revolt.
While checking what was the cause of the riot, they were brutally attacked with stones, and when they tried to hold talks, they were insulted in Arabic without being given any chance to de-escalate the conflict. This was due to the great agitation that had taken hold among the population.
So Napoleon had no choice but to shell the city and suburbs of Cairo with advanced weapons and explosives. All this took place at the top of the Cairo plateau in ‘Al Muqattam’, near the citadel rising by the Al Azhar mosque.
There are so many details that I would like to leave out of this article, although my main purpose is to document the faith of the expedition. However, I would like to give the number of victims of this revolt based on Napoleon’s report:
2500 Egyptians.
60 Frenchmen.
However, many other reports assure that the number of casualties is much higher than that given in Napoleon’s report.
Results of the revolt.
One of the main results of the revolt is the beginning of a new era with a new perspective for Egypt and its politics in the coming months.
Revenge
The French felt that they should take revenge on the Egyptians who had killed their soldiers, so as to demonstrate their power and importance in the country. The retaliation was divided into three points.
First: they set up checkpoints in the markets, consisting of soldiers who searched every person, checking their identity, weapons and money in their possession, after which such a person could simply be killed.
Second: they arrested key people who had played a key role in instigating the revolt and killed them.
Thirdly: the French officer Croizier and another, who was one of Napoleon’s wife’s relatives, were given a mission to kill the Bedouins helping in this revolt on the eastern side of the Delta. Their task was to kill them and bring their heads to Cairo to show how great a power the French were.
After this revolt, Napoleon realised that if he wanted to achieve his power, he could not ignore the dynamic movement into Syria, and that peace in Egypt was not possible without conquering it.