A Massacre of the Slave Soldiers
The Mamluks, who had dominated Egypt for more than six centuries, posed a serious threat to Muhammad Ali Pasha, and he knew that he had to deal with them. As a class, they were Egypt’s feudal lords, and their vast landed estates were the country’s greatest source of wealth and power. Although Muhammad Ali received the title of Governor of Egypt in 1805, his undisputed authority was limited to Cairo. Beyond its walls, he was everywhere challenged by the Mamluks. So he decided upon a two-stage strategy, to first eliminate the Mamluks’ leaders, and then eliminate the entire Mamluk class.
On August 17th, 1805, he fed false intelligence to Mamluk forces near Cairo, that he would leave the city that day with most of his forces to a attend a ceremony some miles away. The Mamluks believed that Cairo was undefended, and rushed in to seize the city. Instead, they fell into an ambush, carefully prepared by Muhammad Ali. Surrounded in the city’s streets, many Mamluks were massacred. Dozens of their key leaders were captured, tortured, executed, and their heads were sent to the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople, with a boast that Mamluk power in Egypt had been broken.
