25. Muhammad Ali’s First Massacre of the Mamluks
The Mamluks, who had dominated Egypt for more than six centuries, posed a serious threat to Muhammad Ali Pasha, and he knew that he would have 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 17, 1805, he fed false intelligence to Mamluk forces encamped north of Cairo, that he would leave the city that day with most of his forces to attend a ceremony some miles away. Believing Cairo to be undefended, the Mamluks rushed in to seize the city, only to fall into a carefully prepared ambush by Muhammad Ali and his forces. 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.
