The Slave Soldiers Whose Demise Gave Rise to Spooky Lore
The Mamluks, a slave soldier warrior class, ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1517, until defeated by the Ottoman Turks. They continued as privileged class who paid lip service to the Ottoman Sultan, and ran Egypt as a semi-independent realm. That ended in 1811, in a massacre that gave rise to spooky ghost lore ever since.
It came at the hands of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769 – 1849), an Albanian who first arrived in Egypt in 1801 as a mercenary officer, part of a force sent by the Ottomans to reoccupy the country after French forces withdrew from there. The French had defeated the Mamluks and conquered Egypt in 1798, but although weakened, the Mamluks had not been destroyed. They jockeyed and clashed with the Ottomans for power. Muhammad Ali was a wily political operator, who used his Albanian mercenaries to work with both factions.
He also allied with native Egyptian leaders, and worked hard to gain public support. As a result, Egyptian notables demanded in 1805 that the Ottoman Sultan replace his governor in Egypt with Muhammad Ali, and he was forced to yield. The new viceroy next turned his attention to the Mamluks, who had dominated Egypt for more than six centuries. 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.
