The Troublesome Mamluks
On August 17th, 1805, Muhammad Ali tricked the Mamluks to think that he would leave the city with most of his forces to attend a ceremony. Believing the city undefended, the Mamluks rushed in to seize it. Instead, they fell into an ambush. Many Mamluks, including dozens of their leaders, perished. Survivors retreated to Upper Egypt, where they were defeated there in 1807. They were saved at the last minute by a British invasion of Alexandria and the Nile Delta.
Alarmed, Muhammad Ali offered the Mamluks concessions if they helped expel the foreigners, and they accepted. Together, the two forces marched north. The British, who had invaded on the assumption that the Mamluks would join them, finally grew disgusted with their dissensions, despaired of their assistance, and evacuated Alexandria in September, 1807.
An uneasy peace between Muhammad Ali and the Mamluks followed. Some were appointed administrators of certain Egyptian districts on condition that they pay taxes, and many returned to Cairo and resumed their residence there. However, Mamluk forces continued to clash with Muhammad Ali’s, until he decided to deal with them once and for all.
In 1811, an Egyptian army was assembled for a campaign in the Arabian Peninsula. Amidst a lull in tensions between Muhammad Ali and the Mamluks, the latter were invited to a ceremony in the Cairo Citadel. They accepted, and on the morning of March 1st, 470 Mamluks, dressed in ceremonial finery and armed with gilded swords, rode their best horses, richly caparisoned, to the Citadel. As seen below, they should have turned down the invite.
