With the English occupation of Alexandria, and the treachery of its Turkish governor "Amin Agha"... his name crept into the Alexandrian collective consciousness as a kind of insult... the name or the word "Agha" in Alexandria turned into a curse... meaning "pimp"... to this very day.

The Alexandrian resistance men withdrew to Ras al-Tin... and from there they began a kind of guerrilla war against the English... in which defeat fell to the resistance men... and they numbered about 300 men... against the armed, well-equipped infantry units that "Fraser" pushed ashore... and they were estimated at 1,000 soldiers... "Al-Jabarti" mentioned, in his diary for the month of Muharram in the year 1222, on the history of the 1807 battle of Alexandria, that news arrived from Alexandria of fierce fighting taking place, in which the people of Alexandria burned two of the English vessels.

And the English response was harsh and violent... "and he struck with the enormous cannons from the sea and demolished a side of the great tower as well as the small towers." And in general, "Al-Jabarti", in his chronicling of this period, was struck by great confusion and immense bewilderment... so he contradicted himself and wrote the news and then its opposite... and he justified this by saying:

"False rumours were sent to Cairo and people passed them around, just as false news is spread during wars, and then their falseness would soon be exposed, and matters continued in this confusion, by land and by sea, for several days... and not for an hour did any true news come from Alexandria."

But the truth is that the Alexandrian resistance, despite the treachery, was extremely ferocious, and that genuinely alarmed the English... and unnerved them... and almost caused their defeat... had the battleship "HMS Royal George" not appeared on the horizon, commanded by the Admiral, Sir "John Duckworth", with the ships he led and the soldiers they carried... and that tipped the balance of the battle.

The resistance fell and most of its men were seized as prisoners of war, while its leader fled to an unknown place... and "Fraser" decided, in his plan to defeat "Muhammad Ali"... to control the Delta and the two branches of the Nile, in order to prevent any supplies from reaching him in Cairo.

And the first target was the Egyptian city of "Rosetta"... which we know by the name "Rashid".

"Fraser" issued his orders, and about 1,600 British soldiers moved toward the Delta. At the same time, a special envoy, carrying a message of the utmost importance and danger, reached the governor of Rashid, "Ali Bey al-Salankali".

And this envoy was the leader of the Alexandrian resistance himself... who informed "al-Salankali" that the English were heading to occupy Rashid and al-Rahmaniya, so "Ali al-Salankali" made his decision to confront the English... and he asked for the support of the sharif, Sheikh "Hassan Kurait", and they agreed that "al-Salankali" would lead the garrison, while Sharif "Kurait" would lead the locals.

The English advance caused panic among the simple people of Rashid, and many of them thought of fleeing... but "al-Salankali" made a decision, and he pushed all the Egyptian boats away from the Nile bank at Rashid to the opposite eastern shore at the Mutubas district... and so they had no option left but confrontation.

And "Ali Bey al-Salankali's" plan was the same plan that "Muhammad Ali" had carried out against the Mamluk forces in Cairo.

Luring the English into entering the city without resistance... and then pouncing on them...

And on 31 March, 1807, the English forces advanced on the city of Rashid, which appeared calm and empty, as if the locals had hidden in their homes when they learned of the arrival of the English forces... and when the soldiers began to relax and rest and set down their gear... the call to prayer rang out at an unusual time, from the mosque of "Sidi Zaghloul"... and that was the signal agreed between "al-Salankali" and "Kurait".

The garrison of Rashid, without any warning, fell upon the soldiers together with the locals... who were taken by surprise by the overwhelming attack, and could not repel it, so they carried their wounded and withdrew once again to Alexandria.

"Ali Bey al-Salankali" sent the prisoners and the heads of the dead to Cairo, and a great celebration was held... it raised people's morale to the utmost.

But the city was extremely important, if "Fraser" was to occupy Cairo... so when the news reached him... he sent it another force of 2,500 equipped soldiers in the same year, on 3 April... and here... "Muhammad Ali" learned the news... and decided to close the Upper Egypt front... so he made a truce with the Mamluks... they rejected it at first... but the people of Upper Egypt began to speak up and say that in this case they were traitors, followers of the English... so they accepted "Muhammad Ali's" truce... and he set off back to the north.

Unfortunately, time was not on his side; because the English forces laid siege to Rashid on 7 April, and began bombarding it with artillery... and succeeded in occupying the village of "al-Hammad", to encircle Rashid, and prevent supplies from reaching the city.

And with the continuous bombardment and the siege and the scarcity of provisions, Rashid almost fell in fact, had it not been that on 20 April of the same year... there appeared to the people of Rashid on the horizon the dust of the horses' hooves of the Egyptian army led by "Muhammad Ali"... a force of 2,000 horsemen and 5,000 infantry soldiers, in full gear and equipment.

And here the force besieging Rashid was forced to withdraw... and it sent a special English messenger to the commander of the force that had occupied "the village of al-Hammad", ordering him to withdraw...

But this messenger never reached his destination at all... it is said that he was killed on his journey... and consequently the "al-Hammad" force remained believing that the English forces were victorious.

And that had unexpected results... which we will talk about later...

And there is more to come.

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Previous posts.

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(The photo is of the Rashid redoubt, or "Fort Julien"... and it is a fort on the western bank of the Rashid branch, two kilometres from the city of Rashid).

1 - http://bit.ly/30anGpF

2 - http://bit.ly/2Q7e6zv

3 - http://bit.ly/2VVkcrX

4 - http://bit.ly/2WdncAb

5 - http://bit.ly/2HzZSo7