The messenger of the English forces could not reach the village of "al-Hamad".. and with the withdrawal message never arriving, the al-Hamad force held its ground.. and decided to confront the army of "Muhammad Ali".
The force of "Muhammad Ali" consisted of two thousand horsemen.. and five thousand infantry soldiers.. and that was the entire army he possessed. Meaning, every soldier lost.. cost him dearly.. and even so.. he could not leave the village of "al-Hamad" occupied.
Muhammad Ali besieges the village, and inside it were about 800 English soldiers.. who begin opening fire on "Muhammad Ali" and his men, and a ferociously violent battle unfolds.. in which "Muhammad Ali" prevails.. and the English force falls into his hands, between wounded and captive.
But this situation alerted "Muhammad Ali" to something exceedingly dangerous.
He had to rebuild the army. And as fast as possible.
Alexandria had fallen as we mentioned earlier, so "Muhammad Ali" marches toward it.. and besieges it.. and begins communicating with the men of the Alexandrian resistance.. who begin movements that inflict heavy losses on the English, so the force in Alexandria declares its surrender.. and demands negotiations with "Muhammad Ali".
Indeed the negotiations begin.. and "Muhammad Ali" demands that the English commander leave the city, the weapons and the equipment, and depart without condition.. while the English commander demands the release of the prisoners and departure with his full equipment.. and on 25 September 1807, the English commander hands over to you the prisoners of the British forces in "Rosetta" and "al-Hamad".. and takes his men onto his ships and departs for Sicily.
The situation settles relatively.. and "Muhammad Ali" begins laying out a strategic plan to control conditions in Egypt, and the sheikhs and the leaders of the popular leadership cooperate with him, such as al-Sayyid "Omar Makram", and they support him and help him.
But three months later an unfortunate incident occurs, changing the course of events entirely.
At the start of the year 1808, in one of the markets of Cairo, a Muslim merchant sold a defective piece of cloth to a Christian man, who took the goods and went home.. and when he returned to his house, he discovered it was damaged, so he went back to the Muslim merchant, and tried to return it.
Like any swindling merchant who sells defective goods.. the Muslim merchant resisted with all his might.. and tried to convince the Christian that he himself had damaged the cloth.. and a heated altercation erupted between them.. in the course of which the Muslim merchant snatched a special pair of shears, with which he cut cloth, and directed a deep stab at the Christian buyer, taking his life on the spot.
The family of the Christian man comes and clashes with the workers and relatives of the Muslim merchant.. and the matter nearly turned into a terrifying sectarian strife.. had the night watch not intervened.. and they refer the matter to the head of the merchants' guild.. who tries to convince the family of the slain man to accept the blood money.. and to settle the matter according to custom.. and the story ends and peace prevails.
And here "Muhammad Ali" intervenes in the matter himself.. and insists on referring the murderous merchant to trial.. provided that the verdict be issued according to the law in which all are equal before the judge.. and not under customs or anything else.
And the chief judge of the Egyptian state issues his ruling according to the law.. and what it decrees in cases of the killing of a soul.. is death.
The common people revolt, along with some preachers and sheikhs.. and they turn to al-Sayyid "Omar Makram" and Sheikh "al-Sharqawi".. who go to "Muhammad Ali".. and warn him that according to what they have unanimously agreed upon in jurisprudence, a Muslim is not taken for the blood of a non-Muslim.. and the most that can happen in such a situation.. is that the family of the slain Christian accept the blood money.
But "Muhammad Ali" ignores their words entirely.. and carries out the verdict.
And he executes the Muslim merchant.
Souls boil over.. and the preachers incite.. so the crier of "Muhammad Ali" passes through the markets.. announcing the execution of any person, whatever his position or office, who objects to the carrying out of a judicial ruling.
This situation angers the popular leaders such as "Omar Makram" and "Sheikh al-Sharqawi" and Sheikh "Muhammad al-Mahdi" and "Sheikh al-Dawakhli".. especially since "Muhammad Ali" had begun to ignore them entirely in the affairs of governance.. he does not refer to them nor take their opinion at all.. particularly since they had been aspiring to be a consultative council for him.. and an oversight authority over him..
And the popular leaders decide to depose "Muhammad Ali" from his post.. and they begin planning for that in earnest.
And in the month of June of that same year, "Muhammad Ali" decides to impose new taxes on the people, to help him in development and building the army.
And here the mouths of the popular leaders water.. and they breathe a sigh of relief.. especially with the people's outrage at the new taxes.. and they imagine that Muhammad Ali had himself hammered the last nail into his own coffin.
And the men of the popular leadership then decide to rise against "Muhammad Ali" in a direct revolution in which they lead the people against him.
"Muhammad Ali" sends to al-Sayyid "Omar Makram" requesting a meeting with him.. but the latter refuses and tells him through his messenger "If we must meet, I will meet you in the house of Sheikh al-Sadat".. and here "Muhammad Ali" considers this a grave insult.. and understands that al-Sharif "Omar Makram" is declaring war on him.
And this war "Omar Makram" had indeed declared.. and with "Omar Makram"'s reply.. "Muhammad Ali" takes a counter-step.. that spreads panic among everyone and detonates a mighty wrath deep inside al-Sayyid "Omar Makram".
And this step, talking about it would take long.. so let us leave discussion of it for later...
And the talk has a remainder.
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Previous posts.
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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
6 - http://bit.ly/2MeJZHO