The eighth of October, in the year 1365 AD, in the age of the Egyptian Mamluk state.. and the king of Cyprus, "Pierre I de Lusignan", moved his entire naval fleet, carrying nearly fifty thousand soldiers, on an extremely dangerous secret mission. The commanders and soldiers of that same fleet did not know it, nor did they even know where they were sailing.

Along the way, "Pierre" announced the plan, and the fleet's destination.. the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

"Pierre I de Lusignan" decided to attack the city of Alexandria, raze it to the ground, and occupy it, in a treacherous surprise attack, at the instigation of the Ottoman "Murad I". "Murad" and "Pierre" were in fact enemies.. but "Murad" tempted him with the idea through an intermediary, the Byzantine emperor "Andronikos IV".. who became convinced that "Jerusalem" would not return from the grip of the Mamluks to the bosom of Europe unless they pressured the Mamluks with brute force.

So they decided that the solution was to seize Alexandria, on the understanding that it would later be exchanged for Jerusalem.

To carry out his plan, on top of the terrifying secrecy he imposed, to the point that nobody knew of the campaign but him, "Pierre" first sent a group of spies, disguised as merchants, who brought the people of Alexandria the good news of the arrival of commercial ships from "Venice", "Greece" and "England".. to buy Egyptian goods, and to sell the Egyptians whatever they asked for from what they carried.

After sunset on the ninth of October, 1365.. and while the Egyptian fleet was engaged in the Red Sea, the ships appeared on the horizon to the people of Alexandria, on the Mediterranean shore.. so they naturally assumed they were commercial vessels.. but the next morning, when only a very short distance separated them, they realized they were warships.

Then the cannon fire began, and houses collapsed on top of their occupants, markets on top of the vendors, and schools on top of the bodies of children. The Crusader Cypriot forces entered Alexandria.. and walked through the streets slaughtering whoever they came across.. sparing no one, neither Muslim nor Christian, not even Europeans. They killed them and looted their shops.

After that they fell upon the churches and stole the votive offerings, golden crosses and precious objects inside them.. they already considered the Egyptian Church at the time to be a heretical infidel church, because it was Orthodox and not Catholic.. and they burned the churches and the mosques, and even violated the cemeteries.. The English historian Sir "Steven Runciman" describes what happened as one of the most horrific massacres in history.. so much so that it is almost the most horrific massacre of the Crusades altogether.

The massacre continued for three uninterrupted days, without a single moment of rest, until the reinforcements arrived, and the dust of the hooves of the Egyptian army's horses, coming from Cairo, began to appear on the horizon. With the reputation of the Mamluks as warriors against whom no dust could be raised, who had defeated Europe several times, "Pierre" and his men grew anxious, and decided to withdraw without a confrontation.

What was plundered from Alexandria at that time was so vast that the Cypriot ships began throwing gold, treasures, fabrics and rare silk into the sea to lighten their load.

And from atop the fleeing Cypriot ships out at sea, Alexandria looked like a city of sand on the seashore, crushed by a child's foot, with black smoke and fire rising from every inch of it.

The Catholic pope in Europe was overjoyed by the strike on Alexandria.. and began to rally the kings of Europe to carry out "Pierre's" idea.. which was "Murad's" idea.. and occupy it.. but Italy refused and withdrew.. and France and Hungary followed.. The truth is that the destruction of Alexandria ruined their trade.. and the prices of spices, silk, tobacco, carpets, manufactured goods and crops that used to come from Egypt and no longer did.. rose in Europe to maddening levels.. Also, after "Pierre's" withdrawal, Egypt responded immediately with a punitive military strike on Cyprus.

That military strike was quick and brief given Egypt's economic losses and because it was also engaged in the Red Sea with the Portuguese.. but that brief strike upset the Cypriot people, and afterwards they began.. with the sudden rise in prices.. to hate "Pierre" and feel that his military adventure had caused them problems and brought calamity down on their heads.. and people grew weary of him and his rule, and of the country's internal unrest.

Cyprus, too, because of the strike on Alexandria, was economically weakened, since Egypt boycotted the Cypriot merchants who used to trade with it.. so goods ran scarce, trade stagnated, crime spread, and Cyprus entered a state of chaos.

And one night.. three knights of the Cypriot army set out for "Pierre's" bedchamber while he slept in his palace in Nicosia.. and they fell upon him.. and killed him before he knew what was happening to him.

No one has ever set foot on the land of Egypt without the permission and consent of its people, without being utterly humiliated, whether the time was long or short.. What happened afterwards is the best proof of that.

What happened was that Sultan Al-Ashraf "Sayf-ad-Din Barsbay" ascended the throne of Egypt, and at that very moment, the new king of Cyprus, "Janus Lusignan", ordered his men.. and some Cypriot ships attacked Egyptian and Italian commercial vessels on the outskirts of Alexandria.. and when the Egyptian coast guard pursued them.. they clashed with it, before slipping away and fleeing.

And here.. "Al-Ashraf Sayf-ad-Din Barsbay" decided to respond to Cyprus with a retaliatory operation, one that would make it a lesson for anyone who entertained the idea of assaulting Egyptian territory.. and would settle old scores and new.

"Al-Ashraf Sayf-ad-Din Barsbay" was an extremely intelligent man, and he loved intelligence and military ruses and appreciated them. So when the news reached him of the capture of a Cypriot spy, he went to him in his prison, confronted him in anger, and informed him that he would be on the shores of Cyprus, on the first day of the coming month, and would occupy it.. and then he ordered his execution before sunrise, and left.

But the Cypriot spy escaped, and boarded a merchant ship to Venice and from there to Cyprus, and conveyed this information to the king.

And in Cairo, "Al-Ashraf Barsbay" announced among his followers that after the spy's escape, it had become impossible to attack on the appointed date, because Cyprus would be ready and prepared, and so he postponed the decision for war, and ordered most of the warships withdrawn from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, to control the pirates and put an end to the skirmishes taking place there.

The news spread among the people, and Cyprus indeed monitored the movement of the fleet from the Mediterranean, heading on its way to the Red Sea.

But on the exact date that "Al-Ashraf Barsbay" had set for the spy, the Egyptian ships were turning the Cypriot fleet into a blaze of flame on the surface of the water, then docking on the shore, and shelling the coasts of Cyprus, and then carrying out a successful landings of tens of thousands of soldiers.

And it became clear, too late, that "Al-Ashraf Barsbay" was the one who had ordered his men to let the Cypriot spy escape.. so that he would reach Cyprus and deliver his message.. and that he had sailed the ships in a wide loop at sea, to deceive the Cypriot spies and the mercenaries who would carry the news, and make them believe he was heading for the Red Sea.

And the army of "Al-Ashraf Barsbay" set out across Cypriot territory, defeating its garrisons and destroying its cities one after another, and raising Egyptian flags over their ruins, under cover of the fleet's artillery, until they reached the palace of the king of Cyprus himself, defeated his private guard, took him captive, and brought him to Cairo, to stand before "Al-Ashraf Barsbay" bound in chains and shackles.

Europe was thrown into upheaval, and sent dozens of delegations; other delegations joined them, along with figures of standing and commanders from non-European states, such as the Sharif of Mecca, envoys of the House of Osman, and the king of Tunis. They interceded and pleaded with "Al-Ashraf Barsbay" to release King "Janus Lusignan".. and the guard of the sultan of Egypt brought the Cypriot king out of prison, and he bowed, and kissed the ground between the hands of Sultan "Sayf-ad-Din Barsbay".

The negotiations and the pressure on the sultan of Egypt, "Al-Ashraf Barsbay", continued.. so he agreed to release the king of Cyprus in exchange for a hefty ransom, by the standards of that era.. and on condition that Cyprus become subject to the Egyptian state, taking orders from the sultan of Egypt, and that the king of Cyprus become his deputy in ruling it, while paying a fixed annual tribute to the Egyptian treasury.

This treaty was indeed concluded, and "Janus Lusignan" was released, and Cyprus remained from that time subject to the Egyptian state, until the Mamluk state fell, with the invasion of the Ottoman "Selim I", in the year 1517.

In that year, the successful intelligence operation was "Selim's" lot.. and although the sultan of Egypt at the time was "Qansuh al-Ghuri".. intelligence information reached him in turn that could have completely changed the outcome of that war.. that did not happen, for reasons too long to explain, which we will discuss next time.

And the talk remains to be continued, God willing.

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