We are still with the intelligence operations that changed the face of the world, and the Ottoman butcher "Selim".. seeking to conquer Egypt, overthrow the Mamluk state, and control the entire Middle East.
The truth is that "Selim's" attempt was not the first attempt by the state of butchers coming from the East; they had tried several times before, and Cairo had defeated them, humiliated them and broken their noses, time after time.
"Selim" learned the lesson and decided to resort to a new weapon. The weapon of betrayal.
In a successful intelligence operation, "Selim" recruited two men from the commanders of the Mamluks of the Levant, which was subject to the Egyptian state.
"Khayr Bey al-Sharqasi" and "Janbirdi al-Ghazali".
"Selim" tried to buy Prince "Sibay", the governor of Damascus, but the latter was an honorable, upright man with clean hands, so he immediately hastened to inform the sultan of Egypt, "Al-Ashraf Abu al-Nasr Qansuh al-Ghuri".
The full details of "Selim's" intelligence operation reached Sultan "al-Ghuri", along with his recruitment of the two men.. and his plan.
The strange thing is that Sultan "al-Ghuri" completely ignored the information he received.
Competition had been fierce from the start, between "Sibay", "Khayr" and Janbirdi, so "al-Ghuri" imagined that "Sibay" was merely seeking to denounce the two men in order to push them off the scene.. so he ignored the whole matter, in a catastrophic, fatal mistake whose price he later paid in terror and blood, when he saw "Sibay's" blood flow onto the soil of Syria, falling a martyr on the battlefield at "Marj Dabiq" in the year 1516, before Sultan "al-Ghuri" himself followed him, at the hands of the Ottoman invaders, after he had seen with his own eyes "Janbirdi" and "Khayr" fighting in the ranks of the enemies.
A staggering price, which "Qansuh" did not pay alone.. the entire Middle East paid it, when the dark, gloomy cloud of the House of Osman cast its shadow over its sky for nearly five centuries.
And under the "rightly guided" rule of "the House of Osman", Egypt sank into a terrifying, pitch-black darkness. After it had fed all the lands of the earth, famine prevailed in it, and its people could no longer find their daily bread; and after it had been an example of justice, injustice spread through it.. and with injustice came ignorance, destitution, pain and disease.
And after more than two centuries, in the year 1751.. the star of a man rises from the far reaches of Upper Egypt. He forms a small army of Sa'idis, armed with cudgels, sticks and bladed weapons, and declares the whole of Upper Egypt independent of the Ottoman state.. and his name begins to spread throughout the Ottoman Empire, as a source of worry, trouble and terror.
"Sheikh al-Arab Hammam bin Yusuf Ahmad".
With the ruggedness of Upper Egypt's mountains and lands, and the unity and homogeneity of its people, the forces of the Ottoman state are defeated by "Hammam" time after time.. its reputation is shaken, the morale of its army plunges to zero, and the fires of revolution begin to flare against it in Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and even Greece.
And the Ottomans discover that there is no way but to resort to a new intelligence operation, through which they can penetrate the ranks of the strong, fearsome warrior of Upper Egypt. So they recruited his cousin and brother-in-law, "Sheikh Ismail".. in a successful operation, as a result of which Sheikh "Hammam" was defeated, the forces of Upper Egypt were scattered, and it returned to the grip of the Ottomans.
And in a leap half a century into the future, to the year 1805, a simple man arrives through the port of Alexandria, his name is "Muhammad Ali".. Alexandria captivates his heart, dazzles and enchants him, and he moves to Cairo, where his fascination and love for this land only grow, and deep inside he begins to form a plan to rule it, and to make it independent of the Ottomans.
He gets what he wanted, but he is unable to find a justification for fighting the Ottoman state and separating from it, until the year 1831, when the Ottoman governor of the Levant refused to supply him with the timber he had requested to repair the fleet, and then the Ottoman governor of Acre sheltered 5,000 Egyptian peasants fleeing the system of compulsory conscription.
As a result, "Muhammad Ali" immediately issued his orders to his son, and at dawn on 14 October 1831 AD, corresponding to 7 Jumada al-Ula 1247 AH, the Egyptian army moved under the command of "Muhammad Ali's" son.. crossing the Egyptian border, in a campaign complete in its forces and pillars.. with no intention of turning back.. without the permission or knowledge of the Ottoman state.. for the first time since the martyrdom of the hero Sultan Al-Ashraf "Tuman Bay".. 314 years earlier.. toward Palestine, to storm Acre and take its governor captive.
And this son of "Muhammad Ali" was a military man, raised on fighting from a tender age, and history has preserved his name for us, as one of the most brilliant military commanders in the world, from the nineteenth century until our present day, and one of only 44 commanders in the entire history of the earth who were never defeated in a single battle.
"Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt".
"Ibrahim Pasha" sets out.. and crosses the border, and a huge, enormous Ottoman army moves against him.. any breakaway from the Ottoman state shook its image in the rest of the world and caused it many problems.. but "Ibrahim" defeats the Ottoman army time after time, and returns to Acre to besiege it, and then storms its fortified walls, the very walls before which "Napoleon" had previously withdrawn, defeated and disappointed.
News of the fall of "Acre" echoes across the world, astonishing France itself, whose finest commanders had been unable to storm it.. and the Ottoman sultan mobilizes his forces and arms them with terrifying weaponry and unlimited equipment.
And near Homs, the commander of the Ottoman army, the Serasker "Hussein Pasha", sends.. a message to "Ibrahim Pasha".. telling him "that his steed has not drunk water for some time, and has sworn to quench its thirst only from the water of the Nile".. a reference to the fact that the Ottoman forces had explicit orders to defeat "Ibrahim", kill him, and advance toward Cairo.
"Ibrahim Pasha" did not reply to this message at all.. he almost felt it was absurd to send a special envoy to the Ottoman commander just to tell him "never mind". He advanced directly with the army.. so that the Serasker "Hussein" would discover that neither he nor his steed would be drinking from the Nile any time soon, and that the only place fit for drinking at present was the nearest pub.. "Hussein Pasha" knows this well.. and he is defeated by "Ibrahim Pasha" in a crushing defeat, and withdraws to the northeast.. to Belen.
And "Belen Pass" is a narrow defile connecting the plain of Antioch with the Gulf of Alexandretta on the border of the "Taurus Mountains".
In short.. it is the dividing line between the Levant and the borders of Turkey itself.
And for the first time.. the states of Europe gape in amazement, and follow the situation closely with the utmost interest.. even though they had encountered "Muhammad Ali" and "Ibrahim" before in the Greek war, yet until that moment they had imagined that what "Muhammad Ali" was doing was nothing more than a limited rebellion, which the Ottoman state would crush with its powerful army.. and its modern, advanced weapons.
And at "Belen" the Ottoman commander encamps, and decides to resort to an intelligence operation that will guarantee him victory. So he sends a group of Bedouins, claiming they are fleeing the brutality of the Ottoman army.. and they inform the Egyptian army that the Ottomans are encamped beyond Belen, that the pass is empty, and that beyond it the Ottoman forces are torn apart, scattered, wounded and exhausted.
Ibrahim takes the commander of the reconnaissance forces aside, and assigns him a task, after which he returns to announce publicly the truth of the three Bedouins' words.. so "Ibrahim" rewards them and releases them immediately.
And while "Ibrahim" is encamped with the army in Damascus, studying how to cross the Belen Pass.. a special envoy arrives from the Ottoman sultan, with a message of the utmost importance and danger.
The content of the message was that Sultan "Mahmud II" was inviting him to repent and turn back.. to leave the obedience of his father and enter the obedience of the Ottoman sultan.. and to withdraw to Cairo without condition or reservation, because he considered the two of them infidels, outside the religion, and renegades against the legitimate authority of the Ottoman sultan.. So "Ibrahim" picked up his pen and his inkwell, and replied on the back of the very same message, with a terrifying one-line reply:
"I am coming with my brave men to answer you in Constantinople"... And he followed it by touching the surface of his fist to the ink.. and sealed the message with his own seal, and sent it with the same envoy who had brought it.
And that was an extremely dangerous reply, meaning that "Ibrahim Pasha" had decided to advance across the Ottoman border to the heart of the Sultanate, to bring down the state itself.
And the Arab spies return to the Serasker "Hussein" with the joyous news.. and "Hussein" smiles with glee, when he sees that "Ibrahim Pasha" has swallowed the bait he sent with his spies, and has already begun moving the army toward the Belen Pass.
Toward a tight, deadly ambush, through a rugged pass.. whose mountain peaks are adorned with more than 160 hidden Ottoman cannons.. ready to annihilate "Ibrahim and his men" the moment they cross the pass.
An ambush capable of exterminating the Egyptian army of that time, down to the last soldier.
And on the morning of 29 July, in the year 1832, the Egyptian army, led by "Ibrahim Pasha", heads for "Belen".. where the tight, deadly trap prepared by the Ottoman Serasker "Hussein Pasha" awaits.
But the "Belen ambush" would take long to tell.. so we will continue our account of it later.
And the talk remains.. to be continued.
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