180 
CUMENTS EELATING TO EGYPT. 
People of Egyp'te ! If any presume to tell you that I come to 
destroy your religion, believe them not. Tell them that I come to 
restore your rights, to punish usurpers, and that, far more than the 
Beys, I respect God, his prophet, and the Qur’an. Tell them that all 
men are equal before God ; that men only differ in wisdom, ability and 
virtue. 
But by what wisdom, ability and virtue are these Beys distinguished, 
that they should exclusively possess all that renders life pleasant and 
desirable ? If there be a fine estate, it belongs to the Mamelukes. 
If there be a fine slave, she belongs to the Mamelukes; a fine horse, a 
fine house,—they belong to the Mamelukes. If Egyptebo their farm, 
let these Mamelukes show us the lease that God has granted them. 
Kazis, Shayklis, Imams ! Tell the people that we are true Moslims. 
Is it not we who have overthrown the Pope wlio said war must bo 
made upon Islam Is it not we who have dispersed the Knights of 
Malta, infatuated, v 7 ho thought God willed them to make war upon 
Islam ? Have w r e not been at all times the friends of the Sultan and 
the enemies of his enemies ?” 
^ ^ >j< 
XXX. 
. On the 21st and 22nd Oct. 1798 the Cairenes revolted against the 
French, and the Diwan of Cairo (at Buonaparte’s instigation, no 
doubt) published a proclamation to allay the excitement. 
“ The French General has arrested those who joined in the dis¬ 
turbance before the house of the Shay kb. ul-Islam, and two of these 
malefactors have been put to death 2 . The French never act 
with perfidy, especially towards widows; they hold such conduct in 
horror. ... A Christian tax-gatherer has been arrested for ex- 
tortiom . . 
The French General proposes to dig a canal connecting the Nile 
with the gulf of Suez, in order to put exported goods beyond the 
reach of brigands and Bedouins, and to facilitate the importation of 
merchandise from Yemen, India, and the East.” 3 
A proclamation from the Shaykhs followed, in which the Cairenes 
are reminded that— 
ff i Among European nations the French alone have ever been the 
friends of Islam and the enemies of idolatry and superstition. 
They love those the Sultan loves and are the enemies of his enemies. 
Hence the hatred between the French and the Russians, who meditate 
the taking of Constantinople. . . The Russians are eager to seize 
I 1 This passage did not appear in the 1st edition of Sacy’s work, published in the early years of 
this century, as Napoleon concluded a Concordat with the Pope on 15 July , 1801. 
; 2 Some 5000 persons lost their lives during this ‘tapage’, as Napoleon called it. 
q . 3 ‘‘The Barrage is a handsome bridge—putting the architecture cut of consideration—'he work 
of French engineers, originally projected by Napoleon I. It was intended to act as a dam, raising 
the waters of the Nile and conducting them to Suez, the Salt lakes, and a variety of other places 
through a number of canals, which however are not yet opened (1853)”. Pilgrimage to Al-Medina 
and Mecca , by Sir E. E. Burton, Memorial ed., II, 30. 
