(i. e. in Arabic, slaves) was at one time divided into two corps. One thousand had the care of the river, and lived on an island near Cairo; the other corps, which was more numerous, had the charge of the garrisons. It was the last sultan of the Aioubite race, in the eighth century, who so gallantly opposed Saint Lewis, and took him prisoner, but lost his throne and his life on the field of battle. The Mamalukes, by this time very numerous, were governed by twenty-four beys, who had engrossed all the principal offices of the state; and, being discontented with Touran-Shah, whom they suspected of some designs unfavourable to them, assassinated him at the beginning of his reign, in the year 1250, and put Azzedin Bey, one of their own body, into his place. From this time there was nothing but a continued scene of treachery and murder; whoever aspired to be sultan, formed a party, and after having murdered his rival, waited for a favourable opportunity to seize the reins of government. Whoever assasinated the sultan was generally proclaimed in his place; and sometimes two or three reigned at the same time in Syria, Upper Egypt, and Cairo, who were continually at war, til the most daring and enterprising had destroyed the others. These dissensions continued till sultan Selim the Second, surnamed the Great, taking advantage of the divisions among the beys, conquered Egypt. Finding it more easy to vanquish them, than to make them submit to a despotic government, he did not attempt to give them now laws, but was content with delegating the power of sultan to a bey, who, by basely betraying his former master, had been of service to Selim; and quitted the country six months after his first entry into Cairo, leaving the Mamalukes still masters of it. Soliman, the legislator, the successor of Selim, who raised the Turkish empire to its highest splendour and greatest power, gave a constitution, not only to Egypt, but to all the different provinces composing that heterogeneous mass of empire. He found it in the first place necessary to establish 2 counserpoise for the power and influence of the Mamalukes; to ef fect which, he established the corps odjacklis or militia, composed of natives of Egypt, and into which à Mamaluke was on no account to be admitted. To these corps he gave great powers; to the Mamalukes he left nothing but honorary titles, a little military authority, and a few villages for their different officers. He established a pacha, as his representative, who was at the head of the government, and who had the nomination of the different officers of state. The beys had indeed the choice of a successor, to fill up any vacancies among themselves, but they were obliged to present the person so chosen to the pacha in full divan, to be invested with the dignity by him. The pacha of Egypt was often the road to the great office of the vizirate, and was sometimes an honourable retreat for a disgraced vizier. He could be formally deposed by the corps of militia in the divan, and made to settle his accounts before he left the country. The reasons for his being so were trans transmitted to Constantinople, where he was always replaced; and indeed it rarely happened that a pacha died in his situation, as they were so frequently changed. The divan, which assembled twice a week to deliberate on all the affairs of state, was composed of the twenty-four beys, the principal officers of the militia, and the great lawyers. The pacha was the president of this assembly. The tribute paid to the Porte was 1200 purses of piastres (about 50,0007.), beside a quantity of rice, corn, &c. In this manner the government went on without any event of importance, being nothing more than constant intrigues, sometimes between the Mamalakes and the pacha, to repress the aspiring ambition of some chiefs of the militia. This wise constitution lasted till the middle of the present century, when a variety of causes conspired so overturn it. The beys were then beginning to take the lead in all affairs, and the pachas were merely cyphers, scarcely possessing the shadow of their ancient authority. About the year 1748, a pacha of a more determined cast was appointed, who, finding it impossible to assert his superiority, without striking some great blow, took a resolution to destroy the beys at once by assassination. Accordingly, as they were coming to take their places at the divan, seventeen of them were murdered, the rest escaped. Such a daring and open act of barbarity had not the desired effect; for the indignation of all classes against the pacha ran so high, that Le was obliged to quit his situation, and save his life by escaping t Constantinople. At that period Ibrahim Caya, a determined and ambitious man of the Mamaluke race, had got by intrigue into the corps of militia, in which he held a very high situation. He aspired to be elected Sheick el Belled, or chief of the Mamalukes, and to restore them to their original ascendency; and played his cards so well, that in a few years he had insinuated all the Mamalukes of his party into the militia, which gave him such an ascendency, that he easily kept the remainder quiet. Had he lived, he would in all probability have succeeded in making himself sultan of Egypt, independent of the Porte; but he was poisoned by an emissary of the court of Constantinople, who hoped, by destroying this aspiring chief, to regain their authority which was so completely straken. Ali Bey the Great, a man of more talents, with equal ambition and intrepidity, succeeded Ibrahim. He was the first Mamaluke who openly declared the bold design of freeing Egypt for ever from the nominal authority of the court of Constantinople. Throwing off the mask entirely, he assumed perfect independence; but what he gained by force, he lost by treachery. Ismael Bey and Mahomed Bey conspired against him, and drove him into Syria, where he took rethee with the celebrated Dahir, who had rendered himself master of Syria, and laughed at all the feeble efforts of the Parte to reduce him. Ali Bey, having received some small assistance from the Russians and from Dahir, crossed the Desert to meet his opponents. A battle was fought near Salalich, in which " Ali was wounded by one of his own party, supposed to have been Mourad Bey, and was in consequence taken prisoner. He was treated with great respect, and carried to Cairo, where he died a few days afterward. Ali Bey was born in Anatolia, a province of the Turkish empire: He was brought young into Egypt, where he was purchased in the same manner as the other Mamalukes, and raised himself by his enterprising and ambitious spirit to that situation, which made the Porte tremble for the remains of its power in Egypt. Mourad Bey, as chief of the faction of Ali, soon set up for himself, and drove his opponents from Cairo for some time; but they regained possession of the capital, and kept it, till they both died natural deaths. Mahomed Bey died first, at Acre, after haying taken the town. At the death of Ismael, Mourad Bey again assumed the government, though Ibrahim Bey nominally shared it. with him. There was hever a Sheick el Belled whose reign was of longer duration. From the year 1776 to 1801, a few interruptions excepted, he retained possession of the supreme power. For this continuance in the exercise of his sovereignty, in a country where authority seldom remains long in the same hands, he was indebted to his unbounded liberality and great courage.. At the arrival of the French amy in Egypt, Ibrahim Bey in a dastardly manner made his escape to Syria, where he, remained with a few Mamalukes, who had associated themselves to his fate, till the vizier lately returned. But Mourad Ber gallantly fought them as long as he could, and was on his way to join us, when the plague cut him off. The Mamalukes certainly made a very noble defence under this chict; by which their numbers were much reduced. They are, however, by no means annihilated, and will always derive strength from the aversion which the natives have for the Turks *. During all the revolutions among the Mamalukes that have taken place during the last sixty years. the pacha was nothing more than an empty representative of the au thority which the court of Con stantinople anciently exercised in Egypt, the whole power being in the hands of the Sheick el Belled. The functions of the pacha were. confined to receiving and transmit ting the miri or tribute to the grand seignior, whenever the beys thought proper to pay it. It was useless for him to dispute the will of the all-powerful beys, and accordingly he never made any hesitation at obeying their orders. Without troops, and without any means of enforcing his authority how could he do otherwise? Mourad Bey possesses great, quilities and great vices. To a bras * The Turkish pacha at Cairo is now fortifying himself in that city, in order to resist any attempts of the victorious beys, who are masters of all Upper Egypt, and extend their power even as far as the Pyramids. The pacha's troops have been de feated by them in several engagements. The Turkish fortes at present in Egypt consist in 3000 men at Damietta, 2000 at Rosetta, and 20,000 at Cairo. Alexandria is still garrisoned by British troops ory that knew no bounds, he joined an extraordinary bodily strength impetuous and extremely violent, his passions often led him to acts of cruelty; he was liberal to prodigality, and greedily rapacious; intrepid, active, and dexterous, bold in enterprise and cool in action: had Mourad enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, he might have been a good as well as a great man. The nominal place of chief of the Mamalukes was at this time pessessed by Ibrahim Bey, who had been with the grand vizier's army for some time; but from his want of spirit and enterprise, he had very little influence over them. He took great pains to give no jealousy to the vizier, wishing to keep in his far vour, though he did not possess his confidence. His object was to be nominated Sheick el Belled, after the subjection of Egypt.. Osman Bey Tambourgi * was the person looked upon as their chief, having been nominated by Mourad Bey on his death-bed. He was of a violent temper; but of no extraordinary talents. Mahomed Bey Elfi, so surnamed from the number of sequins for which he was. purchased, Elfi signifying a thousand, had however the most extensive influence. He is gifted with great abilities, joinca to the utmost prudence; is of an open and liberal disposition, and of the greatest personal courage. One particular trait will stamp his character; at the death of Mourad, all the beys looked up to him,' and wished to appoint him chief, in opposition to the desire expressed by Mourad; but he declined accepting it, thinking they were weak enough, without quarrelling antong theinselves:. Osman Bey Berdici was said to be an ambitious and able man, but not so prudent as Mahomed. He had, however, a great deal of influence and a strong party. But the chief counsellor of the Mamalukes, who transacted all their business, was a black, who had beca Mourad Bey's confidant. It is supposed, that it was he who persuaded Mourad to nominate Osman Bey Tambourgi as his successor, in order that he might still keep the management of their affairs as Caya Bey. He was a remarkably shrewd, insinuating character, and was employed in all the negotiations both with the French and English. To be a Mamaluke, it was indispensábly necessary to have been a slave: and even the child of a Ma maluke could not hold any employ-" Osman Bey Tambourgi, in open defiance of the pledged Ottoman faith, and. through the perfidious policy of that court, was assassinated in the month of October 1501, when going in the capoutan pacha's barge to dine on board sir Richard Bickerton's ship in the harbour of Alexandria. Osman Bey Ascar, Mahomed Bey Mafice, and the black Caya Bey, the confidant of Mourad Bey, also shared the same fateOsman Bey Bérdici was very severely wounded, but fortunately recovered. The survivors were taken on board the capoutan bey's ship, the Sultan Selim. Immediately upon the above transaction being made known to lord Hutchinson, he ordered brigadier-general Stuart, at the head of his regiment, and with guns and lighted matches, to proceed to the Turkish camp on the eastward of Alexandria, and to insist upon the bodies of the beys being given up to the British. This, after some heşitation, was acceded to by the capoutan pacha, and the remaining beys were libérated the next day, and sent to, Alexandria, where the bodies of those who had been sla were buried by the British army with all possible military honours. ment among there. The beys, kiachefs, and other officers among the Mamalukes, purchased these slaves from merchants, who brought them to Egypt. They were of all nations and countries, some Germans and Russians, but chiefly Georgians, Circassians, and from the other parts of Mount Caucasus. After having served their masters with fidelity, they were made free, and then had the right of buying slaves. The power and influence of the beys were proportionate to the number of Mamalukes that composed their household. Mamalukes, while slaves, cannot wear a beard, which is always the indisputable proof of their freedom. Beside the twenty-four beys, they were governed by a certain number of kiachefs, an employ subordinate to that of a bey. Their revenues consisted in those villages which were their individual property, and in the extortions and fines which they exacted from the unfortunate inhabitants. The Mamalukes are a brave and génerous race, but are cruel and revengeful. They are also addicted to the most detestable and unnatural of crimes, which is extremely prevalerit in most parts of the Turkish empire. For fortunate battle of Heliopolis, and the intrigues of his enemies. this he is indebted, not so much to his own abilities, as to the powerful protection of the caya (i. e. superintendent of the household) of the sultan, the sultan's mother, who possesses the utmost influence a Constantinople. Still he has every thing to fear from the ascendency of the capoutan pacha, who is rather his rival than his personal enemy. But Turkish rivalry cannot be dige nified with the name of emulation, and there can be little doubt but the pacha would rejoice in the disgrace of this minister. Though the vizier is totally unacquainted with European politics, and indeed with every kind of European knowledge, he is pretty well versed in Oriental literature, particularly Persian. He is by no means a man of bright talents; yet he has had sufficient good sense to accomplish the very difficult task of keepang his army in some degree of subordination. One of the most prominent traits of his character is an inclination to attribute every circumstance to the course of fate, which, whether it conduct to good or evil, he thinks irresistible, and any effort to stem: its torrent he considers as impotent, if not impious. Under this impression, when surrounded at Jaffs by Albanian revolters, who, in his own tent, presenting their muskets, threatened him with death, if not immediately paid, his answer was, Pecke (i. e. very well). One of his greatest faults is allowing too much influence to his favourites, who are all rapacious in the greatest degree, and who carry on their depredations in his name, relying on his partiality for their justification. One |