25 Messidor, year VI of the Revolution. Arrayed before the French army led by Napoléon Bonaparte is a stupendous sight: A crescent-shaped arc of over seven thousand Mameluke cavalry festooned with pistols and scimitars, draped in rich, colorful silken robes, extending from the Nile River right around their line. Behind them are some ten thousand fellahin, armed with clubs and cudgels. Suddenly, the Mamelukes let out a collective cry from seventeen thousand throats and, like a floodgate that has been opened, they dash toward the French army like a great torrent. “Steady men,” cried lieutenant Fourier. “Here they come.”
In 1798, Napoléon Bonaparte led an army of 50,000 to overthrow Egypt's despotic ruler and spread enlightenment throughout the Middle East. The Egypt Campaign is one soldier's story of that fateful expedition. In this book, a French lieutenant, Philippe Fourier, and his fellow officers battle the armies of Mameluke Beys, Turks, British, and a growing insurgency in the deserts and mountains of Egypt and Syria. As they march deeper into the Middle East, their goal turns from victory to survival.
In 1798, Napoléon Bonaparte led an army of 50,000 to overthrow Egypt's despotic ruler and spread enlightenment throughout the Middle East. The Egypt Campaign is one soldier's story of that fateful expedition. In this book, a French lieutenant, Philippe Fourier, and his fellow officers battle the armies of Mameluke Beys, Turks, British, and a growing insurgency in the deserts and mountains of Egypt and Syria. As they march deeper into the Middle East, their goal turns from victory to survival.
