Once Muhammad `Aliy got rid of the English and the Turks, he embarked upon his bid for the power to rule Egypt.  However, his activities were much hampered by the continuous hostility of the Mamaliyk who were resisting his authority by claiming their ancient baronial rights. Once he obtained definite evidence that attempts were to be made upon his life, he decided to rid himself of them. In early spring of 1811, he laid a trap for his enemies, implying that he wanted to come to terms with them.  On March 1st, under the pretext to bid farewell to the officers of an expedition which was about to set out for Arabia with the object of bringing the holy cities under Egyptian protection, he invited every available Mamluwk chieftain to attend a reception at al-Qal`ah (the Citadel). The Mamaliyk eagerly accepted his invitation

On that day, March 1st, 1811, led by Shahiyn Bey, the Mamaliyk, bedecked in their most beautiful ceremonial clothing and costly armor, rode in on their richly caparisoned (ornamented covering) horses. They joined in the military procession of Muhammad `Aliy celebrations as one of the rearguard contingent. As they rode out of the Citadel down the narrow little hill to the gate of al-`Azab (also known as Bab Radwan  Katkhuda al-Galfiy 1168 A.H. / 17654 A.D.), which opened out into Maydan al-Ruwmaliyah (Square), suddenly, the huge doors of the gate were slammed shut in front of them, so that they were trapped in a narrow defile with high walls on either side, while a detachment of Albanian soldiers (the rearguard of the procession) were closing in behind them. What ensued next, was the most  horrific carnage never seen the like of it in the history of Cairo.

Many legends have been spun about what happened that terrible day, however the Egyptian historian al-Gabartiy, who was in Cairo at the time, gives the following gruesome and detailed description:
 
 

"......and on the fatal day 460 Mamaliyk rode in state into al-Rumaylah square at the Citadel, clad in their richest robes, wearing their finest jewels, and riding their superb horses. Muhammad `Aliy received them graciously, serving them with coffee, sweetmeats, and pipes; and when the ceremonies of the day were over he arranged that they should be formed up into a martial procession, the position of each  Mamluwk chieftain being assigned with punctilious correctness according to, his rank. The glittering cavalcade then rode down the hill towards the gate of al-`Azab, the road here passing through a cutting in the rock, above which the sheer walls of houses towered up on either side  but on their arrival at the gateway the doors were closed in their face, and immediately a fusillade was directed upon them from the windows of the houses. A horrible scene ensued. The procession was instantly converted into a confused mass of plunging horses and staggering men, and these were presently transformed into silent heaps of sprawling slain, from which the streams of blood trickled down the hill and under the barred doors of the gateway. Two or three of the Mamaliyk chieftains, wounded and gasping, managed to regain the higher ground, but here they were cut down with the cold steel. A Mamluwk prince of the highest rank, Sulayman al-Bawab, bleeding, staggered, into the Hariym of Muhammad `Aliy's house, and claimed the right of sanctuary crying " Ana fiy `ard  al-Hariym! (Mercy, I seek the protection of the women's quarter!),  which according to ancient custom, the women quarters afforded sanctuary; but the Albanians had no respect for tradition, and the head of the fugitive was struck from his body on the spot. Only one of the Mamaliyk trapped in the Citadel escaped the massacre, a certain chieftain named Amiyn, who galloped up the hill to a point at which the road overlooked the precipitous wall of the Citadel and here leapt into space, landing upon the rocks some thirty feet below, his fall being broken by his horse, which no doubt was killed under him (1).

While the massacre in the Citadel had been going on, Muhammad `Aliy himself was nervously awaiting the outcome, and as long as the firing lasted he was in a state of terror. But when the firing stopped and the heads of the victims began to appear at his feet, he calmed down a bit. Muhammad `Aliy, waiting for the news, was finally relieved when his Genoese physician, Mendrici, rushed in and announced gaily: "It's all over. It is a fête (feast) for your highness." Muhammad `Aliy couldn't say anything except to ask for a glass of cold water (2).
 

Many years later Muhammad `Aliy declared that his sleep at night was made horrible by the faces of the men whom he had condemned to death in the shambles of the Citadel.  Yet not quite satisfied with the massacre at the Citadel, Muhammad `Aliy issued further orders that the remaining Mamaaliyk were to be exterminated throughout Egypt. Thousands of followers and retainers of the fallen Mamaliyk  were slaughtered and their heads were impaled on Bab (gate) Zuwaylah. Five hundred had been killed in the Citadel, and thirty-five hundred more were murdered in the streets of Cairo.

Finally, a general amnesty was proclaimed in behalf of the few terrified survivors; but in the provinces the hunt continued unabated for many years.  The Mamaaliyk bands were gradually driven far south into the Sudan.
However, the first five hundred massacred at the Citadel were the biggest threat to Muhammad `Aliy's bid for power, and after they had been eliminated, the Mamluwk's power was extinguished and the long and incredible grip of these slaves rulers on Egypt from 1250 onwards, was over forever (3).

(To be continued)

(1) Actually some have contested this account and believed instead that  Amiyn Bey was never in the Citadel.  Instead he was in fact late in arriving and couldn't get in the Citadel on time, and when he heard the firing, he very sensibly galloped out of the city and didn't stop until he reached Syria!

(2) Félix Mengin, in his Histoire de l'Egypte sous le gouvernement de Mohammed-Aly (1823)

(3)  "There were forty thousand Mamaliyk in Egypt when Napoléon arrived and approximately twenty thousand when the British left in 1803.  Of them, five thousand were murdered throughout Egypt in 1811. In their prime they were formidable soldiers and superb horsemen; in their decline they were not even good soldiers in the streets of Cairo against the unarmed population; and at the end there was nothing to show that they were good soldiers anywhere else.  In the nineteenth century they were better soldiers than the Turks but not as good as Muhammad `Aliy's  ferocious Albanians. They certainly left very much more beauty in Cairo than the Turks did, which might prove something, if on that they served and enjoyed the expansive times they lived in."  James Aldridge, Cairo, Biography of a City. p 176,  Little & Brown Co., 1969, USA.