[8] Murat's charge was so rapid that he burst inside Mustafa's tent and captured the Turkish commander, severing two of the Turk's fingers with his sabre.

[9] News of the victory reached France before Napoleon arrived in October and this made him even more popular, an important asset considering the troubles brewing in the French Directory.

[10] Although nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt had been ruled as a semi-autonomous province for centuries, and its potential occupation by France had been under discussion since 1774.

Napoleon took the initiative and marched north in February 1799, taking Gaza City, El Arish, and Jaffa, but was then held up at Acre for over two months.

The defence was led by Djezzar Pasha, the Ottoman governor, assisted by Antoine de Phélippeaux, an engineer and master of artillery who had studied with Bonaparte at the École militaire but was now a British colonel.

[14] The city was continually replenished with supplies by the Royal Navy, and with his own forces decimated by the plague, Napoleon withdrew, ending plans to capture Constantinople.

(Later in 1801 the British would breach this embankment, causing the brackish seawater to flood into Lake Mariout, which hugely increased its size and cut Alexandria's most significant source of freshwater).

On 14 July a British fleet of sixty ships landed with 16,000 men under the command of Mustapha Pasha, a veteran of the last Russo-Turkish war.

"[citation needed] Napoleon previously received reports that Murad Bey was riding due north, passing the Natron lakes west of Cairo, he ordered Murat out to pursue him.

But the bey returned to Giza and climbed the Pyramids, and using a mirror, "sent several signals to his wife" (who was observing him from the roof of her palace).

When Napoleon received (at the time he was several miles northwest of Cairo, participating in the hunt of Murad bey) a report from Marmont, then military-governor of Alexandria, on July 15, reporting that a large Anglo-Ottoman fleet had arrived off Aboukir and disembarked 10,000 troops, Napoleon wasted no time and sent several dispatches.

Napoleon set out with almost all the French troops in Cairo for Damanhur as well, leaving the city to be policed and garrisoned only by his local Egyptian 'police chief', a man known as "Barthelemy".

396 The clash between the two armies took place near Alexandria, but the victorious French called it "the battle of Abu Qir" (or Aboukir) to avenge the former defeat of 1–3 August 1798.

According to Napoleon, The enemy threw themselves into the water in an attempt to reach the boats which were more than 2 miles out at sea; they all drowned, the most horrible sight I've seen.The French then proceeded to attack the second Ottoman line, which was strongly defended.

Outside the Pasha's tent, the mayhem did not cease, and the Ottoman army had broken into a complete rout and thousands of soldiers were fleeing to the sea on both sides of the Peninsula.

A few thousand Ottoman troops retreated northwards and took refuge inside the fort of Aboukir, these included the Pasha's son.

Mustapha Pasha, who was now a captive of the French, wrote multiple dispatches to the beleaguered Ottomans, ordering them to surrender, this was refused and the survivors of the battle swore to defend the fort to their last extremity.

We gave them food and drink, and in spite of the precautions taken to prevent the illness that comes from eating too much too quickly after having suffered from hunger, three-quarters of those 3,000 men died of indigestion.Sir Sidney Smith dispatched a letter to Horatio Nelson, on August 2, informing him of the defeat, writing;[18]Page 364 I am sorry to have to acquaint your lordship of the entire defeat of the first division of the Ottoman army, destined to act against the enemy in Egypt, under the command of his excellency Mustapha Serasker, who is wounded and taken prisoner, after having defended himself gallantly, and wounded General Murat, who took him.

It is much to be lamented that we had not two regular regiments, in addition to the remnant of the Chiflick (sic) corps, which was almost entirely cut to pieces for want of support; we should then have been able to have kept the redoubt and castle of Aboukir, which Mustapha Pasha and Patrona Bey took by assault, on the 15th ultimo; as it was, the unformed mass of irregular infantry could not withstand the spirited at-tack of a small body of French cavalry, which leaped over the works after having been three times repulsed by the effect of our cannon.

On my arrival, five days after the disembarkation, I found the Turkish army in a very different position from that in which I hoped to find it, from the correspondence which had passed between Mustapha Pasha and me; and much less considerable, being but 5,000 men instead of 15,000, as had been reported.

The Turks are not easily brought to quit their arms for entrenching tools, of which they only begin to see the utility; thus the attempt at making lines across the peninsula, from the redoubt to the sea on each side, was very imperfect.

The English rowing boats alone went there, after completely clearing the east side from the enemy, and we felt the insufficiency of our fire so much the more, since even that made a considerable impression on the blue column as it advanced to the assault; it was even repulsed twice, but the barbarous custom of the Turks, in cutting off the heads of their fallen enemies, to effect which they ran forward irregularly, produced a burst of indignation amongst the French infantry, which rallied them; the suddenness of their return to the assault discomfited the unconnected defenders of these imperfect lines; the sea was soon covered with hundreds of fugitives swimming off to us, and the castle on the point became too much crowded for it to be practicable for the besieged to act in its defence, or for us to supply such a numerous garrison....The French suffered only 220 dead and 600 wounded while the Turkish losses were enormous: 2,000 dead on the battlefield, 11,000 men drowned, 5,000 prisoners of war and 2,000 missing and unaccounted for.

Among the Ottomans rescued from the water was thirty-years old officer of Albanian descent Muhammed Ali, who six years later would rule and transform Egypt.

For his gallant charge and capture of the Pasha, Napoleon promoted Murat to divisional general, and gave him great credit for the victory at Aboukir.

Sidney Smith, leading the British fleet, wrote the following to be "Causes of the defeat of the Ottoman army under Mustapha Pasha Serasker on the 25th July 1799;[18]Page 367 1st.

Its being far less in number than supposed and reported, and certainly unequal to undertaking the siege of Alexandria, consequently fit only to carry on a harassing war of posts, under the protection of the naval force, to cause a division in favour of the Vizier, and facilitate his uninterrupted progress into Egypt by the way of the desert.

The Pasha not having listened to the advice on this head, sent him by Sir Sidney Smith, through Major Bromley, which pointed out Damietta and Rosetta as the stations to which his forces should be directed, while the fleet occupied the Bay of Aboukir being not only a powerful diversion, but likewise conductive to the blockade and reduction of Alexandria by famine, which, now that it is strongly fortified, is the only way that an army, unused to the European mode of carrying on a siege, can attempt it.

The absolute denial of the Turkish launches to accompany the English commodore when he went with his boats to the westward, after having cleared the east side of the Peninsula of every Frenchman, so that when the English boats came round and found the French infantry lodged and crouched amongst the sand-banks on the shore, and totally exposed to the sea, their fire, though well served and directed into the mass of them, being from two guns only, was insufficient for their destruction, or to keep them in check, and consequently rather goaded them on than otherwise; the four gun-boats would have effectually hindered their approach to the redoubt, and covered the retreat of the Chiflick regiment from the village in front; the Turkish launches would have checked the enemy sufficiently for the Turks to rally; finally, there being no prompt punishment for disobedience of orders, nor any immediate successor to the principal chief, in case of his death, capture, absence, illness, or excess of fatigue; and in short, such a want of gradation in the distribution of ranks, that it is indispensably necessary for the principal chief to super-intend the execution of the most trifling service him-self, to the ultimate prejudice of his authority on greater questions where every one pretends to decide.

The mutinous spirit of their army was carried so far as to produce the actual arrest of the governor and principal personages in the castle, and increased the difficulty of supplying their wants, as, in the disorder, they forced the boats which brought water to them to return with fugitives, firing on those who approached with necessary caution, fearing to be overpowered with more than they could bear.Abukir gave the French a few months respite.

Kleber's successor, Menou, lacking the skills of a war leader, was defeated at Canopus (fought a short distance west of the battlefield of Aboukir, on the isthmus to Alexandria) and surrendered on 2 September on identical conditions that were negotiated and agreed on previously by Kleber, Sidney Smith and Grand Vizier Kör Yusuf Ziyaüddin Pasha, but declined and foundered by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.