He went to Istanbul and joined the Canoneers (Topçular in Turkish), and quickly rose to the rank of Odabaşı, but thanks to his character and rivalries, he was forced to flee the Ottoman Empire.

[6] In an attempt by Charles X of France to increase his popularity amongst the French, he sought to bolster patriotic sentiment, and turn eyes away from his domestic policies, by "skirmishing against the dey".

In the 1790s, France had contracted to purchase wheat for the French army from two Jewish merchants in Algiers, Messrs. Bakri-Busnach, and was in arrears paying them.

[8] After a contentious meeting in which Deval refused to provide satisfactory answers on 29 April 1827, the dey struck him with his fly whisk.

When the dey responded to a demand to send an ambassador to France to resolve the incident by firing cannons toward one of the blockading ships, the French determined that more forceful action was required.