Initially recruited during the Egyptian campaign, the Mamelukes were repatriated with the French troops to metropolitan France where they were organized into a squadron, later reduced to a simple company.

After distinguishing itself several times in Poland, the company left for Spain in 1808 and took an active part in the suppression of the Dos de Mayo Uprising, during which fierce fighting pitted the Mamelukes against insurgents in the streets of Madrid.

After Napoleon's first abdication, a few Mamelukes accompanied the deposed Emperor to the island of Elba, while most of the unit's personnel joined the Bourbon Restoration's Royal Corps of Chasseurs of France.

On the king's return, the so-called "true" Mamelukes were finally sent back to the Marseille depot: many of them were murdered there in a massacre during the White Terror of 1815.

Around the 1230s, the Sultan of Egypt, eager to create a corps of soldiers devoted to his person, bought from Ögedei Khan's Mongols a large number of young slaves captured during their conquests.

The country was finally invaded by the Ottomans at the beginning of the 16th century and the Mamluks, defeated, had to accept the presence of a pasha who ruled the territory in close connection with Constantinople.

[2] The Mamluks then enjoyed great prestige in Egyptian society: according to Darcy G. Grigsby, "they were defined by their powerful military function, their costume, and the superior characteristics that earned them membership in such an elite.

[4] After his victory at Abukir in 1799, judging his presence in Paris to be more important, Bonaparte left command of the Army of the Orient to General Kléber and returned to France accompanied by part of his staff.

760 Mamluks, Syrian janissaries and soldiers of the Greek Legion, who were authorized to follow the French army with their families, embarked on the troopship HMS Pallas and eventually ended up in Marseilles at the "Depot of the Egyptians" near the neighbourhood of La Castellane.

[7][8] They were men of all races and colors: mountaineers from Georgia and Circassia and horsemen from the Crimea, Arabia, Syria (probably including Armenians), Egypt, Abyssinia, Darfur (probably mostly blacks), Albania, the Turkish Balkan provinces, Hungary, Malta, Tunisia, and Algeria.

Two of their officers were from Bethlehem.On 13 October 1801, Napoleon ordered his aide-de-camp, Colonel Jean Rapp, to organize a squadron of 240 cavalrymen chosen from among the refugees from Egypt.

[12] This force included: Shortly afterwards, the Mamelukes made their way to Melun where they established themselves in the present Augereau district,[13] while the refugees unfit for service remained in Marseille with their families.

[19] At the Battle of Eylau, they took part under Captain Renno in the charge of the Guard cavalry led by Marshal Bessières, following the grenadiers and the mounted chasseurs.

Following the departure of chef d'escadron Delaitre, appointed major of the Polish light cavalry of the Guard in April 1807, Captain Renno assumed interim command.

The abdication of King Charles IV and then of his son Ferdinand in favor of Joseph Bonaparte, the Emperor's brother, exacerbated tensions between the Spanish and the French.

Seeking to expand this force, chef d'escadron Daumesnil, commanding the detachment of chasseurs of the Guard in Spain, asked permission to enlist foreigners, former Mamelukes but also Greeks or Spaniards, which Napoleon refused: "I created this corps to reward those men who served me in Egypt, and not to make a collection of adventurers.

At the end of the fighting, the company had its five officers injured as well as three horsemen killed or mortally wounded, losses that Ronald Pawly considered as "relatively limited" compared to the painter Goya's depictions.

The three squadrons of mounted chasseurs of the Guard and the detachment of Mamelukes, under the command of General Lefebvre-Desnouettes, crossed the river Esla and charged towards the city, but Paget striked at the French from the flank and managed to push them back.

[29] On 1 March 1812, the company, now numbering no more than 55 men, left the peninsula definitively to join the army stationed in Poland, in preparation for the Russian campaign.

[32] They distinguished themselves however on 22 May at the Battle of Reichenbach when, sent to support the Polish lancers at the head of the mounted chasseurs, the squadron deployed against a brigade of Russian cuirassiers and executed a short-range carbine salvo, causing their enemies to flee.

[35] Arriving on 10 February near Montmirail with Napoleon, they charged the next day following Letort's Dragoons of the Imperial Guard; the latter broke through several Russian infantry squares, whose survivors were cut to pieces by the Mamelukes and the mounted grenadiers.

General Dautancourt took command of the cavalry of the Guard present in Paris, which brought together mounted grenadiers, chasseurs, dragoons, Mamelukes, lancers and Polish scouts.

In June 1815, alongside the mounted chasseurs of the guard, the Mamelukes took part in the Belgian campaign, where they were present at the battles of Ligny and Waterloo.

During the Second White Terror, royalists in Marseille attacked the refugee community and many Mamelukes were murdered by the mob;[46] the population of the depot fell by two thirds.

[49] By decree of 21 Vendémiaire Year X (13 October 1801), First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered one of his aides-de-camp, Colonel Jean Rapp, to organize and take command of the squadron of Mamelukes.

[50] Captain Antoine Charles Bernard Delaitre [fr] succeeded Dupas and was bruised on the eve of the Battle of Pułtusk while leading his cavalrymen.

[12][19] On 7 April 1807, he was appointed colonel-major of the Polish light cavalry of the Imperial Guard; while waiting for a new chef d'escadron, interim command was exercised by Captain Jean Renno, from Acre.

[20] This interim ended on 10 September 1808 when chef d'escadron François Antoine Kirmann [fr], from the mounted chasseurs of the Guard, was appointed commander of the company of Mamelukes.