[1] [2] It depicts the massacre of the Mamelukes at the Citadel of Cairo in 1811, portraying a concluding moment in the first Egyptian Khedive Muhammad Ali's rise to power.

He would later produce a number of other works of North Africa, primarily featuring the French conquest of Algeria from 1830.

Having ordered the massacre, Muhammad Ali sits calmly, smoking his narguile as he watches the violence unfold.

[3] This may have been an indirect reference to the White Terror that followed the Second Bourbon Restoration in France following the Battle of Waterloo.

A tapestry was produced based on the painting and featured at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851.