Siege of Jaffa
Jaffa on a map from 1798
| date | 3. bis 7. March 1799 |
|---|---|
| place | Jaffa , Ottoman Empire |
| output | French victory |
| consequences | further advance of the French army |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 16,700 men | approx. 18,900 men including 1,200 artillery men |
| losses | |
|
1,100 dead 340 wounded |
4,300 dead approx. 900 wounded |
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The siege of Jaffa took place from March 3 to 7, 1799 in the then Ottoman city of Jaffa as part of the Egyptian expedition . Immediately after the siege of al-Arish , French troops under Napoléon Bonaparte defeated Ottoman troops under Ahmed al-Jezzar .
procedure
On March 3, the Klébers vanguard took up position two miles from the city on the road to Acre , while the divisions under Bon and Lannes reinforced the siege lines. Early in the morning on May 7th, on Napoleon's orders , a parliamentarian and a trumpeter asked the city commandant to surrender the city. Both were beheaded and their heads impaled on the city wall. The same evening the city was taken by the French, after which it was allowed to be plundered for 24 hours with Napoleon's approval .
The murder of the French parliamentarians, the fact that among the defenders of Jaffa there were also about 900 men from the occupation of al-Arish who had broken the promise they had made when they were released to stop fighting the French, but also the impossibility To guard and look after the many defenders of Jaffa who had been captured, Napoleon decided to get rid of these prisoners by executing them. With this as a " massacre known Jaffa" massacre, most of them were between 2,400 and killed over 4,000 Ottoman fighters Albanians . The French had taken their prisoners to the sea, where they had been shot or stabbed with bayonets.
After the unsuccessful siege of Acre , the last stage of the Syrian campaign in which the French troops were defeated by the British and the Ottomans, Napoleon withdrew from Palestine . After his withdrawal, the British allied with the Turks rebuilt the city walls of Jaffa under the command of Admiral Smith .
literature
- Françoise Labrique (ed.): With Napoleon in Egypt . Verlag von Zabern, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-8053-4103-5 (also catalog of the exhibition of the same name, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum , October 2, 2009 to January 10, 2010)
- Henry Laurens: L'expédition d'Égypte . Colin, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-200-37183-7 .
- Michel legacy: Avec Bonaparte en orient. Témoignages 1798–1799 . Giovanangeli, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-7587-0082-1 .