The new
ruler well understood how to acquire riches, power, and respect, by
force, and from a kachef he made himself bey. From the proceeds of
his booty he purchased a swarm of slaves, who were compelled to
follow him. He was only a military power. The Mameluke princes
measured his rank and influence by the number of followers in his
train when he passed through the streets of Alexandria. There were
kachefs who owned a thousand slaves, and beys who possessed two
thousand. By this you can judge the wealth of these Mameluke beys,
for each of these servants cost them two hundred patras. But this
expense was the smallest. There were, besides, the women, the
beautiful Arabian horses, the splendid weapons, the Damascene
blades, the glittering jewels, the costly cashmere shawls: all this
belonged to the household of a Mameluke bey. The means by which he
acquired all this were robbery, trickery, blood, and murder.
Whatever was bad and vicious, corrupt and shameful, this the
Mameluke practised without fear or hesitation. His virtue was that
intrepidity, that courage, that boldness, that recoils from nothing,
from no danger, from no abyss; that yields to nothing, and to which
nothing is sacred. But the slaves willingly submitted to a brave
master, and greeted him as a hero.
"They galloped through the streets on their proud steeds, despising
those who walked.
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