Jean-Baptiste Kléber (1753-1800); François-Étienne Damas (1764-1828).

Rapport fait au Gouvernement Français, des évenemens qui se sont passés en Egypte, depuis la conclusion du Traité d’el-A’rych, jusqu’à la fin de prairial an 8.

Au Kaire [Gizah], de l'Imprimerie nationale, [after June 19, 1800].

4°. [2], 65, [1 blank] pp. Collates: π, A-H4, π.

Sewn.

Inscribed by hand in ink on top of half title: “Au commadt. du génie”.

Rapport of the French Military Proceedings in Egypt Between January and June 1800, by Generals Kléber and Damas. Presentation copy inscribed by the author/publisher to the commander of the French Engineering Corps in Egypt: General Marie Théodore Urbain Garbé.

After the failed Syrian Campaign and the retreat of the Army of the Orient to Egypt, Napoleon spontaneously decided to return to France. On August 22, 1799, he appointed General Kléber as his successor, leaving him to face the daunting task of battling the combined British and Ottoman forces.
On January 24, 1800, Kléber concluded the Treaty of El Arich with the British, aiming for an honorable evacuation of the French army from Egypt. However, the British betrayed the agreement, forcing Kléber into the Battle of Heliopolis on the outskirts of Cairo on March 20. After a victorious outcome, Kléber confronted the Second Cairo Revolt, which erupted simultaneously and lasted until April 21.
During the revolt, insurgents broke into Marcel’s quarters at the Cairo printing press. Marcel was wounded, his secretary Henrici was beheaded, and the workshop was set on fire. Fortunately, the printers had already been moved to safety in Gizah, though the situation there was hardly more secure. As Turkish forces, supported by the British, advanced on the city, General Belliard, the city's governor, decided to relocate the printers to the nearby, safer citadel of Gizah, where this present report was subsequently printed.
While the report was being drafted, General Kléber was assassinated in Cairo on June 14, 1800. His former aide-de-camp and successor, General Damas, completed the report. Kléber's portion ends on page 38, after which Damas continues: “Ici est terminée la partie du Rapport qu’avait écrite le Général en Chef Kléber” ("Here ends the part of the report written by General-in-Chief Kléber").
The final four pages of the document include the “Capitulation accordée par le Général en Chef Kléber à Nassyf Pacha, Othman-Effendy et Ibrahyn-Bey, pour l’évacuation du Kaire par les troupes Ottomanes et les Mamlouks” ("Capitulation granted by General-in-Chief Kléber to Nassyf Pacha, Othman-Effendy, and Ibrahyn-Bey for the evacuation of Cairo by the Ottoman and Mamluk troops").

Copies: 2: BnF: RES 8-LC2-999 (ALPHA,2,10); Austrian National Library: 179468-B.5 ALT MAG.
Not in BL, QNL, Yale, Harvard, Princeton etc.

Condition: wholly untrimmed. Faded stain in the margin of the first 3 leaves, otherwise in excellent condition.

Literature:

Freitag, Ulrike, et al., editors. Urban Violence in the Middle East: Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State. 1st ed., vol. 14, Berghahn Books, 2015.