The Battle of Isly
Monday, February 25, 2020
I like to think of myself as well-read. It takes a certain amount of hubris to think that if one hasn't heard of something, it mustn't be all that important.
So I was surprised that, when researching this article on the Battle of Isly--of which I had never heard--I discovered that it has in fact been the inspiration for a number of works of art--by Gaspard Gobaut, Horace Vernet, and Emile Jean Horace, French painters all--and thus, artists on the winning side.
The context of the battle was the French conquest of Algeria, a campaign that took place from 1830 to 1857. The conquest began with an 1827 political squabble between the local Ottoman ruler of Algiers and the French consul. It soon escalated into a blockade of Algiers by French naval forces, followed by French seizure of the city. Additional forces were called from France to expand the colonial power's reach.
Resistance to the French came from two quarters. In order to focus their energies on defeating the Ottoman forces, the French made a treaty with the other side.
The Isly is a small river on the frontier between Morocco and Algeria. Morocco had taken the Ottoman side, so the French bombarded Tangiers. With about 8,000 men, the French General Bugeaud defeated an Arab force of some 45,000 encamped on the banks of the river.
Leading the Moroccans that day was Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman, who later became the Sultan of Morocco in place of his father, Abd al-Rahman. It was widely perceived that, though having numerical superiority, the Moorish army had been a poorly-organized rabble. Therefore, after his defeat, Muhammad set out to reform the Moroccan military, creating the first European-style regiment to augment the old-style army made up largely of tribal warriors.
Thomas Robert Bugeaud, on the other hand, had served in Napoleon's Imperial Guard, an elite corps in the French Army. A career military man, his effort on August 14, 1844, led to
Bugeaud's elevation to the title of Duke of Isly.