Siege of Jaffa
- When
- 1799
- Where
- Jaffa, Ottoman Palestine; Jaffa, after its capture
- Episodes
- 2
In March 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte's French army besieged and captured Jaffa, an Ottoman-held city in Palestine defended for Ahmed al-Jazzar. The assault ended with pillage, civilian killings, and the execution of thousands of prisoners, making the siege one of the darkest episodes of the Egyptian campaign.
Episodes
- Siege of Jaffa
French forces under Napoleon besieged Ottoman-held Jaffa from March 3 to March 7, 1799, capturing the city.
- Massacre of Prisoners and Civilians
After capturing Jaffa, French troops pillaged the city, murdered civilians, and executed 4,100 Ottoman prisoners of war.
Background and detail
Background. The siege of Jaffa was a military engagement between the French Army under Napoleon Bonaparte and Ottoman forces under Ahmed al-Jazzar. Napoleon had to win Jaffa before he could advance any further, and the whole expedition's success depended on its capture.
Siege and Surrender Demand. On March 3, 1799, at noon, the French laid siege to Jaffa, which was under Ottoman control. The siege continued to March 7, when Bonaparte sent an officer and a trumpeter to Ahmed al-Jazzar with a message calling on him to surrender, warning of the evil that would befall the city if it subjected itself to assault.
Capture and Massacre. French forces captured the city on March 7. For the pillaging of the city, the murder of its civilian population, and the execution of 4,100 Ottoman prisoners of war, the siege has been called "one of the most tragic episodes of [Napoleon's] Egyptian campaign".
People involved
- Napoleon Bonaparte · Commander of the French Army
- Ahmed al-Jazzar · Ottoman commander and governor of Acre
Sources
- Siege of Jaffa Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-24
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.