Suleiman al-Halabi ( ar, سليمان الحلبي), also spelled Soleyman El-Halaby (1777–1800), was a Kurdish man who

assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

French general

Jean-Baptiste Kléber Jean-Baptiste Kléber () (9 March 1753 – 14 June 1800) was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. After serving for one year in the French Royal Army, he entered Habsburg service seven years later. However, his plebeian ancest ...

, leader of the French occupation forces in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

. He was tortured by burning his hand to the bone before being

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

by anal

impalement Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso. It was particularly used in response to "crimes aga ...

. The descriptive Al Halabi means "from Aleppo".

Early life

Suleiman al-Halabi was of Kurdish origin, born in 1777 in Aleppo, His father, Mohammad Amin, was a merchant of butter and olive oil. Al-Halabi's father sent him to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

in 1797 to study Islamic sciences at

Al-Azhar University , image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Al-Azhar University portal , motto = , established = *970/972 first foundat ...

Assassination, trial and execution

On June 14, 1800, al-Halabi approached Kléber's home in the guise of a beggar seeking an audience with Kléber. When he approached him, Kléber extended his hand for al-Halabi to kiss in return for some money. Instead, al-Halabi violently pulled the general toward him and stabbed him four times with a

stiletto A stiletto () is a knife or dagger with a long slender blade and needle-like point, primarily intended as a stabbing weapon.Limburg, Peter R., ''What's In The Names Of Antique Weapons'', Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, , (1973), pp. 77-78 The sti ...

. He was 23 years old when he assassinated the commander of the French campaign on Egyptian soil. Kléber's chief engineer tried to defend him and was stabbed but not mortally wounded. Al-Halabi hid in a nearby park where he was found by French soldiers, who searched him and found his stiletto. He was arrested and tortured, his right arm burnt to the bone while he denied any relationship with Sheikh Abdullah al-Sharqawi or the popular resistance movements. He was tried and sentenced to death by anal

. He was placed on a blunt stick that slowly pushed at his organs, dragged down by his weight, and remained on it for four hours, reciting Quranic verses.

Aftermath

An Arab nationalist play based on his assassination of General Kléber, "Sulayman Al-Halabi," was written by Egyptian playwright Alfred Farag in 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halabi, Suleiman al- 1777 births 1800 deaths 1800 murders in Africa Syrian assassins People executed by impalement Executed assassins People from Aleppo 18th-century executions by Egypt Syrian people executed abroad Al-Azhar University alumni Syrian torture victims