I am trying to redirect a directory and all pages e.g. /shops/merchant1.htm to a generic file generic.htm using htaccess, does any have any ideas how to do this?

Also the generic.htm contains php.

I currently have hundreds of shops each with its own htm page, but i really want one generic.htm page that will cover all the shops, but driven by php and a mysql database. This would save dramatically on admin work generating a new page for each new merchant when it could be driven by one page reading the url address to modify the page to suit the new merchant.

Cheers,

Andrew