Napoleon In Egypt

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, set sail for Egypt with 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, and scientists to establish an eastern empire. He saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians from oppression. But Napoleon wasn’t the first—nor the last—who tragically misunderstood Muslim culture. Marching across seemingly endless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, pushed to the limits of human endurance, his men would be plagued by mirages, suicides, and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor would degenerate into chaos. And yet his grand failure also yielded a treasure trove of knowledge that paved the way for modern Egyptology—and it tempered the complex leader who believed himself destined to conquer the world.

This panoramic volume tells the story of French art, culture and life from the 1770s to the 1820s: the first French voyages of discovery to Australia, the stormy period of social change with the outbreak of the French Revolution, and the rise to power of the young Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine.

In this vivid and timely history, Juan Cole tells the story of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. Revealing the young general's reasons for leading the expedition against Egypt in 1798 and showcasing his fascinating views of the Orient, Cole delves into the psychology of the military titan and his entourage. He paints a multi-faceted portrait of the daily travails of the soldiers in Napoleon's army, including how they imagined Egypt, how their expectations differed from what they found, and how they grappled with military challenges in a foreign land. Cole ultimately reveals how Napoleon's invasion, the first modern attempt to invade the Arab world, invented and crystallized the rhetoric of liberal imperialism.

Napoleon Bonaparte led forty thousand troops to Egypt in the French Revolutionary Wars against Britain. The French were in Egypt for three years in 17981801, during which time they associated with the Egyptian people and founded an academic institute called The Egyptian Institute. Zaynab, the daughter of a high religious shaykh of al-Azhar, visited the institute, learned French, and became close to the French. She became associated with Bonaparte through her fathers ambitions to use Bonaparte to further his religious career, quite as Bonaparte used the shaykh to give Muslim legitimacy to his position as ruler of Egypt in sevice to the Ottoman Sultan. Both were trying to use the other to their own advantage. The shaykhs daughter, Zaynab, gets caught in the middle and will pay the price of collaboration when the French are forced to abandon Egypt.

The French expedition to Egypt, which Bonaparte launched in 1798, was one of the most exciting, harrowing, futile, and yet most fruitful adventures in modern times. Although the expedition was doomed, and almost everyone in it had only one wish-to go home-the impact of the three years of French occupation left a lasting mark on Egypt. The book is crowded with dramatic episodes. We see the French, without supplies, crossing the desert in midsummer and, without a rest, fighting the Battle of the Pyramids. We witness the glories and horrors of the Battle of the Nile, the uprising of Cairo, the butcheries at Jaffa and at Acre, the labors of the Institute of Egypt, the ravages of the plague, and the unbelievable game that Bonaparte played with Islam. The personalities are no less colorful than the incidents. Besides Bonaparte, who revealed, while in Egypt, his most repulsive and his most admirable qualities, there are the forthright and caustic General Kléber; Lord Nelson of the Nile; the uncatchable Mameluke Murad Bey; the Pasha of Acre, who gloried in the surname Djezzar, "the Butcher"; and the chivalrous and eccentric Sir Sidney Smith. Add to that list the selfless and heroic General Desaix; Dr. Desgenettes, who inoculated himself with the plague and survived to give Bonaparte a public dressing-down; General Menou, who became a Moslem to marry a bath-keeper's daughter; and Pauline Fourés, who became Bonaparte's mistress in one of the more ludicrous episodes of the campaign. Christopher Herold has drawn on official documents, on Arabic chronicles, on the memoirs and diaries of generals, officers, simple soldiers, artists, engineers, and physicians. He has also visited the countries where the action took place and pushed thoroughness to the point of contracting (briefly) Egyptian ophthalmia; although he stopped short at seeking first-hand experience with the plague. If you wish to understand the Napoleonic Era, this book is a must read.

This book addresses some of the main themes of the study of Egypt during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In a combination of case studies and discursive chapters, the status of Egypt as an important example of traditional Asian scholarship, and as an ancient model of imperialism itself, is examined. Contributions range from studies of nineteenth century antiquarianism, and the collecting of Egyptian antiquities as an extension of the territorial ambitions and rivalries of the European powers, to explorations of how Egypt is understood and interpreted in contemporary societies. Views of Ancient Egypt also considers the way in which Ancient Egypt has been adopted by less privileged members of some societies as a cultural icon of past greatness.