Napoleon on His Imperial Throne\u201d (1806), just a few years after his invasion of Egypt
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
For convenience\u2019s sake, Marshall Hodgson chose 1800 as the beginning of\u00a0 what he termed the \u201cModern Period\u201d of Islamic history.\u00a0 But the event that he had in mind as marking the dawn of the Modern Period in the Middle East actually occurred in 1798.\u00a0 I quote from\u00a0Paul Strathern\u2019s fascinating\u00a0Napoleon in Egypt<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in the summer of 1798 was the first great seaborne invasion of the modern era. \u00a0At the time, it may well have been the largest ever launched in the Western world \u2014 at least on a par with Xerxes\u2019 vast Persian fleet which attacked Athens at the Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C., and certainly double the size of the sixteenth-century Spanish Armada which attempted to invade Elizabethan England. \u00a0Yet unlike these predecessors, Napoleon\u2019s invasion involved a long sea voyage of almost 2,000 miles. \u00a0His armada consisted of 335 ships, ranging from towering battleships and fast frigates to lowly transports, from those bearing a cargo of just forty tons to those carrying over 400 tons. \u00a0Each of these ships carried full crews, and in all the fleet was loaded with 1,200 horses, 171 field guns and an official roll-call of 35,000 soldiers. \u00a0In fact, the number of soldiers was almost certainly nearer 40,000; Napoleon exploited the opportunity provided by four separate main embarkation ports \u2014 Toulon and Marseilles in France, Genoa and Civitavecchia in Italy \u2014 to surreptitiously increase the quota allowed him by the five-man Directory which ruled revolutionary France at the time. \u00a0(1) . . .\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Napoleon spent much of the voyage . . . drawing up his plans for the invasion; this was his opportunity to emulate his hero, Alexander the Great. \u00a0As he had confided to his secretary Bourrienne, prior to departure: \u00a0\u201cEurope is a molehill. . . . \u00a0Everything here is worn out. \u00a0My glory is slipping from my grasp, tiny Europe has not enough to offer. \u00a0We must set off for the Orient; that is where all the greatest glory is to be achieved.\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThis was an ambitious undertaking, both militarily and politically.\u00a0 But, for all his many faults \u2014 I\u2019m not even remotely a fan \u2014 Napoleon had ambitions far beyond the political and the military:<\/p>\n
His primary [ostensible] purpose was to liberate the Egyptians from the oppressive rule of the Mamelukes. \u00a0But this was only the beginning. \u00a0Along with his soldiers he had brought with him a team of 167 hand-picked \u201csavants\u201d; these consisted of the young intellectual cream of France, comprising many of the country\u2019s finest mathematicians, scientists, artists, writers and inventors.\u00a0[2]<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThese were unexpected members of an armed expeditionary force, and the daily routine of the voyage was rather different than that of most conquering armadas:<\/p>\n
Each morning Napoleon would decide upon a question for discussion that evening between himself, the senior savants and the generals traveling with him aboard L\u2019Orient<\/em>. \u00a0Seated around a table, their faces dimly illuminated by lanterns, this collection of young ambitious soldiers and brilliant minds would discuss their leader\u2019s chosen topics. \u00a0These included \u201cIs there life on other planets?,\u201d \u201cHow will the world end?\u201d and \u201cHow old is the earth?\u201d \u00a0(Ironically, the findings of the expedition would completely transform all previous knowledge of this latter subject.) . . .\u00a0\u00a0The debates would continue beneath the vast dome of the starlit heavens, as the ghostly looming canvases of the sails above them filled and slackened in the breeze. \u00a0From the darkness all around came the shush of the passing waves and the creaking of the ship\u2019s timbers as it shifted in the swell. . . .\u00a0\u00a0Occasionally Napoleon and his assembled staff and savants would listen to readings from various classic texts, which in turn would inspire their own topics for discussion. \u00a0A reading from the Bible describing Joseph\u2019s dream provoked a debate on whether dreams had meanings that could be interpreted. \u00a0And after hearing a passage from Rousseau\u2019s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality<\/em>, there followed a debate lasting three nights on the social advantages and disadvantages of property.[3]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThese \u201csavants\u201d would eventually create the enormously important multi-volume\u00a0Description de<\/i> l\u2019\u00c9gypte<\/em> \u2014 fully titled\u00a0Description de l\u2019\u00c9gypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont \u00e9t\u00e9 faites en \u00c9gypte pendant l\u2019exp\u00e9dition de l\u2019arm\u00e9e fran\u00e7aise<\/i> [\u201cDescription of Egypt, or the collection of observations and researches which were made in Egypt during the expedition of the French Army\u201d].\u00a0 <\/i>The\u00a0Description de l\u2019\u00c9gypte\u00a0<\/em><\/i>is a\u00a0series of publications that first began to appear in 1809 and continued until its final volume was issued in 1829. \u00a0The goal of the project was to catalog all aspects of ancient and modern Egypt, including not only the country\u2019s antiquities and its medieval monuments but its natural history. \u00a0The volumes represent the collaborative effort of about 160 civilian scholars and scientists, along with that of roughly 2000 artists and technicians, including 400 engravers, and they mark the dawn of the serious modern study of Egyptian antiquities.\u00a0 Among other things, Napoleon\u2019s expedition brought the famous tri-lingual Rosetta Stone to light, which, in turn, led to\u00a0Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Champollion\u2019s decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.\u00a0 In certain respects, indeed, the results of the work of Napoleon\u2019s savants retain considerable value still today.<\/p>\nAnd Napoleon was prepared to take any measures that he deemed necessary in order to fulfill his ambitions:<\/p>\n
As the invasion fleet sailed east across the Mediterranean, Napoleon would lie in bed reading and dictating to Bourrienne. \u00a0His principal reading was from the Koran. \u00a0Like Alexander the Great before him, he intended to absorb the religion of the people over whom he would rule. \u00a0He insisted that, if necessary, he himself was willing to become a Muslim \u2014 an intention that, at least initially, he would show every sign of wishing to fulfill. \u00a0However, it should also be noted that in Napoleon\u2019s shipboard library the Koran was shelved under \u201cPolitics.\u201d \u00a0At the same time, he also busied himself with dictating his \u201cproclamation\u201d to the Egyptian people:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nIn the name of Allah the merciful . . . People of Egypt, you will have been told that I come as an enemy of Islam. \u00a0This is a lie . . . \u00a0I have come to restore your rights and punish those who oppress you. . . . \u00a0I worship God more than your oppressors; I respect Mohammed his prophet and the holy Koran. . . . \u00a0The French are also true Moslems. \u00a0The proof of this can be seen in the fact that they have marched against Rome and destroyed the throne of the Pope, who constantly incited the Christians to make war on all Moslems . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h5>\nPrior to arrival, this proclamation would be translated into Arabic by one of the Orientalists amongst the savants and printed on the Arabic printing press which Napoleon was carrying on board L\u2019Orient<\/em>. \u00a0(He had scoured Europe for an Arabic printing press; ironically, the only one he had managed to find was at the Papal Propaganda Office in Rome.) \u00a0On arrival, he intended that his proclamation should be distributed amongst the Egyptians, and it was hoped that this would overcome the need for armed conflict. \u00a0Such was to be the first step in the creation of his Oriental empire. \u00a0As Napoleon later put it, when describing his feelings at this time: \u201cI saw the way to achieve all my dreams. . . . \u00a0I would found a religion, I saw myself marching on the way to Asia, mounted on an elephant, a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran that I would have composed to suit my needs. \u00a0In my enterprises I would have combined the experiences of the two worlds, exploiting the realm of all history for my own profit.\u201d [4]<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
[1] Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt<\/em> (New York: Bantam Books, 2008), 1, 3.<\/p>\n[2] Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt<\/em>, 3.<\/p>\n[3]\u00a0Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt<\/em>, 4-5.<\/p>\n[4]\u00a0Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt<\/em>, 5-6.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 For convenience\u2019s sake, Marshall Hodgson chose 1800 as the beginning of\u00a0 what he termed the \u201cModern Period\u201d of Islamic history.\u00a0 But the event that he had in mind as marking the dawn of the Modern Period in the Middle East actually occurred in 1798.\u00a0 I quote from\u00a0Paul Strathern\u2019s fascinating\u00a0Napoleon in Egypt: \u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17819,11323,951,8061,66,183,3619,1769,10771,82,17816],"class_list":["post-88669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-champollion","tag-description-de-legypte","tag-egypt","tag-hodgson","tag-islam","tag-koran","tag-marshal-hodgson","tag-muslim","tag-napoleon","tag-quran","tag-rosetta-stone"],"yoast_head":"\n
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