Napoleon, leading a French army, invaded and occupied Egypt in 1798. His justifications for the endeavour were to have a position to harass the British in India, to protect the interests of French trade and to bring science and liberal, Enlightenment values to Egypt. The French saw some early successes, yet just 3 years later, the French presence in the land had been completely stamped out. Despite Napoleon’s attempts to get the Egyptians on his side, the invasion of Egypt united them against a common enemy and galvanized them in a more independent direction. The French were terribly underprepared for Egypt, as not only was the terrain completely unfamiliar to them, but they also faced hostile natives who viewed them as occupiers. Despite their dislike for the French occupation, the Egyptians lauded their scholarship, their revolutionary ideals and technology, with Muhammad Ali later inspired by them.

When Napoleon arrived in Egypt, he issued a proclamation to the Egyptians in Arabic, praising the Islamic God and proclaiming himself a defender of Islam. He promised to save the Egyptians from the tyranny of the Beys. However, even as he invited the Egyptians to join him, there were caveats: they would have to submit to him. He threatened to burn down their villages if they opposed him (Wright 1798-1800, 235-237). Before and during the occupation, the French had created a narrative of oppressed and backward natives waiting for an enlightened country to free them from despotism (Abul-Magd 2012, 316). When the French arrived in Egypt, they were inspired by texts from antiquity and had fantasies about the land (Abul-Magd 2012, 326). The Mamluks fell easily, but the Egyptians rose against the French, regarding them as Crusaders. The ideals of liberty, equality and responsibility were too new and problematic for people practicing slavery and dominated by traditional ideas of custom and community. Many people saw Napoleon’s actions in reorganizing the legal code and administration as an agitation. Residents of Cairo lived in divided districts and attempts to integrate the city created feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. Health measures to combat plague such as cleaning streets, homes and clothing and destroying contaminated personal items, were perceived as violating privacy. The new laws about property, inheritance and taxation challenged patriarchal hierarchies and local customs. Discontent incited by leaders created riots which were brutally broken up (Hussein 1989). But ironically, Napoleon negotiated with Murad Bey of Upper Egypt in secret to allow him to govern in return for taxes, but Murad refused after the French fleet’s defeat. He later launched a jihad against the French infidels, responding to the Ottoman sultan’s decrees (Abul-Magd 2012, 328). In Upper Egypt, the Copts and some Arab tribes were helpful to the French at first, with the former keeping their finance employments (Abul-Magd 2012, 331, 333). But both then excluded the occupiers from the administration (Abul-Magd 2012, 335). Eventually the French began to suspect treason, and they punished the Arab tribes and destroyed villages which refused to help them (Abul-Magd 2012, 332, 333). Beleaguered, they later had to reinstall Murad Bey. The French forcibly seized resources such as grain and animals through oppression (Abul-Magd 2012, 336-337). They also could not control trade (Abul-Magd 2012, 338). Later, Murad Bey was killed by a plague accidentally spread by the French. Attempts to treat it failed, and now the illusion of French “liberators” was all but gone (Abul-Magd 2012, 340-342). The division grew between Egypt’s people and an army facing loss from disease, which found its position increasingly insecure and wanted, more than anything, to return home (Hussein 1989).

But despite the dislike that the Egyptians had towards the French occupation, the revolutionary thought they brought had great cultural, intellectual and political influences. After the French left, the Ottomans and Mamluks resorted to repressiveness and cruelty. Some Egyptian intellectuals then spoke of the respect they had for the French scholars in the expedition and their admiration for their discoveries, inventions and their forms of society (Abul-Magd 2012). During the occupation, Muslim scholar Djabarti had given a positive account of his visit to the French institute. He appreciated their interest in learning and their scholarship on Islam, noting that the Qu’ran was translated into French and that some French scholars had even memorized some of its chapters (Hurley 2012, 44). This was all despite his harsh criticisms against the French for their false claims of being Muslim, their favoritism towards Christians, their desecration of Al-Azhar and their atrocities (Hurley 2012, 39-44). French ideas about rights, liberty and progress led these Egyptian intellectuals to think of the enlightenment and possibilities they could unlock through reason. Djabarti and Attar decided that education should be reformed through the creation of schools teaching rational approaches based on experience. This dream would be achieved thanks to Muhammad Ali, head of an Ottoman brigade in Egypt.  A visionary, he secured his authority by allying with the country’s spiritual and intellectual leaders, and he killed the Mamluk leaders. His reforms included rearranging the state’s central structures and the creation of civil and military manufacturing plants. He imported Western science and technology to Egypt and sent students to Europe. He reformed agriculture and reunified the administration. He also re-established the central irrigation system and created a transport network around the country. He created a police force and a conscripted army modeled on the French one. He left Egypt stronger than he found it, making it a regional power. The Egyptian spirit of progress would continue with thinkers like Tahtawi and Taha Hussein, culminating in the creation of the Wafd party after WW2 (Hussein 1989).

Napoleon went to Egypt with grand dreams of empire and to bring enlightenment to the Egyptian people. Yet it had failed miserably due to the French unfamiliarity with the country and the Egyptian resistance to them. So, it is ironic that French revolutionary ideals, technology and scholarship were later appreciated by the Egyptians and adopted by Muhammad Ali. The failed French expedition in Egypt may be seen as a lesson on the failures of interventions such as the American one in Iraq which attempts to impose liberal democratic values on certain countries, since these places have their own traditions and values and the backlash can be dangerous and detrimental to the occupying country. America in that case faced tough resistance from the Iraqis, caused great damage in the nation, and also lost much money. It may be better for those places to develop these values and technologies naturally by themselves and for stronger countries to generally keep out of their affairs.

Bibliography

Abul-Magd, Zeinab. 2012. “A Crisis of Images: The French, Jihad, and the Plague in Upper Egypt, 1798-1801.” Journal of World History 23, no 2 315-43.

Hurley, Stephen. 2012. “And Judgement Belongeth to God Alone: Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of Napoleonic Egypt.” The James Balir Historical Review, Volume III 37-49.

Hussein, Mahmoud. 1989. “The eagle and the sphinx: Bonaparte in Egypt.” UNESCO Courier 24+.

Wright, J. 1798-1800. Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. London.