A Concise History of the Middle East

172 • 11 WESTERNIZING REFORM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

themselves to be the most sincere friends of the Ottoman sultan and the en¬

emy of his enemies. The Mamluks, on the contrary, have always refused to

obey him... Blessing upon blessing to the Egyptians who side with us.

They shall prosper in fortune and rank. Happy, too, are those who stay in

their dwellings, not siding with either of the parties now at war; when they

know us better, they will hasten to join us.... But woe upon woe to those

who side with the Mamluks and help them to make war on us. They will

find no escape, and their memory shall be wiped out.

The Egyptians loved the Mamluks little, but they soon loved the French
even less. Napoleon and his men were not Muslims, nor did they restore
Ottoman sovereignty. France's occupation of Egypt was harsh, heavy-
handed, and hated. Taxes and government fees, high but sporadic under
the Mamluks, were now collected regularly from everyone, making them
seem more oppressive. Ignorant of local mores and customs, the French
troops shocked pious Muslims by their lewd conduct, public drinking, and
blasphemous behavior, which included firing on al-Azhar to quell a local
uprising. When the British navy sank most of Napoleon's ships at Abu-Kir,
and then the French army invaded Palestine but failed to take Acre from
the Turks, the Egyptians became even more hostile. Although Napoleon
himself slipped through the British blockade to return to France, the
French occupation lasted until 1801. The Egyptian people were sullen but
unarmed. Their Mamluk ex-rulers were divided and weakened. It took a
joint Anglo-Ottoman landing at Alexandria, followed by a general Euro¬
pean treaty, to get the French forces out of Egypt. The British navy left
soon afterward.
Popular histories emphasize the French occupation because Napoleon
was so colorful and because France would later form strong cultural ties
with Egypt. More important, its expeditionary force included 167 scholars,
scientists, and artists, who went around Cairo and the countryside studying
almost every aspect of Egypt. The published results of their studies, consist¬
ing of nine volumes of text and fourteen of illustrations, give us a surpris¬
ingly thorough and fairly accurate description of the country's condition
and culture. The French brought in a printing press and set up a research in¬
stitute, which attracted the notice of a few inquisitive ulama. Few historians
now think, as they once did, that these events caused the intellectual awak¬
ening of Egypt. It had not been asleep, but Napoleon's invasion did ( 1 ) spark
ongoing Anglo-French competition for Egypt; (2) destroy any notions
Ottoman Muslims still cherished about their superiority over Europe; and
(3) weaken the Mamluks, creating a leadership vacuum once the last British
troops left in 1802.