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Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801)

Social Studies

Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801)

Overview

Overview

  • Set out the political, economic, social and intellectual effects of the French Campaign.
  • Know the diwans, the Scientific Institute (Institut d’Égypte) and the achievements of the Campaign’s scholars.
  • Understand why the Campaign was not merely a traditional military invasion.
The effects of the French presence in Egypt (1798–1801)
├── The Campaign was more than a military invasion
├── Political effects
│   └── The diwans
├── Economic effects
│   ├── Agriculture
│   ├── Industry
│   └── Trade
├── Social and judicial effects
├── Intellectual and scientific effects: the Scientific Institute
│   ├── Its foundation
│   ├── Its composition
│   └── Its achievements
└── The great works of the scholars of the Campaign
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 1 / 8
The Campaign was more than a military invasion

The Campaign was more than a military invasion

  • The Campaign was not merely a traditional invasion and occupation — this is clear from the scholars who accompanied it.
  • Bonaparte worked to organise the administration and government of Egypt on the model of what happened in France after the Revolution, that is, transferring power to the middle class — the notables.
  • But the transfer was formal, without a real chance of actual practice; his purpose was to learn what the Egyptian elite were thinking.
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 2 / 8
Political effects

Political effects

The diwans

Comparison aspectMain ideaKeywords
•
  • Napoleon judged that the best way to plan the policies of rule was direct contact with the ulema and the notables
  • because of their influence among the common people
Napoleonjudgedbestplan
•He founded diwans whose authority was restricted by French interestsfoundeddiwanswhoseauthority
The Diwan of Cairo
  • nine members from among the sheikhs and notables
  • to deliberate on the affairs of the capital
ninemembersamongsheikhs
The diwans of the provincesin each mdiriyah (present-day governorate) a diwan of seven membersmdiriyahpresentgovernorateseven
The General Diwan
  • a consultative council whose opinion was sought in what benefited the people in the judiciary
  • inheritances
  • real-property ownership and taxes. It was chaired by Sheikh Abdullah al-Sharkawy
  • one of the ulema of al-Azhar
  • elected by secret ballot
consultativecouncilwhoseopinion
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 3 / 8
Economic effects

Economic effects

Agriculture

  • The scholars of the Campaign studied the course of the Nile and inspected the canals and the dykes.
  • A part of the public land was set aside to grow the crops France needed.
  • Coffee and sugarcane were tried experimentally, and a garden of plants from France was created — peach, apricot, pear and apple.
  • The Campaign took an interest in growing rice, wheat and maize.
  • Menou proposed founding factories in which no Egyptians should work, so that industrial secrets would not leak to them.
  • The factories covered textiles, forging, clock-making, tanning and printing type.
  • He built windmills and repaired the shipyard arsenal.
  • Trade stagnated under Napoleon and Kleber because of the English blockade of the coasts and the presence of the Ottoman army in Syria.
  • Napoleon began a policy of understanding with the Sharif of Mecca, and Menou worked to revive trade.
  • Menou opened markets in the Red Sea lands boats sailed between Jeddah, Yanbu and Suez carrying cotton fabrics, woollen shawls, silk and coffee.
  • Menou’s programme included relations with Sennar and Darfur in Sudan, Abyssinia and North Africa.
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 4 / 8
Social and judicial effects

Social and judicial effects

  • Egyptian judges were elected among themselves to hold the judiciary instead of the Turkish judges.
  • In Menou’s time the principle of blood-money (diya) was rejected and the matter left to the courts.
  • A separate court was created for each community present in Egypt: Copts, Shamis, Greeks and Jews.
  • Military hospitals were established, among them a hospital at Rashid.
  • The social life of the French revealed to Egyptians patterns of life and relations in Europe different from their Eastern traditions, and some Egyptians turned to imitating them.
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 5 / 8
Intellectual and scientific effects: the Scientific Institute

Intellectual and scientific effects: the Scientific Institute

Its foundation

  • Napoleon set up beside the General Diwan the Scientific Institute (Institut d’Égypte), modelled on the French Institute in Paris of which Napoleon himself was a member.
  • Its mission advancing sciences and knowledge in Egypt, studying and publishing questions of nature, industry and history, and giving scientific advice to the government.
  • So it linked politics with science.
  • Napoleon chose a group of scholars and senior commanders and officers with a share in learning.
  • It consisted of four sections, each with twelve members mathematics, physics, political economy, and letters and arts.
  • Founding an Arabic press and a French press.
  • Issuing newspapers and journals — one literary, another scientific and economic — and an Arabic journal to publish administrative orders and decisions.
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 6 / 8
The great works of the scholars of the Campaign

The great works of the scholars of the Campaign

  • The scholars produced the Description de l’Égypte (Kitab Sawwaf Misr) — the first encyclopaedia about Egypt.
  • The French discovered the Rosetta Stone, the key to decoding ancient Egyptian writing.
  • The presence of the Institute with its achievements was a window through which Egyptians looked at what was happening in Europe; so the Campaign, whatever its military face, was a civilisational and cultural shock.
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 7 / 8
Exam traps and key takeaways

Exam traps and key takeaways

  • The diwans’ authority was restricted by French interests — calling them genuine self-government is wrong.
  • Numbers Cairo diwan 9, provincial diwans 7, Institute sections 4 with 12 members each.
  • The General Diwan was chaired by an Azhar scholar and its chair was chosen by secret ballot.
  • Menou’s factories excluded Egyptians — the reason tested is secrecy of industrial know-how.
  • Trade stagnated under Napoleon and Kleber; its revival is Menou’s work.
  • Blood-money was rejected in Menou’s time, not Napoleon’s.
  • The Description de l’Égypte is the first encyclopaedia of Egypt; the Rosetta Stone unlocked ancient Egyptian writing — do not swap them.
  • The standard conclusion the Campaign was a civilisational and cultural shock regardless of its military aspect.
Lesson 11: The Effects of the French Presence in Egypt (1798-1801) · 8 / 8