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

01The 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.

02Political effects

The diwans

• 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.
• He founded diwans whose authority was restricted by French interests.
• The Diwan of Cairo: nine members from among the sheikhs and notables, to deliberate on the affairs of the capital.
• The diwans of the provinces: in each mdiriyah (present-day governorate) a diwan of seven members.
• 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.

03Economic 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.

Industry

• 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

• 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.

04Social 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.

05Intellectual 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.

Its composition

• 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.

Its achievements

• 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.

06The 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.

07Exam 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.