Document – Excerpts from an Account of a Stay in Paris by an Egyptian Cleric (1826–1831)

Document

In the city of Marseilles, there are many Christians from Egypt and Syria, who accompanied the French during their retreat from Egypt. All of them wear French clothes. It is rare to find a Muslim among those who left with the French: some of them have died, whereas others have converted to Christianity—may God protect us from that! This is especially true for the Georgian and Circassian Mamlūks and women who were taken by the French when they were still very young. I came across an old woman who had remained with her religion. Among those who converted to Christianity, there was a certain ‘Abd al-‘Al, of whom it is said that the French had made him Agha of the Janissaries during their time [in Egypt]. When they left, he followed them, and remained a Muslim for about 15 years, after which he converted to Christianity—may God protect us from that!—because of his marriage to a Christian woman. Shortly afterwards, he died. However, I saw two of his sons and one daughter, who came to Egypt and who were all Christians. One of them is currently a teacher at the School of Abū Za’bal.

I was told a similar story about another one of them, i.e. the French commander-in-chief [in Egypt], whose name was Menou, who took control of Egypt after the death of general (al-jinrāl) Kléber (Klaybar) who embraced Islam in Cairo—falsely it seems. He took the name of ‘Abd Allāh, and married the daughter of a sharīf from Rosetta. When the French left Egypt, he took her with him and when they arrived in France he reverted to Christianity and exchanged the turban for the European hat. For a time, he remained with his wife, who had stuck to her religion, but when she bore him a son and he wanted to baptize him in accordance with Christian customs in order to make him a Christian, the wife refused and said: “I will never let my son become a Christian and expose him to the false religion!” To this her husband retorted that all religions are true and that they all pursue the same goal, i.e. to do good things. However, she adamantly refused to accept this. Then he told her: ‘The Qur’ān says this, and since you are a Muslim you must believe the book of your Prophet!” Then he sent for the Franks’ most erudite Arabic scholar, the Baron de Sacy (al-Bārūn disāsi), since he was able to read the Qur’ān. Menour then told his wife: “Ask him about this.” She did, and de Sacy answered with the following words: “In the Qur’ān the Almighty says: Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Christians, and those Sabaeans, whoso believes in God and the Last Day, and words righteousness—their wage awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.” He convinced her with this, and she agreed to the baptism of her son. It is said that, in the end, she became a Christian, and died an infidel.

. . .

You should know that the Parisians distinguish themselves from many Christians by their keen intelligence, profound perceptiveness and depth of mind when treating recondite issues. They are not like the Coptic Christians, who display a natural tendency towards ignorance and stupidity. At the same time, they are in no way prisoners of tradition. Rather, they always wish to know the origin of things, while seeking proof to support it, to the extent that the common people among them can also read and write and, like others, penetrate deep matters—each according to his circumstance. So, the masses in this country are not like some herd of animals as in most barbarous countries. All the sciences, arts and crafts—even the lowly ones—are recorded in books, so it is imperative for each craftsman to know how to read and write in order to perfect his professional skills. Every craftsman wants to create something for his craft that nobody before him has thought of, or perfect that which others have invented. Apart from a desire to increase their gain, it is vanity that pushes them in this, the glory ensuing from a reputation and the desire to leave a lasting memory.

. . .

The character traits of the French include curiosity, the passion for all things new, as well as the love of change and alternation in all things, especially when it comes to clothing. Indeed, this is never stable among them. To this day, not a single fashion has stuck with them. This does not mean they completely change their outfit, rather that they vary their wardrobe. For instance, they never give up wearing a hat (burnayta) in favour of a turban; instead, they will sometimes wear one type of hat and then, after a while, another, with a different shape, color, etc.

Other features of their character are dexterity and agility. Indeed, one can see a respectable personage running down the street like a small child. One also finds fickleness and frivolity in their nature; people there go from happiness to sadness and vice versa, from seriousness to jesting and vice versa, so that in the space of one day they can do several contradictory things. While this is true for unimportant matters, it is not the case for important issues; their political opinions do not change. Each person remains faithful to his ideology and opinions and supports them for the entire duration of his life.

. . .

Other qualities of the French are their friendship towards strangers and a tendency to seek to be on intimate terms with them, particularly if the stranger is wearing precious clothes. In this, they are driven by their desire and longing to learn things about other countries and the customs of the people there, so that they can find out their intentions both at home and when travelling abroad. Indeed, people are accustomed to expecting things from the world that are unattainable.

. . .

The men are slaves to the women here, and under their command, irrespective of whether they are pretty or not. One of them once said that amongst the savages women are destined to be slaughtered, in Eastern countries they are like furniture, whereas the Franks treat them like spoilt children. As the poet said:

• Be disobedient to women, for this is rightly guided obedience
• The man who hands women his halter will not prevail
• They prevent him from developing many of his virtues
• even if he were to strive towards knowledge for a thousand years!

The Franks do not have a bad opinion of their women, despite their many faults. If one among them—even notable—is convinced of immoral behaviour by his wife, he leaves her completely, and dissociates himself from her for the remainder of his life; yet, the others do not learn a lesson from this. It is indeed necessary to protect oneself against women, as the poet said:

• Always think the worst of women
• if you are one of the clever people
• A man is never thrown to ruin
• except if his thoughts were only good

And what about the following words of a pure Arab directed to his wife:

• One of you has betrayed a man
• After you and I are gone, the world will have a deceived soul.

One of the praiseworthy aspects of their nature, and one they truly have in common with Arabs, is the fact that they do not have any propensity towards the love of boys or the celebration of its pursuit. This is a lost sentiment among them and one that is rejected by their nature and morals. Among the good qualities of their language and poetry is that they refuse to extol homosexual love. Indeed, in French it is highly inappropriate for a man to say, “I fell in love with a boy.”

. . .

In short, this city, like all the great cities of France and Europe, is filled with a great deal of immorality, heresies, and human error, despite the fact that Paris is one of the intellectual capitals of the entire world, and a centre for foreign sciences—the “Athens” of the French.

. . .

French literature is not bad, but their language and poetry are based on the tradition of the Ancient Greeks, who were accustomed to deify everything they liked. For instance, they talk of the God of beauty, the God of love, the God of this and of that. Sometimes, their expressions are clearly heathen, even if they do not believe in what they are saying and if this is only by way of metaphor, etc. But on the whole, many French poems are not as bad as all that.

. . .

From the time of our departure from Egypt, our ruler usually deigned to send us a firmān every couple of months in which he extorted us to acquire the necessary arts and crafts. Some of these firmāns were similar to those the Ottomans call ihya’ al-qulūb (“revitalization of the hearts”), an example of which is included below. Others belonged to the category of rebuke of what had reached him about us and what he was told about us by people—whether it was true or not. An example of such a firmān was the last one we got prior to our return to Cairo. Here, we should like to give an example of the first type of firmān, i.e one “to revive the hearts”—even though it also contains some censure, so that you can see how he—May God protect him—exhorted us to study. This is a copy of the text, which I have translated:

To the most noble and values Effendis residing in Paris with a view to acquiring the sciences and arts—may God increase their strength.

You are hereby informed that we have received your monthly bulletins and the schedules of your study activities. However, these schedules, which included information on your activities in the course of one trimester, are obscure and one cannot understand from them what you have achieved in that period; in fact, we have not learned anything from them. Yet, you are in the city of Paris, which is the source of the sciences and the arts! In view of your paltry activities in this period, we have understood that your lack of zeal and a thirst for learning, which pains us greatly. My dear Effendis, what are our hopes of you? Each one of you should send us something of the fruit of his labours and proof of his skill. If you do not exchange this idleness with hard work, diligence and zeal, and if you return to Egypt merely after having read a couple of books, thinking that you have studied the [European] sciences and arts, then you are deceiving yourselves! Here, with us—praise and thank God—you educated comrades are working and are gaining a reputation for themselves. So, how will you face them if you return in this state? How will you show them the perfection of the sciences and arts? People should always look at the implications of things; an intelligent person must not let an opportunity slip by if he is to reap the fruit of his efforts. So, you have neglected to take advantage of this opportunity; you have conducted yourselves foolishly, without paying heed to the hardships and punishment that you will incur as a result of it. You did not exert yourselves in order to obtain our attention, despite the fact that we have favoured you so that you might distinguish yourselves from your peers. If you wish to gain our approval, each one of you must not let a single minute go by without studying the sciences and arts. Henceforth, each of you will communicate the progress he has made between the beginning and end of each month. Furthermore, you must also include your level in geometry, arithmetic and drawing, as well as the amount of time required to finish these sciences. Every month, you must record the progress in your studies in relation to the preceding month. If you lack perseverance and zeal, you must inform us of the reason and whether it is a lack of interest on your part or due to illness and, if it is the latter, the nature of the illness and whether it is due to natural causes or the result of an accident. In short, you must describe your actual condition so we can understand how you are doing. This is what we require of you. Read this order all together, and apply yourselves to understanding the aim of this decree.

This order was written in the Dīwān of Egypt during our council meeting in Alexandria, thanks to the Exalted one. When our order reaches you, you must act accordingly and avoid any breach of it. On this, the fifth month of Rabī’ al-awwal, 1245 of the Hijra.

(This marks the end of the text.)

Since receiving this missive, we have each month written about everything we read and learned in the course of the month in question. The teachers signed these letters and sent them on to our benefactor. When one of us was neglectful in doing this, Monsieur Jomard wrote a letter to all of us, ordering those who were assiduous in writing these monthly letters to persevere and rebuking those who were neglectful.

Review

1. 1. Was a real conversion, across the lines of these cultural competitors, possible? Were Muslims more like to rebel against their faith than Christians?

2. 2. In what ways does the document reveal the effects of the Enlightenment on French society, in terms of religion and ‘curiosity’?