Arab France

Arab France: Islam and the Making of Modern Europe, 1798–1831 . By Ian Coller . University of California Press . 2011 . xi + 288 pp. €41.95 . There was no ‘Arab France’ between Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the attack on Algeria. The Arabs pictured here were mainly migrants from Egypt to Marseille in 1801, linked by language, Islamicist culture and a French pension, their recompense for having supported Napoleon against the Ottomans. Two hundred were kitted with an ‘Oriental’ uniform as a Mamelouk unit in the French army. They earned a fearsome reputation, but few saw combat. Gabriel Taouïl was appointed to a chair in Arabic in Marseilles and gave free language classes, mainly to refugee children. The poorest women, mostly negros, whose status was ambiguous with the return of slavery in 1802, became prostitutes. The first part of this book focuses on how the migrants settled in Marseilles during the Empire, the later chapters trace the geographically diverse Arab scholars who settled in Paris during the Restoration. Coller has lovingly reconstructed their communities from letters in Arabic and ones in French to the government, primarily about pensions. For the French, Arabs were exotic ornaments in plays and paintings (informatively examined here), never part of a ‘multiple and plural’ France. A few Arabic intellectuals, including Rufa'il Zakhur, gained official posts as language specialists, but as modernizing Arabists were disappointed at the narrow approach of French scholars like Sylvestre de Sacy. Rufa'il went back to work for Muhammad ‘Ali in Egypt. Because the refugees remained loyal to Napoleon, they suffered at the Restoration; figures for the massacre on 25 June 1815 varied from twelve to two-thirds of the Marseilles community. Some, like the feted scholar and poet Joseph Agoub, moved to Paris. Restoration Paris delighted in the ‘Orient’ and the Napoleonic multi-volume Description de l'Egypte, which revered Egypt as the fount of western civilization. Muhammed ‘Ali sent sons of his elite to Paris for their education. However, by 1831, the French saw the Egyptian ruler less as the donor of exotic artefacts and giraffes than as a barbarian. The conquest of Algeria made Arabic more a tool of colonial domination than a cultural treasure. Agoub lost his post at the lycée Louis-le-Grand and in Marseilles Arabic was taught by a Frenchman. French Arabs, like Joanny Pharaon, left to teach in Algiers. With the invasion of Algeria, it was no longer possible even to dream of an Arab France. This is an original and inspiring study, presented with elegant erudition. It will be read with pleasure and enlightenment by anyone interested in modern Europe, particularly the reception of Arabic culture, ‘Orientalism’ and national identity. It is a magisterial and magical book

Ancient history · Arabic · Archaeology · Empire · Islam · Plural · Refugee · Classics · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy