Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

126 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTal-Bakri, cloaked in the aura of the Prophet’s family and of his prominenceamong the clerics, weathered the disdain of the masses.Captain Say, who disapproved of Bonaparte’s dalliance with Islam, recalledthat the commander in chief on the occasion of the festival of theProphet’s birth “dressed in oriental costume and declared himself protector ofall the religions. The enthusiasm was universal, and he was unanimously giventhe name of the son-in-law of the Prophet. Everyone called him Ali Bonaparte.”6 Egyptian Sunnis considered ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-inlawof the Prophet Muhammad, to be the fourth rightly-guided caliph or vicarof the Prophet. If the Egyptians bestowed this sobriquet on the Corsican, itwas in sidesplitting jest. Bonaparte’s secretary, Bourrienne, sensitive to theway in which the general’s pandering on the subject of religion made himseem ridiculous, said that he never dressed in Egyptian robes again, findingthem “uncomfortable.”That evening, the sheikh threw a great feast for Bonaparte at his mansion. Ahundred prominent clerics of al-Azhar sat cross-legged on carpets aroundtwenty low tables, while one of them recited a narrative of the Prophet’s life in avoice that the French found monotonous. The French were seated at tables andoffered silver cutlery and plates, with a rare bottle of wine. Afterward, roast, entrées,rice, and pastry were served, all of it spicy. Desvernois observed, “TheArabs eat with their fingers; but I must add in all justice that three times duringthe meal they washed their hands.”The subject of their conversations is easy to imagine. Desvernois said ofBonaparte and the al-Azhar clerics that he “conversed frequently with them,seeking to be instructed as to the needs of the country and the means of makingit prosper. Sometimes, even, to flatter their religious prejudices, he let them envisagethat the Republican army was not far from embracing the faith ofMuhammad.” Another officer observed: “Nothing was forgotten in persuadingthe Egyptians that the army had the greatest veneration for the Prophet. Thesoldiers were politic in their expressions; when they returned to their quarters,they laughed at that comedy.” 7In a moment of unusual candor, Bonaparte at Saint Helena later recalled hisstraits of that August. 8 “The position of the French was uncertain. They wereonly tolerated by the believers, who, crushed by the rapidity with which eventsunfolded, had bowed before force, but were already openly deploring the triumphof the idolaters, whose presence profaned the blessed waters. Theygroaned at the opprobrium that had befallen the first key to the holy Kaaba.The imams made a show of reciting the verses of the Qur’an that were most op-