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

150 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTThe commander in chief replied that in that case they would have at least towear the cockade, a ceremonial knot of tricolor ribbon, on their breasts. Theyasked for twelve days to deliberate on the matter.Bonaparte appears to have regretted his display of impatience. The nexttime he summoned Sheikh Sharqawi, the general greeted him warmly, took hishand in his own, smiled at him, exchanged pleasantries, and presented him witha diamond ring. He asked him to come again the next day. That day, the Frenchguard announced that all Egyptians should wear the cockade (which al-Jabartiinterpreted as a symbol of obedience and love). In his chronicle of these events,al-Jabarti wrote that “the majority of people refused, while some consideredthat it did not harm their religion, since they wore it only as a ruse, and moreharm would come of disobeying the order. So they wore it.” Later that day, theFrench rescinded the order with regard to the common people. (Al-Jabarti didnot explain why, but given Muslim sentiments about being turned into infidelsthrough imitating them, there was a danger of popular rage.)The next day, Bonaparte convened the clerics again. When Sheikh Sharqawientered, he pinned a cockade on his chest. Then as the others entered, hedid the same, and they had difficulty declining because they could see that Sharqawi,their leader, had already acquiesced. They took the cockades off whenthey left the general’s mansion. This way of proceeding, al-Jabarti said, brieflybecame standard. The French only obliged the notables and persons seeking toenter their presence with some need to sport it. They would put it on beforethey entered, then take it off when they left. “They only wore it for a few days,then events intervened, and they abandoned the practice.” 14Say maintained that this incident wherein the clerics were allegedly convincedof the virtues of the cockade proved that all are open to the blandishmentsof reason, even the most educated (and therefore, he remarked in the tradition ofRousseau, the most susceptible to prejudices)—“especially when the argumentsare put forward by someone who has in his hands force and power.” He saw reasonas enhanced rather than contradicted by power. He concluded, “How manyhave died for opinions and misunderstandings in history. May the end of theeighteenth century, so brilliant with the military exploits of a great nation, beeven more fertile ground for the constant triumph of reason over prejudice!” 15Here again the triumph of reason over prejudice is coupled not only withEnlightenment thought processes but with the martial achievements of a “greatnation.” Fatherland and army are seen as key prerequisites for or helpmeets toReason, as though Voltaire had to march with Bonaparte at his back in order tobecome ascendant over the city of a thousand minarets. (Say’s editor and de