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

168 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTrevolutionary government had erected a pyramid at the Temple of Immortalityat the Convention, on which were inscribed the names of the fourteen armies ofthe Republic; Bonaparte had erected such commemorative pyramids in the Italiancampaign, so that their use in Egypt was not a specific reference to theFrench being in the land of the pharaohs, though of course they took on a specialmeaning there.)Ironically, the Muslim observer al-Jabarti describes the construction in away that makes clear that he did not recognize it as a pyramid, nor did such apagan monument have any resonance for Egyptian Muslims of that day. Thepyramid was surrounded by 105 columns draped in the tricolor, bearing thenames of each of the departments (i.e., provinces) of France. Le Courrier de l’Égyptereported that the columns were “brought together by a double wreath,emblem of the unity and indivisibility of all the parts of republican France.”One entertains a profound suspicion that Egypt was by then conceived as one ofthe indivisible “parts of republican France,” which was the point of symbolicallytransporting the French departments to the middle of Cairo.In the middle of the colonnade stood an obelisk, which rose to a height ofseventy feet. On one face was inscribed in gold the phrase “To the French Republic,Year 7.” On the opposite face were the words “To the Expulsion of theMamluks, Year 6.” On the two lateral faces, the phrases were translated intoArabic. An arch of triumph, on which was represented the battle of the pyramids,was raised at one of the two entrances in the colonnade. At the other entrance,a portico had been erected on which was inscribed, in Arabic, “There isno God but God and Muhammad is his Prophet.” Most of the French troopswould have been unaware of the significance of the Arabic, which is the professionof faith in Islam, and one of the Arabists at the Institute of Egypt must havewritten this notice, describing the Arabic inscription, for the official newspaper.Bernoyer knew about the significance of this formula, and wrote, “Thesefew words, my dear, form the sole profession of faith for Muhammadans. Theyare so sacred for them that, even if an infidel says them in Arabic at the momentof being massacred on the battlefield during combat, his life will be saved and hewill be treated as a friend.” He refrained from any of his usual Jacobin diatribesabout religion here, but we know that he did not approve of this policy. Bonapartewas still attempting to associate republican virtue with an Islam coded as asort of deism. The portico was designed to propagandize the Egyptian publicand further the rumors of an impending conversion of the French. Ironically,back in France the Directory and its provincial administrations had been strugglingagainst religion, attempting to sideline Sunday church services and