Islamic Propaganda by the French During the Occupation of Egypt (1798-1801)

Yıl 2022, Cilt: 42 Sayı: 1, 163 - 190, 29.03.2022

Halil İbrahim Erol

Öz

This article examines the propaganda put forth by the French during their invasion of Egypt between 1798 and 1801. The French occupation and control of Egypt was realized through two important elements, invasion/war (military control/hard power) and propaganda (textual control/soft power). Military and textual strategies should be viewed as not only complementary but also integral parts of each other. The French constantly and persistently issued proclamations from the first day of the invasion to the last moment. They primarily sought to set the stage for what they aimed with forthcoming propaganda. Their propaganda had political and religious aspects. The political propaganda was seemingly created in the context of the French rivalry with the Mamluks. The religious propaganda, on the other hand, was based on the claim that the French were the best friends of Egyptian Muslims, whom the French insistently tried to persuade. Their friendship with Muslims gradually developed to a point that some Frenchmen appeared to have converted to Islam. The propaganda apparatus in terms of its practice had visual and textual aspects that the French applied simultaneously. Opposite to what had been claimed, this paper asserts that their propaganda had absolutely nothing to do with the Enlightenment or the ideas of the French Revolution. This research also argues the primary impetus of the invasion to have been the global capitalist rivalry between the British and the French.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Propaganda, Muslim French, French Occupation, Napoleon Bonaparte, Egypt, Azhar Ulama

Kaynakça

• Abu Lughod, I. (1963). The Arab rediscovery of Europe: A study in cultural encounters. Princeton University Press.
• Al-Jabarti, A. al-Rahman. (1975). Al-Jabarti’s chronicle of the first seven months of the French occupation of Egypt: Muharram-Rajab 1213 15 June-December 1798 (S. Moreh, Ed. & Trans.). Brill.
• Al-Jabarti, A. al-Raḥman. (1994). Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti’s history of Egypt (Vol. 3; T. Philipp & M. Perlmann, Eds.; Daniel Crecelius, B. Abd al-Malik, C. Wendell, & M. Fishbein, Trans.). Franz Steiner.
• Al-Jabarti, A. al-Rahman. (1998). Mazhar al-Taqdis bi-Zawal Dawlat al-Fransis (Abd al-Rahim Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Rahim, Ed.). Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya.
• Al-Jabarti, A. al-Rahman. (2013). Ajāʾib al-Āthār fī ʼl-Tarājim waʼl-Akhbār (Vol. 3; S. Moreh, Ed.). The Max Schloessinger Memorial Foundation.
• Al-Jabarti, A. al-Raḥman. (n. d.). Tarikh Muddat al-Fransis bi-Misr (A. al-Rahim Abd al-Rahim Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Rahim, Ed.). Dar al-Kitab al-Jamii.
• Al-Turk, N. (1950). Muzakkirat Niqula Al-Turk (G. Wiet, Ed. & Trans.). Imprimerie de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale.
• Al-Turk, N. (1993). Hamlat Bunabart ila-Sharq, Makhtuta Niqula Al-Turk (A. Bashshur, Ed.). Jarrous Press.
• Bjorneboe, L. (2007). In search of the true political position of the ‘ulama, An analysis of the aims and perspectives of the chronicles of Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1753-1825). Aarhus University Press.
• Bourrienne, L. A. F. (1836). Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte (Vol. 1). Richard Bentley. B
• urleigh, N. (2007). Mirage: Napoleon’s scientists and the unveiling of Egypt. Harper.
• Domenach, J. M. (1995). Politika ve propaganda [Politics and propaganda] (Tahsin Yücel, Trans.). İstanbul: Varlık Yayınları.
• Donath, C. (2012). Persuasion’s empire: French imperial reformism, 1763-1801 (Doctoral dissertation). University of California.
• Dykstra, D. (1998). The French occupation of Egypt, 1798-1801. In M. W. Daly (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Egypt (pp. 113–138). Cambridge University Press.
• El-Khashshab, I. (2003). Le dîwân du caire 1800-1801: Édition, analyse et annotation du texte d’Ismaïl El-Khashshab (M. Afifi & A. Raymond, Eds.). Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale.
• Ellul, J. (1965). Propaganda: The formation of men’s attitudes (Konrad Kellen & Jean Lerner, Trans.). Vintage Books.
• Erol, H. İ. (2020). 1798-1850 arası Mısır’da matbaa: Tarih alanında neşir ve tercüme faaliyetleri. Türkiye Ortadoğu Çalışmaları Dergisi, 7(2), 171–208.
• Erol, H. İ. (2021). Mısır’da tarihyazımı: Fransız işgalinden Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Paşa dönemine. İLEM Yayınları.
• Findley, C. V. (2010). Turkey, Islam, nationalism, and modernity: A history, 1789-2007. Yale University Press.
• Gran, P. (1979). Islamic roots of capitalism: Egypt, 1760-1850. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Gregory, H. (2019). On the margins of the Nahda: The life and intellectual world of Muhammad ’Ayyad al-Tantawi (Doctoral dissertation). Harvard University.
• Hentsch, T. (2008). Hayali Doğu, Batı’nın Akdenizli Doğu’ya politik bakışı [L’Orient imaginaire la vision politique occidentale de l’Est méditerranéen] (Aysel Bora, Trans.). Metis Yayınları.
• Herold, J. C. (1962). Bonaparte in Egypt. Harper & Row.
• Hourani, A. (1980). Europe and the Middle East. University of California Press.
• Hourani, A. (1991). Islam in European thought. Cambridge University Press.
• Johnston, R. M. (1913). Napoleon, a short biography. Henry Holt and Company.
• Jowett, G., & O’Donnell, V. (2012). Propaganda and persuasion. SAGE Publications.
• Karal, E. Z. (1938). Fransa, Mısır ve Osmanlı İmparatorluğu (1797-1802). Milli Mecmua Basımevi.
• Lapidus, I. M. (2002). A history of Islamic societies. Cambridge University Press.
• Leith, J. A. (2003). Propaganda and mass persuasion: A historical encyclopedia, 1500 to the present. In N. J. Cull, D. Culbert, & D. Welch (Eds.), Napoleon (1769–1821) (pp. 260–261). ABC-CLIO.
• Lewis, B. (1968). The emergence of modern Turkey. Oxford University Press.
• Lewis, B. (1993). Islam and the West. Oxford University Press. Lewis, B. (2010). Faith and power: Religion and politics in the Middle East. Oxford University Press.
• Matti, M. (1966). Napoleon’s Islamic policy in Egypt. Islamic Quarterly, 10(3–4), 103–116.
• Milson, M., & Bar-Asher, M. M. (2021). Shmuel Moreh’s scientific achievements. In M. Hatina & Y. Sheffer (Eds.), Cultural pearls from the East in memory of Shmuel Moreh (1932–2017) (pp. 18–28). Leiden-Brill.
• Minawi, M. (2016). The Ottoman scramble for Africa: Empire and diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz. Stanford University Press.
• Moreh, S. (2006). Napoleon and the French impact on Egyptian society in the eyes of al-Jabarti. In S. Moreh (Ed.), Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabartī’s chronicle of the French occupation, 1798. Markus Wiener Publishing.
• Philipp, T. (1990). The French and the French Revolution in the works of al-Jabarti. In D. Crecelius (Ed.), Eighteenth century Egypt: The Arabic manuscript sources (pp. 127–140). Regina Books.
• Qualter, T. H. (1962). Propaganda and psychological warfare. Random House.
• Shaw, S. J. (1964). Ottoman Egypt in the age of the French Revolution by Huseyn Efendi. Harvard University Press.
• Soysal, İ. (1999). Fransız ihtilâli ve Türk-Fransız diplomasi münasebetleri (1798-1802). Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.
• Tageldin, S. M. (2011). Disarming words: Empire and the seductions of translation in Egypt. University of California Press.
• Tignor, R. L. (1993). Introduction. In S. Moreh (Ed.), Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabartī’s chronicle of the French occupation, 1798 (pp. 1–15). Markus Wiener Publishers.
• Vatikiotis, P. J. (1969). The modern history of Egypt. Cox &Wyman Limited.
• Welch, D. (2003). Propaganda and mass persuasion: A historical encyclopedia, 1500 to the present. In N. J. Cull, D. Culbert, & D. Welch (Eds.), Disinformation. ABC-CLIO.