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1 4 A P R I L 2 0 1 1 A U S T R A L I A N B O O K R E V I E W

Arab France will immediately suggest to some readers de-bates about the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public schoolsand, more generally, about the place of North African migrants in contempo-rary French life, as well as the riots thaterupted in 2005 in suburbs with sub-stantial Arabic populations. To others, itmay evoke memories of trips to Paris, of sipping mint tea at the elegant mosquenear the Jardin des Plantes, visiting anexhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe, or strolling through the busy and dpaysant Barbs-Rochechouartneighbourhood. For still others, ArabFrance may bring to mind the history

of French colonialism in the Maghreband the Middle East, in particular,the troubled history of Algrie Franaise ,and the bloody war that brought to anend the French imperium in North Africa in 1962.

However, Ian Collers Arab France takes us back to an earlier period, andone of the great merits of this ne study is its focus on a little-known episodeof French engagement with the Mus-lim world, and on a forgotten Arabicpresence in France. In 1798 Napoleon,

as an ambitious young general, led anarmy that occupied Egypt in the hopeof securing France a beachhead in theeastern Mediterranean (and perhapsultimately of challenging the British inIndia) and, not coincidentally, of pro-pelling the Corsican to power in Paris.Napoleon carried with him a team of scholars, artists, and map-makers eagerto discover the land of the pharaohs,and to make off with whatever booty

they could transport. Within several years, the military campaign ended infailure, though Napoleon spin-doctoredit into a success back at home. e in-tellectual expedition scored a greatertriumph, however, by virtually creatingthe science of Egyptology and by ushering in an enduring fascination with pyramids and mummies.

A number of Egyptians and Syr-ians, including Muslims and Copticand Melkite Christians, worked withthe French in Egypt. Napoleons defeatleft them compromised and endangered,and several hundred men and women the total is uncertain, but may haveapproached a thousand ed to France(much as did many Muslim Algerians who had supported the French in 1962). The refugees called themselves theEgyptian Legation. is book is thestory of their sojourn in France, until1831. With admirable detective skill,and the use of petitions, police les,and other archival material, Coller, now a lecturer at Deakin University, hastraced their itineraries, reconstructedtheir lives, and tried to understand whatit meant, for the migrants and French,to be an Arab in France in the rst dec-ades of the nineteenth century.

e life stories of the Egyptians arefascinating, though it is easy for the in-

attentive reader to become confused by the intertwined biographical details. (Abrief whos who appendix would havebeen useful.) General Yaqub, the leaderof the migrants and a veteran of theFrench army, died at sea on the way toFrance, but his widow became a wealthy and inuential member of the edgingcommunity, helping to raise funds formore impoverished migrants. Many set-tled in the seaport of Marseille, wherean Egyptian village emerged. Soldiers were sent to the little provincial town

of Melun where, authorities hoped,they would form an Arab legion in theFrench army. Still others heeded the callof Paris, moving to the capital to seek fame or fortune. Some found jobs asinterpreters or teachers of Arabic anEgyptian school was set up in Paris while others found rewarding work inthe world of business. In general, they appear to have done relatively well intheir new home.

French Orientalism (in the oldsense of the word: specialism in thcultures of the Levant) owed much tothe Egyptians, their teaching, trans-lation, and publications. e study of Arabic was countenanced by the Frenchfor both commercial and culturapurposes, and attempts to understandthe Arab world went far beyond theEgyptomania that saw streets in Parinamed for Aboukir and the Pyramidsor the great vogue for things Egyptianthat occurred when an elephant, thegift of the Egyptian ruler, arrived inMarseille in 1827 and traversed thecountry, to the great joy of spectatorslining the route.

anks to Napoleons expedition,and to the intermediary role played bythe Egyptians in Europe, French ideaspermeated the Muslim world, thoughColler is careful to note that a reform-ist current of thought existed in Egyptbefore the arrival of the ideologietransported by Napoleons officers anscholars. One of the leading Muslimintellectuals of the nineteenth centuryRifaa al-Tahtawi, came to France ac-companying a group of students senby the Ottoman government in 1826.His account of their stay forms animportant record of how Arabs sawFrance. Coller perceptively examine

the work and place of such Arab intel-lectuals in Paris.Divided by religion, class, and plac

of residence, and frequently bickering among themselves, the EgyptiansColler argues, nevertheless formeda true community he emphasisesthat a community can exist withoutdenominators of a large populationor geographical concentration. ey thought of themselves as in-betweensholding to their Arabic language andto their Christian or Muslim religion,

often dressing (at least for the rsgeneration) in traditional clothing Yet they were also French, withouthe records evidencing a conict between their North African and Euro-pean identity. Often employed by thestate, they proclaimed their loyalty toFrance.

Notwithstanding such professionsthe Egyptians occasionally arouseopposition, though as much from their

Napoleonsin-betweens

Robert Aldrich

ARAB FRANCE:ISLAM AND THE MAKING OF MODERN EUROPE, 1798 1831

by Ian CollerUniversity of California Press (Inbooks)

$39.95 pb, 304 pp, 9780520260658

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perceived allegiance to the Napoleonicrgime as from cultural or social differ-ences. Accusations of peculiar habits,crime, and prostitution were sounded.In 1815, in the wake of Napoleonsnal downfall, they became the vic-tims of mob attacks in Marseille (withthe forces of law and order turninga blind eye). Dozens were killed,and the Egyptian village there wasrazed. Undefeated, the Egyptiansand their descendants rebuilt theirlives and became productive mem-bers of society. Some indeed servedin the French military and bureauc-racy during the conquest of Algiers in1830.

e French Egyptians remaineda small group Coller perhaps slightly overstates his case by intimating thenear omnipresence of Arabs in Francein the early 1800s but they providea riveting case of largely peaceful andfertile cohabitation (despite the 1815massacre) of European natives and in-comers. eir lives show the breadth,and the limits, of what Coller callsrepressive cosmopolitanism: the mix-ture of peoples and cultures in a city such as Paris, but the resolve of au-thorities that these different groups didnothing to challenge the ruling order.

French interest and inuence in

Egypt continued after the era studiedby Coller. Empress Eugnie, consortof Napoleon III, presided over the in-auguration of the Suez Canal, built by French engineers, in 1869. ere were(and are) French schools and news-papers in Egypt. Frances links withEgypt were nevertheless overshadowedby ones with Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia,and Syria, countries of imperial do-minion and continued migration. By writing this early chapter in Francesengagement with North Africa, Coller

has shown the long genealogy of present-day Arab France. at history has pertinence for societies on bothsides of the Mediterranean.

Robert Aldrich is Professor of Eu-ropean History at the University of Sydney, author of Vestiges of the Colonial Empire in France: Monuments, Museums and Colonial Memories (2005) and editorof Te Age of Empires (2007).

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