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Napoleon in Egypt
“Europe is a molehill….”
Everything here is worn out…tiny Europe has not enough to offer.
We must set off for the Orient; that is where all the greatest glory is to be achieved.” —Napoleon
Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt was the first Western attack in modern times on a Middle Eastern country. In this remarkably rich and eminently readable historical account, acclaimed author Paul Strathern reconstructs a mission of conquest inspired by glory, executed in haste, and bound for disaster.
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, mounted the most audacious military campaign of his already spectacular career. With 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, scientists, and inventors, he set sail for Egypt to establish an Eastern empire in emulation of Alexander the Great. Like everything Napoleon ever attempted, it was a plan marked by unquenchable ambition, heroic romanticism, and not a little madness.
Napoleon saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians from the oppression of their Mameluke overlords. But while Napoleon thought his army would be welcomed as heroes, he tragically misunderstood Muslim culture and grossly overestimated the “gratitude” he could expect from those he’d come to save. Instead Napoleon and his men would face a grim war of attrition against an ad hoc army of Muslims led by the feared Murad Bey. Marching across seemingly endless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, suffering extremes of heat and thirst, and pushed to the limits of human endurance, they would be plagued by mirages, suicides, and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor and intended for glory would degenerate toward chaos and atrocity.
But Napoleon’s grand failure in Egypt also yielded vast treasures of knowledge about a culture largely lost to the West, and through the recovery of artifacts like the Rosetta Stone, it prepared the way for the translation of hieroglyphics and modern Egyptology. And it tempered the complex leader who believed it his destiny to conquer the world.
A story of war, adventure, politics, and a clash of cultures, Paul Strathern’s Napoleon in Egypt is history at once relevant and impossible to put down.
From the Hardcover edition.
Everything here is worn out…tiny Europe has not enough to offer.
We must set off for the Orient; that is where all the greatest glory is to be achieved.” —Napoleon
Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt was the first Western attack in modern times on a Middle Eastern country. In this remarkably rich and eminently readable historical account, acclaimed author Paul Strathern reconstructs a mission of conquest inspired by glory, executed in haste, and bound for disaster.
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, mounted the most audacious military campaign of his already spectacular career. With 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, scientists, and inventors, he set sail for Egypt to establish an Eastern empire in emulation of Alexander the Great. Like everything Napoleon ever attempted, it was a plan marked by unquenchable ambition, heroic romanticism, and not a little madness.
Napoleon saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians from the oppression of their Mameluke overlords. But while Napoleon thought his army would be welcomed as heroes, he tragically misunderstood Muslim culture and grossly overestimated the “gratitude” he could expect from those he’d come to save. Instead Napoleon and his men would face a grim war of attrition against an ad hoc army of Muslims led by the feared Murad Bey. Marching across seemingly endless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, suffering extremes of heat and thirst, and pushed to the limits of human endurance, they would be plagued by mirages, suicides, and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor and intended for glory would degenerate toward chaos and atrocity.
But Napoleon’s grand failure in Egypt also yielded vast treasures of knowledge about a culture largely lost to the West, and through the recovery of artifacts like the Rosetta Stone, it prepared the way for the translation of hieroglyphics and modern Egyptology. And it tempered the complex leader who believed it his destiny to conquer the world.
A story of war, adventure, politics, and a clash of cultures, Paul Strathern’s Napoleon in Egypt is history at once relevant and impossible to put down.
From the Hardcover edition.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2007
44 people are currently reading
1099 people want to read
About the author
Paul Strathern
160 books542 followersPaul Strathern (born 1940) is a English writer and academic. He was born in London, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, after which he served in the Merchant Navy over a period of two years. He then lived on a Greek island. In 1966 he travelled overland to India and the Himalayas. His novel A Season in Abyssinia won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1972.
Besides five novels, he has also written numerous books on science, philosophy, history, literature, medicine and economics.
Besides five novels, he has also written numerous books on science, philosophy, history, literature, medicine and economics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
August 26, 2023
“Across from the battlefield, amidst the darkened streets and alleyways of Cairo, chaos reigned as the terrified population loaded up their possessions and attempted to flee. They could see the flames and the glow in the sky from…burning ships on the Nile; many even thought that the French had entered the city itself and were burning it down. In a delirium of tribulation, men threw dust upon their heads and beat their breasts, while women howled, raising their arms to the flickering sky. Others began breaking into the deserted palaces of the beys, looting them and setting them on fire…At the same time the mass of the population streamed toward the eastern gates of the city, driving overladen donkeys, camels and mules before them…Once outside, in the darkness beyond the city walls, the Bedouin were waiting for them; with hideous cries they began setting on the screaming refugee columns, ransacking them of anything valuable, tearing necklaces and bracelets from the women, cutting through the clothes of the men to discover hidden pouches…As El-Djabarti put it, summing of the day’s experience: ‘Never before had Egypt seen such horrors. Never have we seen such things in the history of humanity; you may hear my words, but you can never imagine what they describe…’”
- Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt
For most people, invading Egypt with 40,000 soldiers in an attempt to forge an eastern empire would be the defining moment of their life. It would constitute the first line of any obituary, and take up space on their headstone. That’s especially true if that invasion ended in controversy-marred disaster that killed thousands.
Napoleon Bonaparte, of course, is not “most people.” In the crowded resume of his life, his Egyptian adventure often gets overlooked, especially in light of subsequent actions that included becoming Emperor of France and setting Europe afire for the better part of fifteen years.
In Napoleon in Egypt, Paul Strathern gives this episode the extended focus it deserves, and delivers a tale of high adventure and stark human tragedy that is alternately thrilling, shocking, and farcical.
***
Napoleon in Egypt proceeds chronologically from the origins of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign to its desultory conclusion, with Napoleon leaving his men in order to seek his destiny in France. Between those two points, there is the Battle of the Pyramids, Admiral Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile, the aborted Siege of Acre, and Napoleon’s more-successful siege of the married Pauline Fourès. Along the way, Strathern presents an argument that Egypt was part of a far-larger, gaspingly-ambitious Napoleonic plan to consolidate his position in North Africa before marching on India.
Importantly, Strathern spends a good amount of space setting up the background, including a lively introduction to the main character. It’s probably helpful to have read about Napoleon beforehand – and Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon is a great place to do that – but it is not necessary. Though I am a long way from an expert in this area of history, following along was effortless.
***
Strathern tells this story in mostly narrative fashion, occasionally interjecting himself to weigh in on evidentiary disputes. This is important, as the problem with Napoleon isn’t a lack of sources, but a surfeit of them, with many – including Napoleon’s own memoirs – produced in a self-serving fashion. It’s a sign of Strathern’s skill that he is able to parse the credibility of eyewitnesses without detracting from the pace of storytelling.
One of the traps of writing about Napoleon is that – despite the many dark shades to his personality – he comes across as witty, indefatigable, and wise. Thus, it is easy for an author to be seduced into parroting Napoleon’s point of view. There were definitely moments in Napoleon in Egypt where Strathern toed that line, willing to offer up defenses or mitigating circumstances for his protagonist. Nevertheless, he maintains enough objectivity – and provides enough countervailing testimony – for you to make up your own mind.
***
The prose here is lucid, and Strathern does a good job weaving first-person accounts into the mix. The battles are exciting, the massacres – including a grim recounting of the aftermath of the siege of Jaffa – are startling, and the politics are intriguing. Detail is the lifeblood of effective history, and Napoleon in Egypt is crammed with it, so that there is real vividness and sense of place on display.
On the downside, I think that Strathern could have done a better job at describing Egypt’s relationship with the Ottoman Empire in general, and the Mamelukes in particular.
The ending is also a bit abrupt. The title is very serious about the book’s scope. It’s about Napoleon in Egypt, and when he leaves Egypt, so do we, so that the end-stages are only summarized.
Still, these are minor shortcomings, and Strathern makes up for it by giving a full account of the so-called “Institute of Egypt,” a collection of mathematicians, physical scientists, and artists that Napoleon brought along with him. Indeed, the Institute gets its very own chapter that delves into topics such as the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, French graffiti on the pyramids, and the missing nose of the Sphinx.
***
Unsurprisingly, Strathern mostly tells this story from the perspective of the figuratively towering – though otherwise diminutive – Napoleon himself. It’s hard not to, for he created his own gravitational pull. Yet Strathern works diligently to incorporate opposing views, and draws heavily – and quotes extensively – from the work of contemporary Egyptian historians. Strathern also gives figures such as Sheik El-Bekri and Murad Bey their due, adding them to a very strong supporting cast.
***
Unlike the smooth bell-curves of fiction, Napoleon’s life was a series of vertiginous peaks interspersed with low valleys. Whatever else can be said about the man, he had an ability to pick himself up, dust himself off, and raise another army. His story has all the elements of a monomaniacal inspirational poster, infused with narcissism and self-interest. You can almost imagine it, hanging above your desk. A split picture: on the left, Napoleon retreating through the snows from Moscow; on the right, Napoleon escaping from Elba; below both, in big letters, “You only fail if you stop trying!”
Given all Napoleon’s battles, his accomplishments, and his crimes, Egypt tends to fade from view. After all, the Battle of Austerlitz, the One Hundred Days, and Napoleon’s pathological relationship with Josephine all cast very long shadows. Here, though, Strathern ably shows the campaign to be an epic in its own right.
- Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt
For most people, invading Egypt with 40,000 soldiers in an attempt to forge an eastern empire would be the defining moment of their life. It would constitute the first line of any obituary, and take up space on their headstone. That’s especially true if that invasion ended in controversy-marred disaster that killed thousands.
Napoleon Bonaparte, of course, is not “most people.” In the crowded resume of his life, his Egyptian adventure often gets overlooked, especially in light of subsequent actions that included becoming Emperor of France and setting Europe afire for the better part of fifteen years.
In Napoleon in Egypt, Paul Strathern gives this episode the extended focus it deserves, and delivers a tale of high adventure and stark human tragedy that is alternately thrilling, shocking, and farcical.
***
Napoleon in Egypt proceeds chronologically from the origins of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign to its desultory conclusion, with Napoleon leaving his men in order to seek his destiny in France. Between those two points, there is the Battle of the Pyramids, Admiral Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile, the aborted Siege of Acre, and Napoleon’s more-successful siege of the married Pauline Fourès. Along the way, Strathern presents an argument that Egypt was part of a far-larger, gaspingly-ambitious Napoleonic plan to consolidate his position in North Africa before marching on India.
Importantly, Strathern spends a good amount of space setting up the background, including a lively introduction to the main character. It’s probably helpful to have read about Napoleon beforehand – and Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon is a great place to do that – but it is not necessary. Though I am a long way from an expert in this area of history, following along was effortless.
***
Strathern tells this story in mostly narrative fashion, occasionally interjecting himself to weigh in on evidentiary disputes. This is important, as the problem with Napoleon isn’t a lack of sources, but a surfeit of them, with many – including Napoleon’s own memoirs – produced in a self-serving fashion. It’s a sign of Strathern’s skill that he is able to parse the credibility of eyewitnesses without detracting from the pace of storytelling.
One of the traps of writing about Napoleon is that – despite the many dark shades to his personality – he comes across as witty, indefatigable, and wise. Thus, it is easy for an author to be seduced into parroting Napoleon’s point of view. There were definitely moments in Napoleon in Egypt where Strathern toed that line, willing to offer up defenses or mitigating circumstances for his protagonist. Nevertheless, he maintains enough objectivity – and provides enough countervailing testimony – for you to make up your own mind.
***
The prose here is lucid, and Strathern does a good job weaving first-person accounts into the mix. The battles are exciting, the massacres – including a grim recounting of the aftermath of the siege of Jaffa – are startling, and the politics are intriguing. Detail is the lifeblood of effective history, and Napoleon in Egypt is crammed with it, so that there is real vividness and sense of place on display.
On the downside, I think that Strathern could have done a better job at describing Egypt’s relationship with the Ottoman Empire in general, and the Mamelukes in particular.
The ending is also a bit abrupt. The title is very serious about the book’s scope. It’s about Napoleon in Egypt, and when he leaves Egypt, so do we, so that the end-stages are only summarized.
Still, these are minor shortcomings, and Strathern makes up for it by giving a full account of the so-called “Institute of Egypt,” a collection of mathematicians, physical scientists, and artists that Napoleon brought along with him. Indeed, the Institute gets its very own chapter that delves into topics such as the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, French graffiti on the pyramids, and the missing nose of the Sphinx.
***
Unsurprisingly, Strathern mostly tells this story from the perspective of the figuratively towering – though otherwise diminutive – Napoleon himself. It’s hard not to, for he created his own gravitational pull. Yet Strathern works diligently to incorporate opposing views, and draws heavily – and quotes extensively – from the work of contemporary Egyptian historians. Strathern also gives figures such as Sheik El-Bekri and Murad Bey their due, adding them to a very strong supporting cast.
***
Unlike the smooth bell-curves of fiction, Napoleon’s life was a series of vertiginous peaks interspersed with low valleys. Whatever else can be said about the man, he had an ability to pick himself up, dust himself off, and raise another army. His story has all the elements of a monomaniacal inspirational poster, infused with narcissism and self-interest. You can almost imagine it, hanging above your desk. A split picture: on the left, Napoleon retreating through the snows from Moscow; on the right, Napoleon escaping from Elba; below both, in big letters, “You only fail if you stop trying!”
Given all Napoleon’s battles, his accomplishments, and his crimes, Egypt tends to fade from view. After all, the Battle of Austerlitz, the One Hundred Days, and Napoleon’s pathological relationship with Josephine all cast very long shadows. Here, though, Strathern ably shows the campaign to be an epic in its own right.
October 30, 2025
Fantasy and Farce
Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 was one of his lesser known but fascinating campaigns. It was also built on complete fantasy of Napoleon and throughout was a huge farce. The Directory wanted to get rid of Napoleon (known as General Bonaparte at the time), the young, talented and up and coming military genius. For his part, Napoleon wanted to establish his foothold in the annuals of history and establish an ‘oriental empire’. He has dreams of following in the footsteps of his hero Alexander the Great of invading India, but first wanted to carve out a piece of the pie in tired Egypt. Paul Strathern brings to life this audacious but ultimately disastrous military adventure, blending rich historical detail with engaging storytelling.
Napoleon in Egypt excels in capturing both the strategic and personal dimensions of the campaign. Strathern examines Napoleon’s ambition to emulate the conquests of Alexander the Great and his desire to extend French influence to the Middle East, while also highlighting the personal motivations driving Napoleon’s increasingly grandiose vision. One of the most captivating elements of the book is its portrayal of the cultural clash between the French invaders and the people of Egypt, illustrating the profound misunderstandings and moments of both conflict and curiosity that occurred between the two.
Strathern’s vivid descriptions of the military aspects of the campaign, such as the perilous march across the desert, the bloody Battle of the Pyramids, and the stunning defeat of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, immerse the reader in the physical and emotional hardships faced by the soldiers. Yet Napoleon in Egypt doesn’t just focus on the military side; it also delves into the intellectual and scientific ambitions of the expedition, with the ‘savants’ (scientists and scholars) accompanying the army playing a crucial role in what would later lead to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.
Strathern delves into the politics of the Directory in France, Napoleon’s complex personality, and the geopolitics of Europe and the Ottoman Empire, all while offering an accessible narrative that doesn’t overwhelm the reader with excessive detail. There is also an underlying sense of irony and tragedy in how Napoleon’s great plan for a new French empire in the East crumbles, foreshadowing the even larger-scale failures of his later campaigns in Russia.
While Napoleon in Egypt is thoroughly researched, some readers may find that Strathern occasionally indulges in speculative psychological insights into Napoleon’s mindset that feel a bit overdrawn. He also makes some wild statements which aren’t true, one weird one was his claim that Julius Caesar was bisexual. This has been debunked by serious Roman historians and is almost certainly a slur made much later on by his enemies in light of his alleged affair with Nicomedes IV of Bithynia. It seems odd to me for Strathern to throw this in with such confidence and disappointing shows he knows little on the subject. However, these instances are rare, and they do not detract significantly from the overall quality of the narrative.
I will say that in the end, I found that Napoleon in Egypt is an engaging and informative work that provides a fresh perspective on a key chapter in Napoleon’s career. Strathern deftly captures the grandeur, ambition, and ultimate folly of the Egyptian expedition, offering readers an accessible yet nuanced account of a pivotal moment in history. The campaign had so many similar moments to his 1812 invasion of Russia. The scale, the loss, the constant problems and his eventual abandonment of his loyal troops. However, instead of heat, plague and death, there they found cold typhoid and death. So if you enjoyed this I’d recommend Count Adam Zamoyski’s 1812.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 was one of his lesser known but fascinating campaigns. It was also built on complete fantasy of Napoleon and throughout was a huge farce. The Directory wanted to get rid of Napoleon (known as General Bonaparte at the time), the young, talented and up and coming military genius. For his part, Napoleon wanted to establish his foothold in the annuals of history and establish an ‘oriental empire’. He has dreams of following in the footsteps of his hero Alexander the Great of invading India, but first wanted to carve out a piece of the pie in tired Egypt. Paul Strathern brings to life this audacious but ultimately disastrous military adventure, blending rich historical detail with engaging storytelling.
Napoleon in Egypt excels in capturing both the strategic and personal dimensions of the campaign. Strathern examines Napoleon’s ambition to emulate the conquests of Alexander the Great and his desire to extend French influence to the Middle East, while also highlighting the personal motivations driving Napoleon’s increasingly grandiose vision. One of the most captivating elements of the book is its portrayal of the cultural clash between the French invaders and the people of Egypt, illustrating the profound misunderstandings and moments of both conflict and curiosity that occurred between the two.
Strathern’s vivid descriptions of the military aspects of the campaign, such as the perilous march across the desert, the bloody Battle of the Pyramids, and the stunning defeat of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, immerse the reader in the physical and emotional hardships faced by the soldiers. Yet Napoleon in Egypt doesn’t just focus on the military side; it also delves into the intellectual and scientific ambitions of the expedition, with the ‘savants’ (scientists and scholars) accompanying the army playing a crucial role in what would later lead to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.
Strathern delves into the politics of the Directory in France, Napoleon’s complex personality, and the geopolitics of Europe and the Ottoman Empire, all while offering an accessible narrative that doesn’t overwhelm the reader with excessive detail. There is also an underlying sense of irony and tragedy in how Napoleon’s great plan for a new French empire in the East crumbles, foreshadowing the even larger-scale failures of his later campaigns in Russia.
While Napoleon in Egypt is thoroughly researched, some readers may find that Strathern occasionally indulges in speculative psychological insights into Napoleon’s mindset that feel a bit overdrawn. He also makes some wild statements which aren’t true, one weird one was his claim that Julius Caesar was bisexual. This has been debunked by serious Roman historians and is almost certainly a slur made much later on by his enemies in light of his alleged affair with Nicomedes IV of Bithynia. It seems odd to me for Strathern to throw this in with such confidence and disappointing shows he knows little on the subject. However, these instances are rare, and they do not detract significantly from the overall quality of the narrative.
I will say that in the end, I found that Napoleon in Egypt is an engaging and informative work that provides a fresh perspective on a key chapter in Napoleon’s career. Strathern deftly captures the grandeur, ambition, and ultimate folly of the Egyptian expedition, offering readers an accessible yet nuanced account of a pivotal moment in history. The campaign had so many similar moments to his 1812 invasion of Russia. The scale, the loss, the constant problems and his eventual abandonment of his loyal troops. However, instead of heat, plague and death, there they found cold typhoid and death. So if you enjoyed this I’d recommend Count Adam Zamoyski’s 1812.
November 20, 2023
4.5
“If given half a chance, he'll become the head of Caesar on the shoulders of Alexander.”
-Volney
The invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in the summer of 1798 is considered the first massive seaborne invasion of the modern age.
He set off for the Orient, because that was where all the “greatest glory” was to be achieved.
He nurtured dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol Alexander the Great.
His chief purpose was to liberate the Egyptians from the oppressive rule of the Mamelukes; to free them from tyranny.
His second intention was to show them the light of reason. Hence along with his soldiers, he took with him 167 hand-picked savants; mathematician, scientists, intellectuals, artists, etc.
They thought it was merely the fancy of a man intoxicated by ambition; they thought it was an impossible enterprise.
They thought he was mad.
“If given half a chance, he'll become the head of Caesar on the shoulders of Alexander.”
-Volney
The invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in the summer of 1798 is considered the first massive seaborne invasion of the modern age.
He set off for the Orient, because that was where all the “greatest glory” was to be achieved.
He nurtured dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol Alexander the Great.
His chief purpose was to liberate the Egyptians from the oppressive rule of the Mamelukes; to free them from tyranny.
His second intention was to show them the light of reason. Hence along with his soldiers, he took with him 167 hand-picked savants; mathematician, scientists, intellectuals, artists, etc.
They thought it was merely the fancy of a man intoxicated by ambition; they thought it was an impossible enterprise.
They thought he was mad.
December 18, 2025
This is a straight forward, fairly detailed, narrative of Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798 invasion of Egypt with 40,000 soldiers in an attempt to forge an eastern empire. Napoleon had lofty aspirations that weren't always firmly grounded in reality. Strathern makes use of quotes from various letters, Napoleon's memoirs, and other contemporary documents to differentiate what is known, what was plausible and what is contested knowledge. This book examines the origins of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, the politics involved both within France and within Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, the trials of moving military and non-military personal from place to place, also details of the Battle of the Pyramids, the Battle of the Nile culminating in Admiral Nelson’s victory, the taking of Cairo, the aborted Siege of Acre, and ends with Napoleon ditching his Egyptian army to return to France. Napoleon also took with him a 'Legion of Culture': approximately 150 scientists, artists, scholars, and engineers of various sorts, which ultimately lead to the development of Egyptology, and advances in mathematics and chemistry. The French encounters with the Egyptian denizen makes for an interesting study of the clash of disparate civilizations and societies.
Moving at a decent clip, this engaging and interesting book tells a story of hubris, misplaced idealism, genuine cultural exchange, brutal conflict, and unexpected discovery, all wrapped in Napoleon's youthful drive for legendary status.
Note: Maps are included. So are footnotes! Glorious footnotes! Stuck at the bottom of the page, where they belong!
Moving at a decent clip, this engaging and interesting book tells a story of hubris, misplaced idealism, genuine cultural exchange, brutal conflict, and unexpected discovery, all wrapped in Napoleon's youthful drive for legendary status.
Note: Maps are included. So are footnotes! Glorious footnotes! Stuck at the bottom of the page, where they belong!
January 2, 2016
Quite possibly the definitive book on Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. And like most Napoleon books, I learned something new practically on every page. The nearly inexhaustably amount of material on the Napoleonic Wars and Bonaparte means you can pretty much read absolutely nothing but history on it, and still be amazed. In this book, the earthshattering revelation for me was that Mamelukes were actually slaves imported from Georgia/Bosnian region with immense amount of power (was never quite sure the origin of them before).
And lots of examples of classic Napoleon being his usual evil self. For example, book disputed something I had read in another book--Napoleon didn't give a direct order to have 400 prostitutes rounded up, beheaded, sewn into sacks, and tossed into the Nile for giving soldiers venereal diseases--his orders were misinterpreted by the psychotic chief of police. Actually he was a little upset about it--but then, don't give orders that could be so misconstrued.
He did give the order to have 4,000+ surrendered Ottoman soldiers to be massacred though. And he tried really, really hard to have soldiers infected with plague to be poisoned. Really, I think he was only so adamant about it and bringing the poison in person was because he wanted to see a mass poisoning, and not to put wounded troops out of collective misery (because it doesn't seem that overall adverse conditions for others really bothered him that much).
Same reason for the tantalizing rumor mentioned in the book of a homosexual dalliance in Cairo. Which I also see as totally possible (and Napoleon's later upsetness over it)--since his foray in Egypt was all about emulating Alexander the Great. Napoleon did things just to see--like wearing native clothes and flirting with conversion to Islam.
Also some of the great what ifs ever. What if Acre fell easily and Sidney Smith was out of the picture? And Napoleon marched towards Constantinople and India instead of returning to France to become Emperor? And Egypt serves as a perfect example of everything that went wrong later under his command.
Another nice aspect of the book was the focus on the savants that Napoleon brought with him--the rediscovery of ancient Egypt, the advancement in evolutionary theory, to canning food, and the idea of the Suez canal all came from the expedition.
Book was also a lively read--so recommend for anyone interested in military theory, history, or science.
And lots of examples of classic Napoleon being his usual evil self. For example, book disputed something I had read in another book--Napoleon didn't give a direct order to have 400 prostitutes rounded up, beheaded, sewn into sacks, and tossed into the Nile for giving soldiers venereal diseases--his orders were misinterpreted by the psychotic chief of police. Actually he was a little upset about it--but then, don't give orders that could be so misconstrued.
He did give the order to have 4,000+ surrendered Ottoman soldiers to be massacred though. And he tried really, really hard to have soldiers infected with plague to be poisoned. Really, I think he was only so adamant about it and bringing the poison in person was because he wanted to see a mass poisoning, and not to put wounded troops out of collective misery (because it doesn't seem that overall adverse conditions for others really bothered him that much).
Same reason for the tantalizing rumor mentioned in the book of a homosexual dalliance in Cairo. Which I also see as totally possible (and Napoleon's later upsetness over it)--since his foray in Egypt was all about emulating Alexander the Great. Napoleon did things just to see--like wearing native clothes and flirting with conversion to Islam.
Also some of the great what ifs ever. What if Acre fell easily and Sidney Smith was out of the picture? And Napoleon marched towards Constantinople and India instead of returning to France to become Emperor? And Egypt serves as a perfect example of everything that went wrong later under his command.
Another nice aspect of the book was the focus on the savants that Napoleon brought with him--the rediscovery of ancient Egypt, the advancement in evolutionary theory, to canning food, and the idea of the Suez canal all came from the expedition.
Book was also a lively read--so recommend for anyone interested in military theory, history, or science.
August 19, 2021
I suppose it’s a bit timely that I am writing this review in wake of the disastrous scenes coming from the Americans' unfortunate, incompetently conducted, withdrawal from Afghanistan. Timely as one of the salient moral lessons of Paul Strathern’s work in this book is to caution the West in delving into situations it doesn’t remotely understand.
Napoleon in Egypt, by Paul Strathern, is a well written, if slower paced, chronicle of the young General Bonaparte’s vision of creating an Alexandrian type Eastern Empire. An Empire that the young Corsican envisioned would be a material, and spiritual, counterpoint to the commercial, mercantilist, technocratic Empires of Europe, and an especial counterpoint to his own nemesis the British. Far more than a work of military history, this is more of a cultural history than it is a study of the French operations and battles in Egypt and the Levant.
Despite, or because of, his fame and renown won in his brilliant campaign in Italy which helped end the War of the First Coalition, the Directory in Paris had grown wary and suspicious of the ambitious young General Napoleon Bonaparte. With boundless ambitions, and a penchant for irritating his political masters with constant grand strategic visions and ideas (not to mention the occasional advice given freely on political and cultural matters, despite never once being asked), General Bonaparte had become a bit of a burden in times of peace.
Seeking a means, any means, to get him off of their hands, the Directory jumped at the chance to send Napoleon, and a sizeable armed force, as far away from Paris as they were liable to throw him. Napoleon had delivered to the Directory his vision for a French conquest of Egypt, and the opening of a trade route through Suez (the idea for the Suez Canal was not native to the British, and significantly predated the actual construction of the Canal), which would strategically outflank British positions in India and the Far East. Seeing as how this was already a French strategic imperative, long predating the Revolution, just too expensive and logistically risky to undertake, the Directory, seeing their chance to be rid of Napoleon (possibly permanently), jumped at it.
As Strathern points out, however, Napoleon’s vision was not merely a strategic, economic, vision. Strathern details how Napoleon linked his expedition closely with the Institute of France (basically an intellectual think tank, though one which more akin to an ancient school of philosophy and esoterica than a modern, materialistic, think tank), and the brilliant Savants therein. Napoleon dreamed of an Empire of the East, akin to that of Alexander the Great. And like the great Maceonian, Napoleon envisioned an Empire that would be a model to the world. An Empire that would mould together the best ideals and virtues of both the East and the West, and be a template for a new, global, unification of humanity.
Not totally ignorant of what he was marching into, Napoleon instructed his Staff, chief subordinates, and his men, to be respectful of Islam, passed out copies of the Quran to be studied and even himself expressed the, albeit cynical, desire to convert to Islam in order to better lead a vast Eastern Army of global conquest (of course, he also mentioned rewriting the Quran for his own needs, and it should be mentioned that he eventually threw out this view, and upon contact with Eastern Orthodox Christians, began to take on a much more nuanced approach of what the East, and religion, really was). It should be mentioned, too, that Napoleon and the Institute had visions of discovering the truth of the ancient past.
Modern Egyptology is a byproduct of Napoleon’s ambitions, and he himself absolutely did have a hand in its creation. As Strathern shows in this book, Napoleon was far more than a one dimensional warlord or military genius. Napoleon was very much a restless genius, and despite being a soldier’s soldier, and a man’s man, was far more comfortable in the company of intellectuals, mystics, philosophers, artists, writers, even priests (Catholic, Orthodox, just not Protestants, as Napoleon very much found Protestantism to be a laughable religion), Imams and rabbis. This, of course, created tensions with his own Staff and command hierarchy, as some saw him as simply too strange, too odd of a bird, to be of any real use. As such, Napoleon entertained the more fringe ideas of some of the intellectuals of the time that Egypt was one of the pillars of an ancient, united, human empire, one that was mentioned in the tale of Atlantis and the ancient Greek philosophers.
Therefore, in Napoleon’s mind, the esoteric needs of the expedition were equally as important as were the strategic and military ones.
Strathern spends a considerable amount of time detailing Napoleon’s fascination with esoterica and the pursuits of the intellect, as it lays the foundation for the young General’s overall strategy for the entire campaign. Even the first stop, the seizure of the island of Malta, and the final overthrow of the Knights of Saint John as the rulers of the island, had considerable esoteric significance for the young Bonaparte. Malta, although strategically a necessity for the French Navy’s ability to logistically supply the expedition, and to keep open lines of communication with France, was also a means by which Napoleon could justify his endeavor as a quasi-Crusade in the name of a higher, enlightened, human Imperial ideal. (After his rapid takeover of the island despite brief resistance, Napoleon spent just as much time going through the Knight’s archives for esoteric information as he did organizing the logistics of the expedition's next steps).
From Malta, the French expedition sailed to Egypt.
Egypt was ruled by the Mamelukes, Georgian slaves, forcibly converted to Islam, who became fierce warriors, and who had taken over Egypt’s governance quite some time before. However, even the Mamelukes ruled at the behest of the blessing of Islam. Despite Murad Bey, the Mameluke ruler, being himself a rather debauched old man, the native Egyptians found the French to be repulsively hedonistic and degenerate.
And, in large part, this is the crux of Strathern’s work in this book.
The clash of civilizations, which had been ongoing since the dawn of Islam in the Seventh Century AD, would take a new turn with the advent of Napoleon’s invasion, and experiment with an Alexandrian Imperial vision. At first it seemed as though it would all be a foregone conclusion.
Alexandria was seized rapidly, and the French Fleet setup anchor there, and after establishing both a governing body and an esoteric exploratory body there, (the latter always an importance in Napoleon’s mind), the French made a rapid inland march towards Cairo, skirmishing with the Mamelukes, and local Bedouins, along the way. (A tragicomic side note, the alien nature of each civilization to each other was when a French patrol rescued several French who had been taken prisoner by the Bedouins in one of these numerous, small, skirmishes. The French men had been raped (yes, raped) by the Bedouins, and Napoleon himself did the men’s pride no favors by laughing hysterically and telling them it would serve as a good reminder to not stray from the main column...and then ordered the Bedouin skirmishers hunted down and exterminated, which they were).
As the French neared Cairo, their logistics being badly strained by the overland march, they faced the concentrating Mamelukes who offered battle at a place outside Giza, which is known to posterity as The Battle of the Pyramids. For all their martial grandeur, and glorious accoutrement, and genuine fierceness on the charge, the Mamelukes were no match for French discipline, training, tactics, and modern firepower. The French were formed up in massive open square formations, with artillery forming the corners of the squares. Each square was linked with the other to form interlocking fields of fire, and Mameluke attempts to ride around one square, meant they were blasted from all sides by the others. No French square broke, and the Mamelukes were cut to pieces. French cavalry, sheltering in the center of the massive squares, then rode out and finished the rout of the Mamelukes. At a stroke, much like with the Ancien Regime back home, the French Revolutionary soldiers had upended the ancient order within Egypt.
The Mamelukes, though not destroyed here, would never again hold chief political power in Egypt. Their mismatched defeat (the French would suffer barely 300 casualties while the Mamelukes would be massacred, losing between 10-20,000 men, sources vary) would upend everything on a truly regional basis. However, seizing Cairo would not bring the French the order that they sought.
Partly, this was because, technically, despite Mameluke control, Egypt was an Ottoman possession, and the Ottoman’s weren’t as of yet a part of the French Revolutionary conflict. As such, not only the French, but also the Russians and the British plied a considerable amount of diplomatic power to coerce the Ottoman’s to choose a side. It would be the British, as was typical in this period, who won out, and the Ottoman’s weren’t exactly too keen on the French traipsing around what they still considered their domain.
For his part, Napoleon went to work in Cairo with a will. He bent over backwards to ingratiate himself with the Muslim clerics, being initially slightly confused by the Greek Orthodox presence although he adapted rapidly, even placing several Orthodox clergy in the ranks of his Institute headquartered in Alexandria. However, despite all of his efforts, Napoleon simply failed to count on the rabid xenophobia of the native population, and how no matter what wonders of modern technology the French could offer, their own wretched social views (at least to Muslim eyes, especially vis a vis French attitudes towards women) ensured that, eventually, tensions would boil over.
This is where the book really slows down, Strathern isn’t a military historian, and clearly his interest is far more attuned towards social and cultural history. This is fairly interesting, and it certainly highlights the impossibility of Napoleon’s grand vision, (unless he was willing to slaughter all of the natives and go to the effort of migratory mass replacement...which he did, a couple of times, comment on in frustration), however, Strathern can, and does, belabor the point and the narrative in the middle third of the book really slows down.
There are some interesting bits in here, though. Napoleon’s quest for evidence of the ancient, global, human civilization does bear some fruit with the beginning of the excavation of the Sphinx, his own personal explorations into the Great Pyramid (J. Christopher Herold’s book on the same topic relates how Napoleon was very shaken by what he witnessed, and he wouldn’t discuss it with anyone, talk about tantalizing!), and the beginning of the attempt to unravel the Rosetta Stone, as well as studying what archival evidence the Orthodox and the Muslims had salvaged over the many generations.
It should also be pointed out that Strathern is highly condescending towards religious faith, especially Christianity, though he doesn’t let Islam off the hook, either. His constant and consistent sniping at religion, and his snide remarks vis a vis Orthodox clergy in particular, and Napoleon’s own curiosity towards religion and his discussions with Imams and Orthodox Priests, grows old very rapidly. To the point where it’s simply not professional and unbecoming of someone attempting to produce a work of historical veracity.
Despite this, he does a good job of highlighting how the French secularist views clashed so strongly with the Egyptians Islamic views, that an explosion was inevitable.
A great revolt broke out in Cairo, and spread to outlying communities when the Ottoman Porte made the call for Jihad against the Christians (never minding that the French weren’t themselves any longer Christian, despite Napoleon’s persistent religio curiosity and inquiries). However, this revolt didn’t turn out so well for the revoltees, who were brutally crushed, and most of the survivors who were captured were executed.
Possibly Napoleon’s strong reaction was either a form of common sense when faced with a hostile population, or it was frustration at the news that the British, under Horatio Nelson, had sailed their Royal Navy, after finally hunting down where the French Navy had gone off to, and blew it to smithereens in the Battle of the Nile. Now, stranded, with barely 30,000 men to control an unruly, alien, populace with alien ideals and values, as well as fearing an imminent Ottoman and possibly joint Ottoman/British/Russian drive against him, Napoleon began to act far more severely.
Fearing having to face an overwhelming Ottoman response, Napoleon gambled on invading Palestine, to force the Ottoman’s onto the defensive, and to further his quest for esoteric knowledge of ancient history. This is one of the more disappointing sections of the book. Strathern tends to breeze through the events in Palestine, though he does cover the siege of Acre well enough. Napoleon is defeated at Acre (though he does win an astonishing against the odds victory against a large Muslim force coming to take him in the rear at the Battle of Mount Tabor), and withdraws back into Egypt wherein he receives news that the Directory has recalled him back to France, and practically pleads with him to restore the military situation as the War of the Second Coalition has broken out.
Partly due to Napoleon’s Middle Eastern adventure, the outbreak of the Second Coalition catches the French off guard, and the initial offensives in the Rhineland, and in Northern Italy go splendidly for the Austrian and Russian forces, who sweep all before them. The end of Napoleon’s tale in Egypt is somewhat anticlimactic. Napoleon, ever the soul of pragmatism, realizes his dream of an Alexandrian Empire is doomed, and so he makes preparations to leave, albeit without informing everyone that he is doing so.
It is perhaps the only clear cut case of inexcusable cowardice in the man's life, and it condemns thousands of French to imprisonment, and not a few are murdered by vengeful Muslims before the British and the Russians can arrange for them to be exchanged. Napoleon’s flight from Egypt is eerily reminiscent of the sudden, poorly planned, American withdrawal from Afghanistan just a few days prior to writing this.
And that is probably why this book should stand as a necessary reading for anyone interested in getting involved in foreign affairs. This book is a warning, chocked full of them, in fact, against blindly jumping into an alien culture and assuming that you can change them with the force of progress. Perhaps Napoleon’s own quest for an ancient, objective, truth that he hoped to find in the material world, brought him into close enough contact with those of the spiritual world that he realized the futility of the nature of his quest. After all, his first act as First Consul (after a coup which launches against the Directory a very short time after returning to France) is to cease the Revolution’s persecution of Christians and to allow freedom for all religions within France.
This book is full of items of interest that force one to ponder what one has read, and it really is an engine for motivating deep thought. It is somewhat light on the military details, though Strathern does a decent enough job of covering them, and his writing style is not overly dry as to rob what is a truly epic event of it’s genuine grandeur and drama. One major criticism to level at the author is his delving into psychoanalysis of Napoleon.
Historical psychoanalysis was an academic fad in the late 90’s and has carried over to the current day though, thankfully, it seems to be waning. It is monumental intellectual hubris to attempt to psychoanalyze an historical figure who is a product of a different age, culture, and all the character that that entails in comparison to a modern evaluating them. It’s honestly silly when authors partake in it, and I found myself skipping those sections where Strathern attempts to pick apart Napoleon’s psyche.
Beyond that, however, this was a fascinating read, if overly dull in the long middle section, and it serves as a useful warning on why the West’s attempt to force modern, progressive ideals on the ancient East will never, ever, truly succeed.
Highly recommended.
Napoleon in Egypt, by Paul Strathern, is a well written, if slower paced, chronicle of the young General Bonaparte’s vision of creating an Alexandrian type Eastern Empire. An Empire that the young Corsican envisioned would be a material, and spiritual, counterpoint to the commercial, mercantilist, technocratic Empires of Europe, and an especial counterpoint to his own nemesis the British. Far more than a work of military history, this is more of a cultural history than it is a study of the French operations and battles in Egypt and the Levant.
Despite, or because of, his fame and renown won in his brilliant campaign in Italy which helped end the War of the First Coalition, the Directory in Paris had grown wary and suspicious of the ambitious young General Napoleon Bonaparte. With boundless ambitions, and a penchant for irritating his political masters with constant grand strategic visions and ideas (not to mention the occasional advice given freely on political and cultural matters, despite never once being asked), General Bonaparte had become a bit of a burden in times of peace.
Seeking a means, any means, to get him off of their hands, the Directory jumped at the chance to send Napoleon, and a sizeable armed force, as far away from Paris as they were liable to throw him. Napoleon had delivered to the Directory his vision for a French conquest of Egypt, and the opening of a trade route through Suez (the idea for the Suez Canal was not native to the British, and significantly predated the actual construction of the Canal), which would strategically outflank British positions in India and the Far East. Seeing as how this was already a French strategic imperative, long predating the Revolution, just too expensive and logistically risky to undertake, the Directory, seeing their chance to be rid of Napoleon (possibly permanently), jumped at it.
As Strathern points out, however, Napoleon’s vision was not merely a strategic, economic, vision. Strathern details how Napoleon linked his expedition closely with the Institute of France (basically an intellectual think tank, though one which more akin to an ancient school of philosophy and esoterica than a modern, materialistic, think tank), and the brilliant Savants therein. Napoleon dreamed of an Empire of the East, akin to that of Alexander the Great. And like the great Maceonian, Napoleon envisioned an Empire that would be a model to the world. An Empire that would mould together the best ideals and virtues of both the East and the West, and be a template for a new, global, unification of humanity.
Not totally ignorant of what he was marching into, Napoleon instructed his Staff, chief subordinates, and his men, to be respectful of Islam, passed out copies of the Quran to be studied and even himself expressed the, albeit cynical, desire to convert to Islam in order to better lead a vast Eastern Army of global conquest (of course, he also mentioned rewriting the Quran for his own needs, and it should be mentioned that he eventually threw out this view, and upon contact with Eastern Orthodox Christians, began to take on a much more nuanced approach of what the East, and religion, really was). It should be mentioned, too, that Napoleon and the Institute had visions of discovering the truth of the ancient past.
Modern Egyptology is a byproduct of Napoleon’s ambitions, and he himself absolutely did have a hand in its creation. As Strathern shows in this book, Napoleon was far more than a one dimensional warlord or military genius. Napoleon was very much a restless genius, and despite being a soldier’s soldier, and a man’s man, was far more comfortable in the company of intellectuals, mystics, philosophers, artists, writers, even priests (Catholic, Orthodox, just not Protestants, as Napoleon very much found Protestantism to be a laughable religion), Imams and rabbis. This, of course, created tensions with his own Staff and command hierarchy, as some saw him as simply too strange, too odd of a bird, to be of any real use. As such, Napoleon entertained the more fringe ideas of some of the intellectuals of the time that Egypt was one of the pillars of an ancient, united, human empire, one that was mentioned in the tale of Atlantis and the ancient Greek philosophers.
Therefore, in Napoleon’s mind, the esoteric needs of the expedition were equally as important as were the strategic and military ones.
Strathern spends a considerable amount of time detailing Napoleon’s fascination with esoterica and the pursuits of the intellect, as it lays the foundation for the young General’s overall strategy for the entire campaign. Even the first stop, the seizure of the island of Malta, and the final overthrow of the Knights of Saint John as the rulers of the island, had considerable esoteric significance for the young Bonaparte. Malta, although strategically a necessity for the French Navy’s ability to logistically supply the expedition, and to keep open lines of communication with France, was also a means by which Napoleon could justify his endeavor as a quasi-Crusade in the name of a higher, enlightened, human Imperial ideal. (After his rapid takeover of the island despite brief resistance, Napoleon spent just as much time going through the Knight’s archives for esoteric information as he did organizing the logistics of the expedition's next steps).
From Malta, the French expedition sailed to Egypt.
Egypt was ruled by the Mamelukes, Georgian slaves, forcibly converted to Islam, who became fierce warriors, and who had taken over Egypt’s governance quite some time before. However, even the Mamelukes ruled at the behest of the blessing of Islam. Despite Murad Bey, the Mameluke ruler, being himself a rather debauched old man, the native Egyptians found the French to be repulsively hedonistic and degenerate.
And, in large part, this is the crux of Strathern’s work in this book.
The clash of civilizations, which had been ongoing since the dawn of Islam in the Seventh Century AD, would take a new turn with the advent of Napoleon’s invasion, and experiment with an Alexandrian Imperial vision. At first it seemed as though it would all be a foregone conclusion.
Alexandria was seized rapidly, and the French Fleet setup anchor there, and after establishing both a governing body and an esoteric exploratory body there, (the latter always an importance in Napoleon’s mind), the French made a rapid inland march towards Cairo, skirmishing with the Mamelukes, and local Bedouins, along the way. (A tragicomic side note, the alien nature of each civilization to each other was when a French patrol rescued several French who had been taken prisoner by the Bedouins in one of these numerous, small, skirmishes. The French men had been raped (yes, raped) by the Bedouins, and Napoleon himself did the men’s pride no favors by laughing hysterically and telling them it would serve as a good reminder to not stray from the main column...and then ordered the Bedouin skirmishers hunted down and exterminated, which they were).
As the French neared Cairo, their logistics being badly strained by the overland march, they faced the concentrating Mamelukes who offered battle at a place outside Giza, which is known to posterity as The Battle of the Pyramids. For all their martial grandeur, and glorious accoutrement, and genuine fierceness on the charge, the Mamelukes were no match for French discipline, training, tactics, and modern firepower. The French were formed up in massive open square formations, with artillery forming the corners of the squares. Each square was linked with the other to form interlocking fields of fire, and Mameluke attempts to ride around one square, meant they were blasted from all sides by the others. No French square broke, and the Mamelukes were cut to pieces. French cavalry, sheltering in the center of the massive squares, then rode out and finished the rout of the Mamelukes. At a stroke, much like with the Ancien Regime back home, the French Revolutionary soldiers had upended the ancient order within Egypt.
The Mamelukes, though not destroyed here, would never again hold chief political power in Egypt. Their mismatched defeat (the French would suffer barely 300 casualties while the Mamelukes would be massacred, losing between 10-20,000 men, sources vary) would upend everything on a truly regional basis. However, seizing Cairo would not bring the French the order that they sought.
Partly, this was because, technically, despite Mameluke control, Egypt was an Ottoman possession, and the Ottoman’s weren’t as of yet a part of the French Revolutionary conflict. As such, not only the French, but also the Russians and the British plied a considerable amount of diplomatic power to coerce the Ottoman’s to choose a side. It would be the British, as was typical in this period, who won out, and the Ottoman’s weren’t exactly too keen on the French traipsing around what they still considered their domain.
For his part, Napoleon went to work in Cairo with a will. He bent over backwards to ingratiate himself with the Muslim clerics, being initially slightly confused by the Greek Orthodox presence although he adapted rapidly, even placing several Orthodox clergy in the ranks of his Institute headquartered in Alexandria. However, despite all of his efforts, Napoleon simply failed to count on the rabid xenophobia of the native population, and how no matter what wonders of modern technology the French could offer, their own wretched social views (at least to Muslim eyes, especially vis a vis French attitudes towards women) ensured that, eventually, tensions would boil over.
This is where the book really slows down, Strathern isn’t a military historian, and clearly his interest is far more attuned towards social and cultural history. This is fairly interesting, and it certainly highlights the impossibility of Napoleon’s grand vision, (unless he was willing to slaughter all of the natives and go to the effort of migratory mass replacement...which he did, a couple of times, comment on in frustration), however, Strathern can, and does, belabor the point and the narrative in the middle third of the book really slows down.
There are some interesting bits in here, though. Napoleon’s quest for evidence of the ancient, global, human civilization does bear some fruit with the beginning of the excavation of the Sphinx, his own personal explorations into the Great Pyramid (J. Christopher Herold’s book on the same topic relates how Napoleon was very shaken by what he witnessed, and he wouldn’t discuss it with anyone, talk about tantalizing!), and the beginning of the attempt to unravel the Rosetta Stone, as well as studying what archival evidence the Orthodox and the Muslims had salvaged over the many generations.
It should also be pointed out that Strathern is highly condescending towards religious faith, especially Christianity, though he doesn’t let Islam off the hook, either. His constant and consistent sniping at religion, and his snide remarks vis a vis Orthodox clergy in particular, and Napoleon’s own curiosity towards religion and his discussions with Imams and Orthodox Priests, grows old very rapidly. To the point where it’s simply not professional and unbecoming of someone attempting to produce a work of historical veracity.
Despite this, he does a good job of highlighting how the French secularist views clashed so strongly with the Egyptians Islamic views, that an explosion was inevitable.
A great revolt broke out in Cairo, and spread to outlying communities when the Ottoman Porte made the call for Jihad against the Christians (never minding that the French weren’t themselves any longer Christian, despite Napoleon’s persistent religio curiosity and inquiries). However, this revolt didn’t turn out so well for the revoltees, who were brutally crushed, and most of the survivors who were captured were executed.
Possibly Napoleon’s strong reaction was either a form of common sense when faced with a hostile population, or it was frustration at the news that the British, under Horatio Nelson, had sailed their Royal Navy, after finally hunting down where the French Navy had gone off to, and blew it to smithereens in the Battle of the Nile. Now, stranded, with barely 30,000 men to control an unruly, alien, populace with alien ideals and values, as well as fearing an imminent Ottoman and possibly joint Ottoman/British/Russian drive against him, Napoleon began to act far more severely.
Fearing having to face an overwhelming Ottoman response, Napoleon gambled on invading Palestine, to force the Ottoman’s onto the defensive, and to further his quest for esoteric knowledge of ancient history. This is one of the more disappointing sections of the book. Strathern tends to breeze through the events in Palestine, though he does cover the siege of Acre well enough. Napoleon is defeated at Acre (though he does win an astonishing against the odds victory against a large Muslim force coming to take him in the rear at the Battle of Mount Tabor), and withdraws back into Egypt wherein he receives news that the Directory has recalled him back to France, and practically pleads with him to restore the military situation as the War of the Second Coalition has broken out.
Partly due to Napoleon’s Middle Eastern adventure, the outbreak of the Second Coalition catches the French off guard, and the initial offensives in the Rhineland, and in Northern Italy go splendidly for the Austrian and Russian forces, who sweep all before them. The end of Napoleon’s tale in Egypt is somewhat anticlimactic. Napoleon, ever the soul of pragmatism, realizes his dream of an Alexandrian Empire is doomed, and so he makes preparations to leave, albeit without informing everyone that he is doing so.
It is perhaps the only clear cut case of inexcusable cowardice in the man's life, and it condemns thousands of French to imprisonment, and not a few are murdered by vengeful Muslims before the British and the Russians can arrange for them to be exchanged. Napoleon’s flight from Egypt is eerily reminiscent of the sudden, poorly planned, American withdrawal from Afghanistan just a few days prior to writing this.
And that is probably why this book should stand as a necessary reading for anyone interested in getting involved in foreign affairs. This book is a warning, chocked full of them, in fact, against blindly jumping into an alien culture and assuming that you can change them with the force of progress. Perhaps Napoleon’s own quest for an ancient, objective, truth that he hoped to find in the material world, brought him into close enough contact with those of the spiritual world that he realized the futility of the nature of his quest. After all, his first act as First Consul (after a coup which launches against the Directory a very short time after returning to France) is to cease the Revolution’s persecution of Christians and to allow freedom for all religions within France.
This book is full of items of interest that force one to ponder what one has read, and it really is an engine for motivating deep thought. It is somewhat light on the military details, though Strathern does a decent enough job of covering them, and his writing style is not overly dry as to rob what is a truly epic event of it’s genuine grandeur and drama. One major criticism to level at the author is his delving into psychoanalysis of Napoleon.
Historical psychoanalysis was an academic fad in the late 90’s and has carried over to the current day though, thankfully, it seems to be waning. It is monumental intellectual hubris to attempt to psychoanalyze an historical figure who is a product of a different age, culture, and all the character that that entails in comparison to a modern evaluating them. It’s honestly silly when authors partake in it, and I found myself skipping those sections where Strathern attempts to pick apart Napoleon’s psyche.
Beyond that, however, this was a fascinating read, if overly dull in the long middle section, and it serves as a useful warning on why the West’s attempt to force modern, progressive ideals on the ancient East will never, ever, truly succeed.
Highly recommended.
June 13, 2024
An interesting and informative book about Napoleons march into Egypt.
The story was a good mix of personal information and historic events. I went into this not knowing much about Napoleon beyond the recent Hollywood movie which didn't mention anything about Egypt that i remembered. Given it was a three hour movie i may have missed something. I was intrigued by Napoleons demeanor in the movie, a more laid back personality rather than a hot head i thought he was from the bugs bunny cartoons (sad but true my Napoleon background can best be described as limited).
So the book follows Napoleons younger days, his very strange relationship with his wife Josephine, and a little on the French Revolution which leads to his rise in power.
Napoleon gets approval from the French Leaders for an Egyptian Army mission to secure trade routes and expand the French empire. It is hinted that he had other plans as well to take India but they never happened or were confirmed.
The mission is top secret and involves detailed planning and preparation, which Napoleon throughout the book shows to be one of his great skills. Being unpredictable and decisive at critical moments were also traits described during his military battles.
The military voyage to Egypt involved four city ports each with dozens of ships coordinating their arrival in Egypt, all done without phones or long distance communication devices.
Then book describes many battles at Malta, Alexandria, Cairo, and a few others. Ultimately, Napoleon is unable to capture a key city and returns to France and leaves his troops to hold the conquered territories. The distance to hold these areas proves to be too much and many of them fall back to enemy hands. One interesting bit of information was that the Plague was still around during his campaign and ravaged his army in Egypt.
The book flowed rather nice for a historical story and there were many well described characters. As for Napoleon i never felt like i got to know him intimately ( largely my reason for Four Stars) but i feel well beyond my bugs bunny archive of Napoleon knowledge now!!!
The story was a good mix of personal information and historic events. I went into this not knowing much about Napoleon beyond the recent Hollywood movie which didn't mention anything about Egypt that i remembered. Given it was a three hour movie i may have missed something. I was intrigued by Napoleons demeanor in the movie, a more laid back personality rather than a hot head i thought he was from the bugs bunny cartoons (sad but true my Napoleon background can best be described as limited).
So the book follows Napoleons younger days, his very strange relationship with his wife Josephine, and a little on the French Revolution which leads to his rise in power.
Napoleon gets approval from the French Leaders for an Egyptian Army mission to secure trade routes and expand the French empire. It is hinted that he had other plans as well to take India but they never happened or were confirmed.
The mission is top secret and involves detailed planning and preparation, which Napoleon throughout the book shows to be one of his great skills. Being unpredictable and decisive at critical moments were also traits described during his military battles.
The military voyage to Egypt involved four city ports each with dozens of ships coordinating their arrival in Egypt, all done without phones or long distance communication devices.
Then book describes many battles at Malta, Alexandria, Cairo, and a few others. Ultimately, Napoleon is unable to capture a key city and returns to France and leaves his troops to hold the conquered territories. The distance to hold these areas proves to be too much and many of them fall back to enemy hands. One interesting bit of information was that the Plague was still around during his campaign and ravaged his army in Egypt.
The book flowed rather nice for a historical story and there were many well described characters. As for Napoleon i never felt like i got to know him intimately ( largely my reason for Four Stars) but i feel well beyond my bugs bunny archive of Napoleon knowledge now!!!
August 12, 2025
Wat te Brits.
Vaak schrijft hij "er is hier geen bewijs voor maar het past wel bij het gedrag van Napoleon, dus ik geloof het".
Vaak schrijft hij "er is hier geen bewijs voor maar het past wel bij het gedrag van Napoleon, dus ik geloof het".
August 10, 2016
There are so many interesting threads within this book: the life of Napoleon and what he'd go on to become; the clash of cultures between a radical, progressive, scientific French and traditional Egypt, the colonial rivalries of England and France, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the birth of interest and knowledge of Ancient Egypt and so on. This book covers lots of these themes in detail.
1. Battle of the Pyramids - we see the optimism and ease with which the French take Cairo at Embaba with the ancient Pyramids as the backdrop. The Mamelukes are fearsome but the French tactics are unbeatable; they quickly take over Cairo and Napoleon installs himself as ruler.
2. The Savants and the Institute - throughout the book, the role of the Savants comes to the fore: to impress Egypt with the wonders of French science (even though many of the best innovations are sunk by the English fleet at Alexandria), to establish discussion and intellectual activity at the institute in a requisitioned Mameluk palace and to record and document noteworthy finds in Egyt from flora and fauna, the geography of the country and perhaps most importantly Ancient Egyptian monuments like the Rosetta Stone.
3. Pursuit into Upper Egypt - Desaix's pursuit of Murat Bey and his Mamelukes into Upper Egypt truly reads like a pursuit into the unknown and into deeply unhospitable terrain where unknown beasts like 40 feet crocodiles dwell. It's also interesting to read about the Savant (Denon)'s documenting of temples like Dendera which are being seen for the first time, and which are believed to be older even than they really were. Also striking is how seriously the Savants and even the army take the endeavor of sketching temples, hieroglyphic art and documenting the expedition.
4. An abandoned army - Striking is the way Napoleon abandons his army in Egypt, not even informing his replacement Kleber until after he has left the country. Though this could be seen as cowardice and plain opportunism, the writer sympathetically believes that Napoleon is encouraged to do so by the Directory. Also, it's clear that Napoleon sees his chance to seize power in France while his star is on the rise. Also, perhaps after his failure during the seize of Acre and the aftermath, he can't see any real progress any more as it's unlikely he will go on to take Constantinople and Syria; plus the English blockade continues to make the existence of the army difficult.
1. Battle of the Pyramids - we see the optimism and ease with which the French take Cairo at Embaba with the ancient Pyramids as the backdrop. The Mamelukes are fearsome but the French tactics are unbeatable; they quickly take over Cairo and Napoleon installs himself as ruler.
2. The Savants and the Institute - throughout the book, the role of the Savants comes to the fore: to impress Egypt with the wonders of French science (even though many of the best innovations are sunk by the English fleet at Alexandria), to establish discussion and intellectual activity at the institute in a requisitioned Mameluk palace and to record and document noteworthy finds in Egyt from flora and fauna, the geography of the country and perhaps most importantly Ancient Egyptian monuments like the Rosetta Stone.
3. Pursuit into Upper Egypt - Desaix's pursuit of Murat Bey and his Mamelukes into Upper Egypt truly reads like a pursuit into the unknown and into deeply unhospitable terrain where unknown beasts like 40 feet crocodiles dwell. It's also interesting to read about the Savant (Denon)'s documenting of temples like Dendera which are being seen for the first time, and which are believed to be older even than they really were. Also striking is how seriously the Savants and even the army take the endeavor of sketching temples, hieroglyphic art and documenting the expedition.
4. An abandoned army - Striking is the way Napoleon abandons his army in Egypt, not even informing his replacement Kleber until after he has left the country. Though this could be seen as cowardice and plain opportunism, the writer sympathetically believes that Napoleon is encouraged to do so by the Directory. Also, it's clear that Napoleon sees his chance to seize power in France while his star is on the rise. Also, perhaps after his failure during the seize of Acre and the aftermath, he can't see any real progress any more as it's unlikely he will go on to take Constantinople and Syria; plus the English blockade continues to make the existence of the army difficult.
May 7, 2015
Considering there aren't that many books solely focused on Napoleon's expedition in Egypt I really appreciated Strathern's book. Strathern keeps the narrative lively and adventurous while still interweaving the historical context and larger topics into his writing. I also enjoyed the parallels that he drew pertaining to Napoleon's later encounters with Admiral Nelson. This isn't the best book if you're using it for research. A lot of the narrative structure echoes J. Christopher Herold's 1962 monograph "Bonaparte in Egypt". If you're looking for a more critical look into this time period Philip Dwyer has five chapters in "Napoleon: the Path to Power"(2008).
November 19, 2020
Before this I’ve only known napoleon for his despotism and his failure in the Russian campaign. This is the first book I’ve read bout napoleon , chosen because I never guessed he had been to Egypt and also I could relate to the places I’ve been to Egypt. This book had provided a different insight to napoleon where I had initially and I might look into it. I bought the idea where beside personal ambition he did want to improve the lives of the conquest region with western civilisations, which is generally quite agreeable. It’s always a grey area when it comes to ambitions of conquerors.
November 12, 2010
This review was originally published in The Christian Science Monitor.
On 19 May 1798, General Napoleon Bonaparte sailed from Italy with an army of nearly 40,000 men–along with another, smaller army of scientists, engineers, artists, and linguists, the so-called Savants–to conquer Egypt.
First stop, however, was Malta. There, Napoleon ousted the traditional rulers, the Knights of St. John, established Malta as a French satellite, and plundered the treasury’s five million francs of gold, one million of silver and one million in gems. (Someone had to pay for his fantasy of becoming the new Alexander the Great.)
Arriving in Egypt on 1st July, by August the French had taken Alexandria and marched across the desert to defeat the Mameluke army at the Battle of the Pyramids and at Cairo. Then, in a bout of indomitable energy and attention to detail, Napoleon established a new Egyptian government with himself as titular head.
Yet twelve months and several major battles later–-bankrupt, having lost most of his troops and many of the Savants, his navy destroyed by the British under Admiral Nelson–-on August 24, 1799, Napoleon abandoned his Egyptian dream of empire along with the remnants of his army, to hightail it back to France, where he proclaimed the whole to have been a glorious victory. Napoleon in Egypt is novelist and philosopher Paul Strathern’s account of this disastrous Middle Eastern sojourn.
In some ways, the Egyptian enterprise was little more than a costly diversion or side-show to Napoleon’s European wars which would topple countless legitimate governments, cost between five and seven million lives, and immerse the Continent in over a decade of total war.
Still, it was in Egypt that Napoleon truly developed his taste for absolute power. It was here, for the first time, that his psychopathic contempt for his troops, his devious lying, as well as some measure of his megalomania were given full rein–-with awful consequences.
Yet Strathern routinely plays down these unpalatable aspects of Napoleon’s character, clinging instead to the Napoleonic myth of heroism and glory.
He omits, minimises or attempts to explain away the French atrocities–-such as the sacking of the Al-Azhar in Cairo, and the slaughter of Ottoman prisoners following the siege of Jaffa. He credits Napoleon’s proclamations of religious toleration. He relies on the highly inflated enemy casualty numbers given by Napoleon himself. Moreover, he seems unaware that French casualty lists of the period recorded neither desertions nor suicides, both of which occurred with terrible frequency during the long desert marches.
Confining his research to this single campaign has left Strathern dangerously unfamiliar with a wider contextual understanding of the events and personalities involved here or the pervading ideologies of Romanticism and French nationalism. This leads him to make sweeping generalisations which do not bear up under scrutiny, and perilous forays into talk-show style psychological analyses which misinterpret Napoleon’s background, mores and prejudices as well as the melodramatic blusterings of his vast personal correspondence. Nor has Strathern availed himself of the latest published research on Napoleon’s wars or the recent archaeological findings at battle sites which are at odds with official accounts of the age.
Written in the style of a child’s geography textbook, Napoleon in Egypt is simplistic, bland, and cliched. Strathern’s tepid prose saps the battle narratives of their courage, dynamism and drama. In his version, the derring-do just derring-doesn’t. More comprehensive and poignant accounts of the major battles–-particularly the Battle of the Nile and the Siege at Acre–-can be found in the Adkins’ The War for All the Oceans.
But, remarkably, this is undoubtedly the finest account of the Savants and their contribution to the fields of archaeology, ancient history, and botany to date. For amongst the detritus of Napoleon’s overweening hubris, Strathern has woven an illuminating account of the long-neglected scientists and artists who accompanied him. Their work and adventures–-their drawings of the ruins at Thebes unseen by Western eyes for over a millennium, their meticulous studies of Egyptian flora and fauna, their discovery of the hieroglyphs and their excavation of the tombs–-transformed our understanding of the ancient world, created the field of Egyptology, and ushered in huge advances in the biological sciences.
The field of Napoleonic studies is dominated by titans–-historians such as David A. Bell, Charles Esdaile, Paul Kennedy, and Colin White, historians whose encyclopaedic knowledge and grasp of detail is nothing short of colossal. Yet while Strathern’s efforts do not elevate him to such heights, the breadth of his findings on the secondary characters in this empirical venture do make Napoleon in Egypt a necessary and useful addition to any Napoleonic shelf.
On 19 May 1798, General Napoleon Bonaparte sailed from Italy with an army of nearly 40,000 men–along with another, smaller army of scientists, engineers, artists, and linguists, the so-called Savants–to conquer Egypt.
First stop, however, was Malta. There, Napoleon ousted the traditional rulers, the Knights of St. John, established Malta as a French satellite, and plundered the treasury’s five million francs of gold, one million of silver and one million in gems. (Someone had to pay for his fantasy of becoming the new Alexander the Great.)
Arriving in Egypt on 1st July, by August the French had taken Alexandria and marched across the desert to defeat the Mameluke army at the Battle of the Pyramids and at Cairo. Then, in a bout of indomitable energy and attention to detail, Napoleon established a new Egyptian government with himself as titular head.
Yet twelve months and several major battles later–-bankrupt, having lost most of his troops and many of the Savants, his navy destroyed by the British under Admiral Nelson–-on August 24, 1799, Napoleon abandoned his Egyptian dream of empire along with the remnants of his army, to hightail it back to France, where he proclaimed the whole to have been a glorious victory. Napoleon in Egypt is novelist and philosopher Paul Strathern’s account of this disastrous Middle Eastern sojourn.
In some ways, the Egyptian enterprise was little more than a costly diversion or side-show to Napoleon’s European wars which would topple countless legitimate governments, cost between five and seven million lives, and immerse the Continent in over a decade of total war.
Still, it was in Egypt that Napoleon truly developed his taste for absolute power. It was here, for the first time, that his psychopathic contempt for his troops, his devious lying, as well as some measure of his megalomania were given full rein–-with awful consequences.
Yet Strathern routinely plays down these unpalatable aspects of Napoleon’s character, clinging instead to the Napoleonic myth of heroism and glory.
He omits, minimises or attempts to explain away the French atrocities–-such as the sacking of the Al-Azhar in Cairo, and the slaughter of Ottoman prisoners following the siege of Jaffa. He credits Napoleon’s proclamations of religious toleration. He relies on the highly inflated enemy casualty numbers given by Napoleon himself. Moreover, he seems unaware that French casualty lists of the period recorded neither desertions nor suicides, both of which occurred with terrible frequency during the long desert marches.
Confining his research to this single campaign has left Strathern dangerously unfamiliar with a wider contextual understanding of the events and personalities involved here or the pervading ideologies of Romanticism and French nationalism. This leads him to make sweeping generalisations which do not bear up under scrutiny, and perilous forays into talk-show style psychological analyses which misinterpret Napoleon’s background, mores and prejudices as well as the melodramatic blusterings of his vast personal correspondence. Nor has Strathern availed himself of the latest published research on Napoleon’s wars or the recent archaeological findings at battle sites which are at odds with official accounts of the age.
Written in the style of a child’s geography textbook, Napoleon in Egypt is simplistic, bland, and cliched. Strathern’s tepid prose saps the battle narratives of their courage, dynamism and drama. In his version, the derring-do just derring-doesn’t. More comprehensive and poignant accounts of the major battles–-particularly the Battle of the Nile and the Siege at Acre–-can be found in the Adkins’ The War for All the Oceans.
But, remarkably, this is undoubtedly the finest account of the Savants and their contribution to the fields of archaeology, ancient history, and botany to date. For amongst the detritus of Napoleon’s overweening hubris, Strathern has woven an illuminating account of the long-neglected scientists and artists who accompanied him. Their work and adventures–-their drawings of the ruins at Thebes unseen by Western eyes for over a millennium, their meticulous studies of Egyptian flora and fauna, their discovery of the hieroglyphs and their excavation of the tombs–-transformed our understanding of the ancient world, created the field of Egyptology, and ushered in huge advances in the biological sciences.
The field of Napoleonic studies is dominated by titans–-historians such as David A. Bell, Charles Esdaile, Paul Kennedy, and Colin White, historians whose encyclopaedic knowledge and grasp of detail is nothing short of colossal. Yet while Strathern’s efforts do not elevate him to such heights, the breadth of his findings on the secondary characters in this empirical venture do make Napoleon in Egypt a necessary and useful addition to any Napoleonic shelf.
November 24, 2020
Why read a 400 page book about the life of Napoleon when you can read one about his adventures during three often forgotten years in the Middle East? Paul Strathern manages to elaborate on a range of cultural, military, economic, romantic, and medical challenges in one compelling narrative.
Even when breaking the fourth wall -- to explain the impact of some decisions and discoveries -- I still felt immersed in this amazing story that took place between the Lybian Desert, Sudan, Libanon, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Recommended for all who are interested in the history of the French revolutionary period.
Even when breaking the fourth wall -- to explain the impact of some decisions and discoveries -- I still felt immersed in this amazing story that took place between the Lybian Desert, Sudan, Libanon, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Recommended for all who are interested in the history of the French revolutionary period.
March 13, 2024
Excellent in many ways. Clear narrative that handles detours, battle descriptions, character analysis and much more in a awy that enlightens the reader. One of the best books I have read recently.
July 23, 2024
Geweldig boek, leest weg als een fantasie avontuur. Met verwondering gelezen over hoe het er aan toe ging en de persoon Napoleon.
December 29, 2018
This is an engaging read by a non-specialist historian. The story is well written, and covers both the basics of the military campaign along with the French administration of Egypt and the adventures of the scholars and artists Napoleon took with him whose output was largely responsible for sparking the subsequent European interest in Egypt and the creation of "egyptology" as a separate branch of knowledge.
Strathern is not in awe of the Napoleonic legend, and makes much of Napoleon's dreams of Asian empire. As always with Napoleon it is difficult to unpick the bombast and overweening self-belief from reality. He was always most careful to cultivate his own image - both at the time and subsequently in exile in St Helena. Strathern usually seems to take the right line, or at least a plausible line. Napoleon truly believed himself able to forge an empire in the east, but quickly abandoned those plans and moved on to others when failure loomed.
Although Strathern makes good use of primary sources, he is not a specialist in the period and the book is marred by a small number of errors of detail. For example his persistent use of "rifle" as a translation for "fusil" and other terms used for the smoothbore weapons of the day is very irritating to anyone who knows the basics of warfare in the late 18th century. His explanation that this is how earlier writers have translated the term is neither helpful nor convincing.
In short a useful introduction to Napoleon's campaign in Egypt for the general reader.
Strathern is not in awe of the Napoleonic legend, and makes much of Napoleon's dreams of Asian empire. As always with Napoleon it is difficult to unpick the bombast and overweening self-belief from reality. He was always most careful to cultivate his own image - both at the time and subsequently in exile in St Helena. Strathern usually seems to take the right line, or at least a plausible line. Napoleon truly believed himself able to forge an empire in the east, but quickly abandoned those plans and moved on to others when failure loomed.
Although Strathern makes good use of primary sources, he is not a specialist in the period and the book is marred by a small number of errors of detail. For example his persistent use of "rifle" as a translation for "fusil" and other terms used for the smoothbore weapons of the day is very irritating to anyone who knows the basics of warfare in the late 18th century. His explanation that this is how earlier writers have translated the term is neither helpful nor convincing.
In short a useful introduction to Napoleon's campaign in Egypt for the general reader.
August 10, 2022
In a rare instance of books living up to dust-jacket hype, Paul Strathern's book is indeed 'remarkably rich and eminently readable.'
Several other reviewers elsewhere online have already covered a number of key points of interest in this excellent book, so I'll just mention a few things that struck me as particularly intriguing. For one thing, considered in conjunction with his Italian exploits, undertaken just prior to this Egyptian adventure, these episodes of Napoleon's early life might be taken as a premonitory microcosm of his larger career, a fact Strathern himself reflects upon near the books close.
Having taken on the Mamelukes and put them to flight, bringing Egypt more or less to heel, Napoleon had to deal with the aggravated landlords; Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire at this point. The 'Turks', as they were then known, had been French allies, but they now joined with England, and even their own traditional enemy Russia, to oust the Republican infidels.
The consequent French expedition to Syria, to meet this threat, has interesting parallels with that to Russia, inasmuch as Napoleon's and Berthier's much vaunted organisational skills don't seem at their peak. Just as Napoleon's normal modus operandi unravelled in Russia, so in Syria he failed to see every eventuality. This last fact stands in contrast with the myth of Napoleon's omniscience, a facet of Napoleon's genius much trumpeted by many writers, including Strathern himself (as on p 19: 'he learned to consider all the options ...', etc.).
However, with an ominous foreboding of what would later happen in Russia, Napoleons's troops, and even more so his horses, were not adequately prepared for conditions in Syria. In what Strathern calls 'a classic military mix up' French forces were finally issued with lightweight clothing, suitable to their initial theatre of operations, just as they embarked on a new campaign, during a change of season and under very different conditions: having sweated it out in the Egyptian delta wearing heavy European cloth, they were destined to endure the cold and wet conditions of winter along the eastern Mediterranean seaboard clad in lightweight summer fabrics!
The parallels with Russia extend beyond mere lack of preparedness in the clothing department, in that the crossing of the Sinai desert, closely followed by the siege of El Arish, found the French running out of supplies. As in Russia, living off the land frequently simply wasn't viable. One anecdote which illustrates this in a way both amusing and horrifying, whilst sounding uncannily like countless 1812 stories, is the mention of a major who, on awaking, discovers his troops have eaten his horse during the night! Everyone was suffering, again just as in Russia, but particularly the luckless equine contingent, whose reward for being long-suffering undernourished beasts of burden would often be to end up as dinner themselves.
Having noted all this, overall the expedition had been going reasonably well, the one major exception being Nelson's resounding defeat of the French fleet at the Battle Of The Nile (the one aspect of the campaign English readers are likely to be most familiar with). Despite this, Egypt had been successfully occupied and largely pacified, with Desaix's campaign into Upper Egypt, a model of success, forming the fascinating core of several chapters mid-way though this superb book.
Napoleon's foes were regularly and soundly beaten, a serious rebellion in Cairo was successfully contained and put down. Certainly the clash of two very different cultures, namely Enlightenment-influenced post-revolutionary France, and the Mameluke ruled primitive conservatism of Islamic Egypt, looked very tricky to resolve. This mismatch remained at all times, barely below the surface, threatening to undo anything the French might achieve very rapidly, as ultimately proved to be the case. Had the French held on to this part of their empire longer, who knows what the global geopolitical outcomes might have been?
One of the many areas Strathern does an admirable job of covering, an area one might expect the more military buff type writer to perhaps gloss over, was the role of the 'savants'. Napoleon was inordinately proud to have been elected a member of the Institute of France. So much so that this part of his official title preceded his military rank during this period. Not only is this interesting in itself but, via a passing reference to how Napoleon was modelling his exploits on those of one of his heroes, Alexander The Great, we also learn that Ancient Greek 'natural philosophy' was closer to modern science in some respects than is often made out. A fascinating example is the savants collecting flora and fauna as they move through territories that are being occupied, sending samples back (to Cairo in this instance), much as Alexander had done in sending back specimens to Aristotle. Fascinating!
Y
Strathern occasionally speculates on aspects of Napoleon's character, sometimes in what sounds like semi-Freudian pop-psychology terms, but fortunately he doesn't go in for too much of this, and what little there is is couched in purely speculative and gently understated terms.
Of all such instances, the most striking is when he refers to Boney's annoyance and frustration during the slow-moving attrition of the Syrian campaign, noting that the setbacks he faced didn't undermine his sense of destiny, which, in Strathern's words, 'was his substitute for self knowledge.'
The massacres perpetrated at Jaffa are horrifying to read about, and went on for about a week, starting with the drunken bloodbath after the initial breach and only ending with three days of systematic butchery, as the remnants of the garrison (who'd holed up in the citadel, and then surrendered to Napoleon's aides, Beauharnais and Crosier) were put to death.
In typical dictator fashion Napoleon manages to justify his actions to himself, but many of his compatriots are all too aware that this could not be whitewashed. At the same time the bubonic plague was striking and, in marked contrast to his actions in ordering the massacre, Boney visited his sick troops: 'Is it mere accident that this hazardous and selfless act should have come just a day after he had been responsible for the most cold-blooded atrocity he would ever commit?'
This was a gripping, exciting read. Now that I'm finished, I've got a need for more!
Several other reviewers elsewhere online have already covered a number of key points of interest in this excellent book, so I'll just mention a few things that struck me as particularly intriguing. For one thing, considered in conjunction with his Italian exploits, undertaken just prior to this Egyptian adventure, these episodes of Napoleon's early life might be taken as a premonitory microcosm of his larger career, a fact Strathern himself reflects upon near the books close.
Having taken on the Mamelukes and put them to flight, bringing Egypt more or less to heel, Napoleon had to deal with the aggravated landlords; Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire at this point. The 'Turks', as they were then known, had been French allies, but they now joined with England, and even their own traditional enemy Russia, to oust the Republican infidels.
The consequent French expedition to Syria, to meet this threat, has interesting parallels with that to Russia, inasmuch as Napoleon's and Berthier's much vaunted organisational skills don't seem at their peak. Just as Napoleon's normal modus operandi unravelled in Russia, so in Syria he failed to see every eventuality. This last fact stands in contrast with the myth of Napoleon's omniscience, a facet of Napoleon's genius much trumpeted by many writers, including Strathern himself (as on p 19: 'he learned to consider all the options ...', etc.).
However, with an ominous foreboding of what would later happen in Russia, Napoleons's troops, and even more so his horses, were not adequately prepared for conditions in Syria. In what Strathern calls 'a classic military mix up' French forces were finally issued with lightweight clothing, suitable to their initial theatre of operations, just as they embarked on a new campaign, during a change of season and under very different conditions: having sweated it out in the Egyptian delta wearing heavy European cloth, they were destined to endure the cold and wet conditions of winter along the eastern Mediterranean seaboard clad in lightweight summer fabrics!
The parallels with Russia extend beyond mere lack of preparedness in the clothing department, in that the crossing of the Sinai desert, closely followed by the siege of El Arish, found the French running out of supplies. As in Russia, living off the land frequently simply wasn't viable. One anecdote which illustrates this in a way both amusing and horrifying, whilst sounding uncannily like countless 1812 stories, is the mention of a major who, on awaking, discovers his troops have eaten his horse during the night! Everyone was suffering, again just as in Russia, but particularly the luckless equine contingent, whose reward for being long-suffering undernourished beasts of burden would often be to end up as dinner themselves.
Having noted all this, overall the expedition had been going reasonably well, the one major exception being Nelson's resounding defeat of the French fleet at the Battle Of The Nile (the one aspect of the campaign English readers are likely to be most familiar with). Despite this, Egypt had been successfully occupied and largely pacified, with Desaix's campaign into Upper Egypt, a model of success, forming the fascinating core of several chapters mid-way though this superb book.
Napoleon's foes were regularly and soundly beaten, a serious rebellion in Cairo was successfully contained and put down. Certainly the clash of two very different cultures, namely Enlightenment-influenced post-revolutionary France, and the Mameluke ruled primitive conservatism of Islamic Egypt, looked very tricky to resolve. This mismatch remained at all times, barely below the surface, threatening to undo anything the French might achieve very rapidly, as ultimately proved to be the case. Had the French held on to this part of their empire longer, who knows what the global geopolitical outcomes might have been?
One of the many areas Strathern does an admirable job of covering, an area one might expect the more military buff type writer to perhaps gloss over, was the role of the 'savants'. Napoleon was inordinately proud to have been elected a member of the Institute of France. So much so that this part of his official title preceded his military rank during this period. Not only is this interesting in itself but, via a passing reference to how Napoleon was modelling his exploits on those of one of his heroes, Alexander The Great, we also learn that Ancient Greek 'natural philosophy' was closer to modern science in some respects than is often made out. A fascinating example is the savants collecting flora and fauna as they move through territories that are being occupied, sending samples back (to Cairo in this instance), much as Alexander had done in sending back specimens to Aristotle. Fascinating!
Y
Strathern occasionally speculates on aspects of Napoleon's character, sometimes in what sounds like semi-Freudian pop-psychology terms, but fortunately he doesn't go in for too much of this, and what little there is is couched in purely speculative and gently understated terms.
Of all such instances, the most striking is when he refers to Boney's annoyance and frustration during the slow-moving attrition of the Syrian campaign, noting that the setbacks he faced didn't undermine his sense of destiny, which, in Strathern's words, 'was his substitute for self knowledge.'
The massacres perpetrated at Jaffa are horrifying to read about, and went on for about a week, starting with the drunken bloodbath after the initial breach and only ending with three days of systematic butchery, as the remnants of the garrison (who'd holed up in the citadel, and then surrendered to Napoleon's aides, Beauharnais and Crosier) were put to death.
In typical dictator fashion Napoleon manages to justify his actions to himself, but many of his compatriots are all too aware that this could not be whitewashed. At the same time the bubonic plague was striking and, in marked contrast to his actions in ordering the massacre, Boney visited his sick troops: 'Is it mere accident that this hazardous and selfless act should have come just a day after he had been responsible for the most cold-blooded atrocity he would ever commit?'
This was a gripping, exciting read. Now that I'm finished, I've got a need for more!
April 26, 2018
This is a stunning book. Certainly Strauthern has exceeded himself with this fantastic easy flow and lively read. The amount of research investigated to write this exuberant story is remarkable. i have seen a facet of Napoleon's ambition that I wasn't aware of before. The kindness and the cruelty. The ambitious impatient relentless leader who deserted his own army for a personal gain. I can't imagine the number of lost souls in t his campaign! The main gain for the country was the incredible knowledge we now have because of the Savants work that documented the journey and deciphered the Rossetta Stone. One limitation thought, is that I wasn't sure why the French decided to use a barbaric method to eliminate kleber's assassin! There was neither explained nor preceded by any other cases throughout the book that indicates where t his punishment was ever used!! why such terrible suffering! A Crucifixion would have made a better sense since this would relate to their Christian heritage but why the impalm!
Anyhow, this is a very fun and easy read and hands on a thorough detail of the French campaign on Egypt.
Anyhow, this is a very fun and easy read and hands on a thorough detail of the French campaign on Egypt.
February 27, 2012
Okay, I don't quite get why this book has such high ratings. Too much pop-psychology, broad generalizations and assertions without much to back them up. The writing is entertaining but so is a lot of fiction.
There are many better books on Napoleon that do a lot more justice to his complex personality and also better books on the Egyptian campaign.
For the Egyptian Campaign, try any of the following before this.
Osprey Men-At-Arms series has a quick easy read on the military aspects by Michael Barthorp.
There is a first person account from Captain Joseph-Marie Moiret translated into English by Rosemary Brindle. (Memoir's of Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition 1798 - 1801)
Terence M Russel has a book focusing on one of the savants, Vivant Denon. (The Discovery of Egypt Vivant Denon's Travels with Napoleon's Army)
Just my opinion and it seems to be in the minority but if you are looking for something that attempts to be factual and back up any opinions that are stated this is not it.
There are many better books on Napoleon that do a lot more justice to his complex personality and also better books on the Egyptian campaign.
For the Egyptian Campaign, try any of the following before this.
Osprey Men-At-Arms series has a quick easy read on the military aspects by Michael Barthorp.
There is a first person account from Captain Joseph-Marie Moiret translated into English by Rosemary Brindle. (Memoir's of Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition 1798 - 1801)
Terence M Russel has a book focusing on one of the savants, Vivant Denon. (The Discovery of Egypt Vivant Denon's Travels with Napoleon's Army)
Just my opinion and it seems to be in the minority but if you are looking for something that attempts to be factual and back up any opinions that are stated this is not it.
February 8, 2011
This is a readable and thorough discussion of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. I'm not a specialist in Napoleon by any means, so it may seem oversimplified for some of the more informed. But the writing was clear and I really got caught up in the action. The author is careful to consider Napoleon's view, that of his aides, his soldiers, and to some degree the Egyptians. If one wants a really detailed view of how Napoleon influenced African history, this book does not go into that in any detail. I read this along with some other books I'm reading about antiquities and Western museums and it really filled in some areas for me. Well-paced and I learned a lot.
October 6, 2015
It's a decent read, well researched and footnoted. I do wish it was a bit more rousing seeing how it is a great adventure story.
April 21, 2024
he was built different there’s no other explanation
December 26, 2025
I recently toured Egypt and my dahabiya (small tourist boat) had a small but good library. I started reading Toby Wilkinson's The Nile on the boat but didn't finish it. When I got home, a local library supposedly had a copy but they couldn't find it on the shelves. Instead, I grabbed this history of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798-99. He was 29, a rising military star fresh off a victorious campaign in Italy with an Alexander the Great-sized ambition of invading India. His goal in Egypt was to defeat the Mameluke rulers nominally under the rule of the Ottoman Sultan who were harassing and taxing French traders and merchants in Alexandria, Cairo, and other northern cities.
Things went well against the Mamelukes as superior French weaponry and discipline drove them to southern or Upper Egypt. But an English fleet under Horatio Nelson inflicted heavy losses on the French fleet at the Nile Delta, leaving Napoleon with only one way to India--across Sinai to Palestine, Syria, Persia, and further East. Since that was his original goal, he marched his main force of approximately 15,000 across Sinai north to Jaffa, an Ottoman-Arab fortress just south of present-day Tel Aviv. The French took the fort and city and found themselves with 4,000 prisoners that they couldn't feed. Meanwhile, plague was breaking out among the army and civilian population. With no other recourse and their own survival at stake, Napoleon and his generals ordered the massacre of the prisoners, shooting them on the beach and driving the rest into the Mediterranean to drown.
Napoleon's next objective was the old Crusader fortress of Acre (Acco), north of Haifa. It was ruled by an Ottoman governor named Djezzar, the "Butcher." Napoleon laid siege to Acre for weeks in the spring of 1799 but was unable to take it or force a surrender. Thousands died on both sides, the plague also thinning the ranks. Napoleon sent a division east of Acre to near the Sea of Galilee to confront an Ottoman army from Syria. At Mt. Tabor near Nazareth, Napoleon orchestrated a major victory over a much larger force, but he still was unable to take Acre. Realizing that his dream of conquering the East like Alexander the Great was evaporating--his forces were depleted; the plague kept adding to its grim toll; he had no sea support as the English and Ottomans controlled the eastern Mediterranean--he marched his demoralized troops hundreds of miles back to Cairo.
Napoleon was always one to keep his options open. Back in Cairo, he received reports from France that now the Republic faced an alliance of Russia, Austria, and England. He realized he was still a hero in France and that the turmoil in the French government, the Directory, afforded him an opportunity to grab control. He decided to return to Paris, taking with him his top generals and a few of the hundreds of "savants" (scientists and intellectuals) he had originally brought with his invasion force in order to study Egyptian culture and to "civilize" the population.
The French occupation force was unable to rule for much longer. A young Ottoman officer from Albania named Muhammad Ali formed his own Army and gained control over Cairo and the Delta. He and his descendants ruled the country until the English effectively colonized Egypt in the late 19th century.
Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition was a mixed bag. The loss of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile was a serious blow and the failure to capture Acre a major defeat. Culturally, his foray into Egypt led to the savants publishing major works on Egyptian history and art that ignited European interest in its ancient civilization and gave rise to the archeological discoveries of temples and tombs of the pharaohs that millions of tourists are able to enjoy today.
Things went well against the Mamelukes as superior French weaponry and discipline drove them to southern or Upper Egypt. But an English fleet under Horatio Nelson inflicted heavy losses on the French fleet at the Nile Delta, leaving Napoleon with only one way to India--across Sinai to Palestine, Syria, Persia, and further East. Since that was his original goal, he marched his main force of approximately 15,000 across Sinai north to Jaffa, an Ottoman-Arab fortress just south of present-day Tel Aviv. The French took the fort and city and found themselves with 4,000 prisoners that they couldn't feed. Meanwhile, plague was breaking out among the army and civilian population. With no other recourse and their own survival at stake, Napoleon and his generals ordered the massacre of the prisoners, shooting them on the beach and driving the rest into the Mediterranean to drown.
Napoleon's next objective was the old Crusader fortress of Acre (Acco), north of Haifa. It was ruled by an Ottoman governor named Djezzar, the "Butcher." Napoleon laid siege to Acre for weeks in the spring of 1799 but was unable to take it or force a surrender. Thousands died on both sides, the plague also thinning the ranks. Napoleon sent a division east of Acre to near the Sea of Galilee to confront an Ottoman army from Syria. At Mt. Tabor near Nazareth, Napoleon orchestrated a major victory over a much larger force, but he still was unable to take Acre. Realizing that his dream of conquering the East like Alexander the Great was evaporating--his forces were depleted; the plague kept adding to its grim toll; he had no sea support as the English and Ottomans controlled the eastern Mediterranean--he marched his demoralized troops hundreds of miles back to Cairo.
Napoleon was always one to keep his options open. Back in Cairo, he received reports from France that now the Republic faced an alliance of Russia, Austria, and England. He realized he was still a hero in France and that the turmoil in the French government, the Directory, afforded him an opportunity to grab control. He decided to return to Paris, taking with him his top generals and a few of the hundreds of "savants" (scientists and intellectuals) he had originally brought with his invasion force in order to study Egyptian culture and to "civilize" the population.
The French occupation force was unable to rule for much longer. A young Ottoman officer from Albania named Muhammad Ali formed his own Army and gained control over Cairo and the Delta. He and his descendants ruled the country until the English effectively colonized Egypt in the late 19th century.
Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition was a mixed bag. The loss of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile was a serious blow and the failure to capture Acre a major defeat. Culturally, his foray into Egypt led to the savants publishing major works on Egyptian history and art that ignited European interest in its ancient civilization and gave rise to the archeological discoveries of temples and tombs of the pharaohs that millions of tourists are able to enjoy today.
January 5, 2021
If you ever wanted to know about Napoleon's adventure in Egypt, warts and all, then you need not look further then this very book.
I'll admit that my ignorance in the subject does prevent me from saying that this is the one stop shop for anything and everything to do with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, but, also in my ignorance, it bloody well feels like the one stop shop.
Damn near every aspect is looked at, not only from a military but also a social and scientific point of view. Scientific, you may be asking yourself? Well, your damn right. Napoleon's expedition wasn't just an attempt at glory-seeking. Indeed for Napoleon, Egypt was merely a stepping stone upon which he would create a vast Asiatic empire, stretching from the aforementioned sands of Egypt, all the way across to India (where the British were consolidating power in India) - Alexander The Great style.
This Orientalist Empire would, in Napoleon's mind at least, have spread western knowledge to the various natives under its wings using the Savants - a group of the greatest minds in France at the time from artists, authors and orientalist to mathematicians, chemists and biologists, to name a few.
The sections on the savants and their research are some of the best parts of the book, which one can feel the author feels most comfortable exploring though all the other aspects - military and social - are covered with much the same quality and attention to detail.
Speaking of quality, not only is this a very good book of history, noting the various discrepancies and inconsistencies in the first hand sources available to him - giving it an almost detective-like vibe - it tells the story of the expedition itself so, SO well.
I think the power of this book - similar to Saul David's Victoria's Wars - comes from the various memoirs of the period, from both the French and Egyptian perspectives, actively used through out the book to tell us of the thoughts, scenes and horrors from the perspective's of the generals, citizens and foot soldiers on the ground.
They paint the picture of the state of the human mind when so ravaged by hunger and thirst; of the reactions of two peoples from two completely different cultures meeting and observing one another for the first time, and the utter bewilderment and total lack of understanding that followed; even the rivalries fostered between some of the principal players involved are highlighted; its all there, and it gloriously brings to life those events which occurred so long ago.
My favourite chapter has to be 'Into the unknown'. In it French troops led by General Desaix and accompanied by the artist-Savant Vivant Denon, take the first steps taken by members of western civilisation into some of the most southern regions of Egypt, via the Nile, on a manhunt for one of the deposed Mameluke rulers of Egypt, Murad Bey.
What follows is a tale of discovery, adventure and at times even horror, as they make their way down the Nile and discover for the first time (for themselves that is) Nubian slave caravans, ancient Egyptian ruins and hieroglyphs as well as the condition of the mind so focused on hunger - and the atrocities that can follow. Like a work of fiction it totally absorbs you, to the point of feeling like you are truly there yourself.
This is a fantastic book of history which, while being detailed, never feels like its being bogged down by said detail. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the history of the region, Egypt and/or the Napoleonic Wars.
I'll admit that my ignorance in the subject does prevent me from saying that this is the one stop shop for anything and everything to do with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, but, also in my ignorance, it bloody well feels like the one stop shop.
Damn near every aspect is looked at, not only from a military but also a social and scientific point of view. Scientific, you may be asking yourself? Well, your damn right. Napoleon's expedition wasn't just an attempt at glory-seeking. Indeed for Napoleon, Egypt was merely a stepping stone upon which he would create a vast Asiatic empire, stretching from the aforementioned sands of Egypt, all the way across to India (where the British were consolidating power in India) - Alexander The Great style.
This Orientalist Empire would, in Napoleon's mind at least, have spread western knowledge to the various natives under its wings using the Savants - a group of the greatest minds in France at the time from artists, authors and orientalist to mathematicians, chemists and biologists, to name a few.
The sections on the savants and their research are some of the best parts of the book, which one can feel the author feels most comfortable exploring though all the other aspects - military and social - are covered with much the same quality and attention to detail.
Speaking of quality, not only is this a very good book of history, noting the various discrepancies and inconsistencies in the first hand sources available to him - giving it an almost detective-like vibe - it tells the story of the expedition itself so, SO well.
I think the power of this book - similar to Saul David's Victoria's Wars - comes from the various memoirs of the period, from both the French and Egyptian perspectives, actively used through out the book to tell us of the thoughts, scenes and horrors from the perspective's of the generals, citizens and foot soldiers on the ground.
They paint the picture of the state of the human mind when so ravaged by hunger and thirst; of the reactions of two peoples from two completely different cultures meeting and observing one another for the first time, and the utter bewilderment and total lack of understanding that followed; even the rivalries fostered between some of the principal players involved are highlighted; its all there, and it gloriously brings to life those events which occurred so long ago.
My favourite chapter has to be 'Into the unknown'. In it French troops led by General Desaix and accompanied by the artist-Savant Vivant Denon, take the first steps taken by members of western civilisation into some of the most southern regions of Egypt, via the Nile, on a manhunt for one of the deposed Mameluke rulers of Egypt, Murad Bey.
What follows is a tale of discovery, adventure and at times even horror, as they make their way down the Nile and discover for the first time (for themselves that is) Nubian slave caravans, ancient Egyptian ruins and hieroglyphs as well as the condition of the mind so focused on hunger - and the atrocities that can follow. Like a work of fiction it totally absorbs you, to the point of feeling like you are truly there yourself.
This is a fantastic book of history which, while being detailed, never feels like its being bogged down by said detail. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the history of the region, Egypt and/or the Napoleonic Wars.
March 29, 2009
Seems with a good book that a series of hurdles, if legitimate, present the reader with a more rewarding reading experience, for some reason. Russian novels come to mind, with the patronymic tradition that allows one character to be addressed differently by different characters; once the reader pushes through the identity issues, each exchange is a little enriched by how the characters address each other.
Similarly, historical accounts of Egypt under early exploration present the dilemma of Lower Egypt being in the North of the country, travelling Upriver on the Nile means you're headed South toward Upper Egypt, and Downriver toward the Nile Delta means you're Northbound. Once this is clear, you're on your way.
This is the second book about the Napoleonic invasion & occupation of Egypt I've read this year, and the better one, being more comprehensive in almost every respect. Why Napoleon In Egypt, again ? For me it fits neatly in the intersection between the Literature Of Empire and the east-versus-west catalog surrounding the Great Game... Who better to represent Mr Kipling's fictional The Man Who Would Be King in real-life terms than Napoleon Bonaparte ?
Colorful and romantic, the culture-clash between the backwater of the Ottomans that Egypt had already become and the Revolutionary French --creates the stress that reveals much about both worlds. And there is certainly something of the tragic and inevitable in "the contrast between the little bits of France which grew up here and there in Cairo, and the vast oriental city which engulfed them..."
Nevertheless, in this history, we do get glimmers of French intent -- Napoleon made extraordinary cultural efforts on this expedition, including the accompanying Savants recruited in every field of science and the arts that travelled with his armada to invade Egypt. These men he would form into an Institute housed in the palaces of the deposed Egyptian elite :
The palaces themselves were surrounded by an extensive garden complex, which was enclosed by walls, providing the members and their savant colleagues with one of the most pleasant spots in the city. The Institute would soon include all manner of facilities, including an extensive library consisting largely of the books Napoleon himself had selected to bring with him on the expediton: a core compendium of Western literature and knowledge.
One such Savant recalls member Gaspard Monge, who "would expand on his views of the future of Egypt, sometimes on his skeptical ideas, sometimes on his latest ideas regarding his beloved descriptive geometry. He spoke with such enthusiasm that it colored his entire imagination. The beauty of the night sky, the scent of the orange trees, the sweet and pleasant airs, all added to the ambience of our meetings, which went on into much of the night..."
From the Egyptian viewpoint, even the eventual decree of holy war by the Sultan would contain interesting language regarding the French : They mock all religions, the reject belief in another life, as well as its rewards and tortures, they do not believe in the resurrection of the body, nor in the last judgement, and they think that a blind chance presides over their life and death, that they owe their existence to pure matter, and that after this life their body returns to the earth...
This was a loose, medieval, theist entity forced to confront something very alien. Here at the other end of the historical telescope, though, this little rant of the Sultan's might not appear at all critical, as it continues : The French think that men, being born equal, must be equally free; that all distinction between men is unjust, and that each ought to be the master of his own opinions and his manner of living..... They have the impudence to say: We are brothers and friends, the same interests unite us, and we have the same religious opinions...
All of that to the good, when we look back to the center of the picture, there is Bonaparte--- avaricious, bloody-minded, and fixated on himself above all else.
At a certain point in the proceedings, it even appears that Napoleon himself went off the edge. His lovelorn letters to his faithful Josephine back in France had been intercepted by the British Blockade at the head of the Nile. No big loss, had it not been for the fact that Josephine had been public with her lovers back in Paris, and the Brits published the letters in the London daily papers, to the very great amusement of the English readership.
It would be fair to say that Bonaparte blew fuses on hearing the news; in his defense, he quickly rose to the occasion and began to envision what was taking shape as his great Oriental Dream Of Conquest. He would march on Constantinople and conquer the Ottomans; he would follow in Alexander's steps and march on to India and thwart the British. In his own words to the Egyptians, "The power of God passes through me so that I defeat the enemies of Islam and crush the Christian cross... All I have done was inspired by God .. [it is:] the design of God; no one can prevent the execution of his will, and it is I who have been charged with this execustion."
Worthwhile to note is that all during the Egyptian expedition, notions of religion were falling down to revelations about the Ancient World of the Pharaohs, courtesy hieroglyphs and Rosetta Stone, both discovered largely by the Savant units. Highly developed civilization in the Luxor and Thebes valleys, thousands of years prior to that described in the origin-myths of judeo-christianity undercut the accepted greco-roman timeline. This would lend a certain freedom to Bonaparte's declarations of what God's design might be, what 'destiny' might have in store.
What begins to dawn on Napoleon, with his fleet destroyed in Alexandria harbor and nothing ahead but the untold riches of the Orient, is that he'll found a New Asian Empire, much as the Americans had recently taken control of their own new continent. He founds the Regiment des Dromadaires, a camel corps not unlike what Lawrence would later utilize. He very carefully re-examines the ancient idea of a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, to support his overland conquests, via ships that would sail the Arabian Sea.... which eventually became the Suez Canal.
He's brought the libraries and experts from the old empire, and he starts to consolidate the vision : he will re-boot Civilisation itself from the cradle of the ancients. Free of all constraints (and any contact or control from France) -- his imagination, and his ambition would know no bounds.
How it turns out is best left to the book, and it's a twisted tale.
Recommended.
Similarly, historical accounts of Egypt under early exploration present the dilemma of Lower Egypt being in the North of the country, travelling Upriver on the Nile means you're headed South toward Upper Egypt, and Downriver toward the Nile Delta means you're Northbound. Once this is clear, you're on your way.
This is the second book about the Napoleonic invasion & occupation of Egypt I've read this year, and the better one, being more comprehensive in almost every respect. Why Napoleon In Egypt, again ? For me it fits neatly in the intersection between the Literature Of Empire and the east-versus-west catalog surrounding the Great Game... Who better to represent Mr Kipling's fictional The Man Who Would Be King in real-life terms than Napoleon Bonaparte ?
Colorful and romantic, the culture-clash between the backwater of the Ottomans that Egypt had already become and the Revolutionary French --creates the stress that reveals much about both worlds. And there is certainly something of the tragic and inevitable in "the contrast between the little bits of France which grew up here and there in Cairo, and the vast oriental city which engulfed them..."
Nevertheless, in this history, we do get glimmers of French intent -- Napoleon made extraordinary cultural efforts on this expedition, including the accompanying Savants recruited in every field of science and the arts that travelled with his armada to invade Egypt. These men he would form into an Institute housed in the palaces of the deposed Egyptian elite :
The palaces themselves were surrounded by an extensive garden complex, which was enclosed by walls, providing the members and their savant colleagues with one of the most pleasant spots in the city. The Institute would soon include all manner of facilities, including an extensive library consisting largely of the books Napoleon himself had selected to bring with him on the expediton: a core compendium of Western literature and knowledge.
One such Savant recalls member Gaspard Monge, who "would expand on his views of the future of Egypt, sometimes on his skeptical ideas, sometimes on his latest ideas regarding his beloved descriptive geometry. He spoke with such enthusiasm that it colored his entire imagination. The beauty of the night sky, the scent of the orange trees, the sweet and pleasant airs, all added to the ambience of our meetings, which went on into much of the night..."
From the Egyptian viewpoint, even the eventual decree of holy war by the Sultan would contain interesting language regarding the French : They mock all religions, the reject belief in another life, as well as its rewards and tortures, they do not believe in the resurrection of the body, nor in the last judgement, and they think that a blind chance presides over their life and death, that they owe their existence to pure matter, and that after this life their body returns to the earth...
This was a loose, medieval, theist entity forced to confront something very alien. Here at the other end of the historical telescope, though, this little rant of the Sultan's might not appear at all critical, as it continues : The French think that men, being born equal, must be equally free; that all distinction between men is unjust, and that each ought to be the master of his own opinions and his manner of living..... They have the impudence to say: We are brothers and friends, the same interests unite us, and we have the same religious opinions...
All of that to the good, when we look back to the center of the picture, there is Bonaparte--- avaricious, bloody-minded, and fixated on himself above all else.
At a certain point in the proceedings, it even appears that Napoleon himself went off the edge. His lovelorn letters to his faithful Josephine back in France had been intercepted by the British Blockade at the head of the Nile. No big loss, had it not been for the fact that Josephine had been public with her lovers back in Paris, and the Brits published the letters in the London daily papers, to the very great amusement of the English readership.
It would be fair to say that Bonaparte blew fuses on hearing the news; in his defense, he quickly rose to the occasion and began to envision what was taking shape as his great Oriental Dream Of Conquest. He would march on Constantinople and conquer the Ottomans; he would follow in Alexander's steps and march on to India and thwart the British. In his own words to the Egyptians, "The power of God passes through me so that I defeat the enemies of Islam and crush the Christian cross... All I have done was inspired by God .. [it is:] the design of God; no one can prevent the execution of his will, and it is I who have been charged with this execustion."
Worthwhile to note is that all during the Egyptian expedition, notions of religion were falling down to revelations about the Ancient World of the Pharaohs, courtesy hieroglyphs and Rosetta Stone, both discovered largely by the Savant units. Highly developed civilization in the Luxor and Thebes valleys, thousands of years prior to that described in the origin-myths of judeo-christianity undercut the accepted greco-roman timeline. This would lend a certain freedom to Bonaparte's declarations of what God's design might be, what 'destiny' might have in store.
What begins to dawn on Napoleon, with his fleet destroyed in Alexandria harbor and nothing ahead but the untold riches of the Orient, is that he'll found a New Asian Empire, much as the Americans had recently taken control of their own new continent. He founds the Regiment des Dromadaires, a camel corps not unlike what Lawrence would later utilize. He very carefully re-examines the ancient idea of a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, to support his overland conquests, via ships that would sail the Arabian Sea.... which eventually became the Suez Canal.
He's brought the libraries and experts from the old empire, and he starts to consolidate the vision : he will re-boot Civilisation itself from the cradle of the ancients. Free of all constraints (and any contact or control from France) -- his imagination, and his ambition would know no bounds.
How it turns out is best left to the book, and it's a twisted tale.
Recommended.
March 5, 2021
Wonderful narrative-style history. Its frequent use of vivid descriptions and past conversations pulled from contemporary's memoirs help bring the story to life. Features grand battles, dramatic reversals, betrayals, love affairs and a large cast of colorful characters (generals, intellectuals, administrators and locals). Evocative portraits emerge of the various generals around Napoleon such as the dashing Murat, the obstinate and proud Kleber and the young and daring Desaix. On the other side, we get to know the equally brilliant Admiral Nelson, the courageous Captain Smith and the cunning Djezzar.
Thoroughly researched and presents a balanced view of the French, British and Egyptian's actions and beliefs alongside the horrors of war and controversial acts committed by both sides. It highlights the clashing of cultures and the incompatibility of the atheist France with Islamic Egypt.
Besides covering the military campaigns it delves into the work of the savants present on the expedition and their groundbreaking work in Egyptology e.g. Rosetta stone, documenting the Upper Nile ruins. Many times, the savants were forced to fight for their lives alongside the soldiers.
Napoleon's megalomania and brilliance is on full display, providing a fascinating study of the man on the cusp of absolute power and documents his dream (and very real ambition) of following in the footsteps of his boyhood hero Alexander the Great to found an "Empire in the East". How history's wheel would have turned if his dream had become reality. And it nearly did.
Thoroughly researched and presents a balanced view of the French, British and Egyptian's actions and beliefs alongside the horrors of war and controversial acts committed by both sides. It highlights the clashing of cultures and the incompatibility of the atheist France with Islamic Egypt.
Besides covering the military campaigns it delves into the work of the savants present on the expedition and their groundbreaking work in Egyptology e.g. Rosetta stone, documenting the Upper Nile ruins. Many times, the savants were forced to fight for their lives alongside the soldiers.
Napoleon's megalomania and brilliance is on full display, providing a fascinating study of the man on the cusp of absolute power and documents his dream (and very real ambition) of following in the footsteps of his boyhood hero Alexander the Great to found an "Empire in the East". How history's wheel would have turned if his dream had become reality. And it nearly did.
July 25, 2022
Fantastic, well assembled book on the French expedition in Egypt.
Unfortunately though, despite the impeccable scholarship, this book still falls victim to some historical legends that sit on very little (if any) basis or proof. Including the infamous legend surrounding Rose Le Pagerie (Josephine Bonaparte)'s distant cousin-in-law and childhood friend Aimée du Buc's capture by barbary corsairs & becoming the Valide Sultan (there is no substantiation that this occurred, let alone that she was captured by barbary corsairs). This is among some other legends.
Starthern also seems to also largely misunderstand the relationship between Josephine and Napoleon, or perhaps he wanted to add his own touch to it. The affair with Hippolyte Charles is another example of the legends that befell Napoleonic scholarship and the scholarship in this book; this affair has almost no substantiation whatsoever. There are no existing letters between Josephine and Hippolyte.
To me, it seems like Strathern intentionally adds these dubious elements to the book in order to spice up and eulogize this Odyssian epic.
Nothwithstanding this criticism, this is a fantastic book. One of its greatest strengths is the author's insight on Egyptian sources and reading up the voluminous amount of material written by El Jabarti to construct an image from both sides of the equation, which is extremely insightful in this historical episode, where two irreconcilably incompatible cultures were forced to mix and intertwine for 3 years.
Unfortunately though, despite the impeccable scholarship, this book still falls victim to some historical legends that sit on very little (if any) basis or proof. Including the infamous legend surrounding Rose Le Pagerie (Josephine Bonaparte)'s distant cousin-in-law and childhood friend Aimée du Buc's capture by barbary corsairs & becoming the Valide Sultan (there is no substantiation that this occurred, let alone that she was captured by barbary corsairs). This is among some other legends.
Starthern also seems to also largely misunderstand the relationship between Josephine and Napoleon, or perhaps he wanted to add his own touch to it. The affair with Hippolyte Charles is another example of the legends that befell Napoleonic scholarship and the scholarship in this book; this affair has almost no substantiation whatsoever. There are no existing letters between Josephine and Hippolyte.
To me, it seems like Strathern intentionally adds these dubious elements to the book in order to spice up and eulogize this Odyssian epic.
Nothwithstanding this criticism, this is a fantastic book. One of its greatest strengths is the author's insight on Egyptian sources and reading up the voluminous amount of material written by El Jabarti to construct an image from both sides of the equation, which is extremely insightful in this historical episode, where two irreconcilably incompatible cultures were forced to mix and intertwine for 3 years.
April 4, 2025
To understand Europe in the 20th century, you have to understand the 19th; to understand the 19th, you have to understand Napoleon; and to understand Napoleon, you have to read this book. Napoleon - or just plain General Bonaparte, as he was then - was already a highly successful soldier and strategist in 1798, despite being only 29 years old. But it was when he hatched and delivered on a plan to invade Egypt that we see the first real signs of who he was and what he was to become: the megalomaniac who just wanted to rule. It's all here: the ambition, the charisma, and the brilliantly devised and ineptly executed plans that would lose thousands of lives and yet seem like strategic masterstrokes from which he would emerge unsullied. Everything that went wrong for him in Russia went wrong first in the Middle East. But the expedition is worthy of note for another reason, also brought to life here. It was thanks to him that Europeans first began to get a glimpse of the ancient history of Egypt and the rest of the world, and huge breakthroughs were made in our understanding of anthropology, archaeology and science generally.
September 13, 2023
"History is the only true philosophy" aka, the epic of a gigachad.
I would have liked to live in a world where Napoleon built his Eastern empire.
I really like the way Strathern builds a narrative of Napoleon's development as a conqueror, leader, Emperor, dreamer, the way his ambitions are formed and developed alongside l'état des choses in Egypt. In the Middle East right now, I could identify with much of the cultural struggle depicted even 200 years later. Engaging text without the over-obsession on particular battle tactics etc that I tend to skim in Napoleonic histories.
But, as well noted, there is something uniquely tragic about Napoleon's campaign in Egypt that can only be compared to his last years in Europe and haunts Napoleon's legacy to this day even moreso than Spain or Russia, perhaps because, as Napoleon was so well-aware: “In politics an act that degrades can never be lived down.”
Napoleon needed the freedom of Egypt -- to free him from the Earth entirely -- to stand above Europe.
I would have liked to live in a world where Napoleon built his Eastern empire.
I really like the way Strathern builds a narrative of Napoleon's development as a conqueror, leader, Emperor, dreamer, the way his ambitions are formed and developed alongside l'état des choses in Egypt. In the Middle East right now, I could identify with much of the cultural struggle depicted even 200 years later. Engaging text without the over-obsession on particular battle tactics etc that I tend to skim in Napoleonic histories.
But, as well noted, there is something uniquely tragic about Napoleon's campaign in Egypt that can only be compared to his last years in Europe and haunts Napoleon's legacy to this day even moreso than Spain or Russia, perhaps because, as Napoleon was so well-aware: “In politics an act that degrades can never be lived down.”
Napoleon needed the freedom of Egypt -- to free him from the Earth entirely -- to stand above Europe.
March 31, 2018
Not really knowing a lot about Napoleon other than he loss at Waterloo and his mythical stature as a commander, this book brought to light the reality of who Napoleon was breaking the ideological vision of a legendary conqueror and showing him as a caveat of ludicrous ideology. His missteps in battles and corrosive loyalty to humanity is well upon display as he continually exhibits a detrimental attitude towards his soldiers. His pompousness is only eradicated by his securing of Egyptian antiquities. It also sheds light upon the religion of Islam and continually highlights the evil ideology hidden the the Koran and hearts of its loyalist in the Egypt in the late 1700s and early 1800s towards Christians and foriegners. Hardly impossible not to mention, the horrible ravaging of humanity from the bubonic plague also. It was a very enjoyable and interesting book.
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