Egypt is one of the ancient seats of civilization, and the Pyramids, Mummies, and artifacts of Egypt, which is still an enigma, have fascinated every historian and traveler for many centuries. In “Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt,” Nina Burleigh (2007) unravels the experiences and activities of the special corps of 150 Parisian artists and scientists, naturalists, and physicists (group known as ‘savants’) traveling to Egypt, with the 50,000 army men of Napoleon.
The group, inspired by Napoleon’s call for scholars to help explore new foreign territories, and enlighten the people of Egypt and liberate native Mameluke, was to take the expedition a turning point in the Western study of Egypt, its life, natural history and antiquity, the country, and its influence on the arts in Europe. Intoxicated by the example of Alexander the Great, a conqueror with great ideas, Napoleon had set in motion one of the most ambitious fact-finding mission to Egypt. Napoleon termed the French expedition as an intellectual endeavor, rather than a French military aggression to colonize Egypt, aimed at enlightening the Orients and build cordial relationship among Christians and Muslims, though his entourage comprised more army men than scholars. In the perspective of Nina Burleigh’s “Mirage” it is essential to examine how this expedition embodies Napoleon’s ambitions as well as ideals of enlightenment and revolution, and whether his mission to Egypt was a success as anticipated.
No region aroused greater interest than Egypt, where reports of mysterious monuments, inscrutable hieroglyphics, rare silks and spices, and rumors of lost magical knowledge tantalized dreamers and taunted the power-hungry, and its history and people was the subject of much myth and speculation. Napoleon set in motion one of the most ambitious fact-finding missions in modern history, out of his adolescent ambition to conquer Egypt, and inspiration drawn from the history of Alexander the Great. The gory conflict between Christianity and Islam loomed large for three hundred years, from the Battle of Vienna till the end of eighteenth century, and very few Europeans ventured to enter the region. In addition, the voyage from Europe to the Orient, the Islamic countries of the Middle East, by sea was arduous and long, the climate extreme, and the inhabitants were assumed to be inhospitable. Thus, only the most reckless or mad Europeans, merchants, and writers dared to cross the turbulent Mediterranean Sea, and ventured to explore the intricacies of Egypt, till the day Napoleon’s “Army of the Orient” landed at Alexandria on July 1, 1798, with a band of 150 curious, voluntary erudite men.
Nina Burleigh devotes her book “Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt” on the struggle of the savants to survive the hardships of unforgiving desert, jealousy of the French troop, anger of the indigenous population, spread of disease, natural calamities and triumphs as well as Napoleon’s desertion from the scene. Building her narrative around the lives of about a dozen savants, particularly Claude Louis Berthollet Comte, Gaspard Monge, and Pierre-Francois Xavier Bouchard, she unravels a lively story in the historic perspective. Though frightened to fathom, mystery of Egypt, just across the Mediterranean Sea, never forbade the Europeans from fantasizing, but increased their fascination for the ancient culture, shrouded in its colossal relics concentrated along the Nile.
Europeans viewed Egypt as “the primal seat of natural law, the remains of a golden age of civilization, and repository of lost magical knowledge” and the scholars thought the Hieroglyphics containing magical formulas capable of reviving the dead or turning lead to gold (Burleigh, Nina, 2007, p.x). Drawing inspiration from his success in Germany and Italy, Napoleon was interested to fulfill his childhood dream to follow the path of Alexander the Great, and the call to command French army with a mission explore Egypt gave a chance to accomplish his dream. Napoleon’s first proclamation to the troops sailing towards Egypt on June 22, 1798 that “the first city we shall arrive at was built by Alexander, and every step we take we shall meet with objects capable of exciting our emulation” is an example for his adoration of Alexander the Great, and the city named after the great warrior (Burleigh, p.19).
Egypt is considered as the cradle of civilization, and in “Mirage” we could see many examples wherein Burleigh supports this view and terms Egypt as the “fabled origin of civilization” (p.19 ibid). Through the Architect Charles Norry, she again states “We were looking for the city of Ptolemics, the library, the seat of human knowledge” (p.41-42 ibid). Napoleon’s mission was also to enlighten the people of Egypt, once fabled origin of civilization, the relics of which speaks volumes. The mission statement is made clear at the time of inauguration of ‘The Institute’ in Cairo when Monge states “Institutes goal was to “foster the spread of enlightenment and knowledge of Egypt” (p.60 ibid) and the man who made that possible was General Bonaparte.
In an announcement, read in Arabic, to the People of Egypt Napoleon Bonaparte also announces that “O’Egyptians! You have been told that I have come to this land only with the intention of eradicating your religion. But that is a clear lie. I, more than any Mameluke, worship God, glory be to Him, and respect his Prophet and the great Koran” (p.59 ibid.). Similarly Burleigh addresses Napoleon as “Citizen Bonaparte,” whereas for the scientists he was “modern Alexander” who predicted “victories for knowledge ahead” (p.60) while addressing the scientists on the occasion of inaugurating their Institute. The first six questions posed to the scientists were: “(1) Could the ovens used for baking army bread be improved; (2) could they make beer without hops in Egypt? (3) How might Nile water be purified; (4) which would be more practical in Cairo—Windmills or watermills? (5) Could gunpowder be made in Egypt; and (6) what is the state of civil Egypt, in terms of law and education? What do the citizens want” (p.60-61, ibid). Last question clearly shows that Napoleon was keen to liberate the people of Egypt from the scourge of illiteracy and economic hardships, and he entered Egypt not as a conqueror.
It is worth noting that “Napoleon was never much interested in the antiquities beyond their potential as a symbolic backdrop for his campaign”(p.169). He personally inspected only pyramids and Sphinx, although popular legend relates that “the general experienced a mystical vision of Alexander the Great while inside the Pharaoh’s tomb. When Napoleon heard the defeat of the Republic in Germany and Italy reversing his finest military achievements, he decided “he could not waste another minute chasing Alexander’s ephemeral legacy to the East” and returned to Paris (p.140 ibid). This is a clear indication that though Napoleon was obsessed with pursuits of Alexander the Great to consolidate his domain and aspired to enlighten the dark Orient, he was more concerned with the duty to protect France. It is also argued that Napoleon lost his soldiers from unexpected resistance of the British ships, under Lord Nelson, and insurgency from Mameluke and Ottoman Turks, and was forced to flee to France on October 11, 1799, leaving behind the remnants of French Army and the savants.
Though very few of the Napoleon’s scholars were antiquarians, the “scholars and engineers are remembered most as men who helped found archeology as science” (p.168 ibid) as their meticulous, systematic way of looking at ancient sites becoming the model for future Egyptologist. The Book “Le Description de L’Egypte” (“The Description of Egypt.”) complied by the savants has accurate description of the major monuments, careful mapping and planning done by trained engineers, and record on the number of damaged monuments, and ascertain the important contributions of the French Expedition. The campaign, as an intellectual endeavor, yielded twenty three outsize volumes, delicately printed with engravings of the buildings, rocks, people, plants, and thousands of the beasts, birds, bugs, and fish that dwelled in Egypt circa 1800, though the military incursion was a failure. Napoleon may not have achieved his primary goal as a general in-charge of a military operation, but the French scientific expedition initiated by him led to Europe’s Egyptianizing as well as plundering of Egyptian monuments.
Works cited
Burleigh, Nina. Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt. Harper Collins. 2007.