The French Campaign in Egypt, 1798-1801

This book examines the cultural encounter and conflict that arose during the French occupation of Egypt (1798–1801) by analyzing mutual perceptions of the French and Egyptians. It investigates how the image of Egypt, originally shaped by the writings of late eighteenth-century French travelers, was transformed in the minds of those who participated in the French campaign, and how it was used in Napoleonic propaganda. The book demonstrates that French impressions of Egypt contributed to broader generalizations about the imagined Orient and analyzes how these attitudes were linked to French colonial policy. It includes the Arab perspective on the occupation, challenging the one-sided narratives found in French sources. Evgeniya Prusskaya argues that French perceptions of ‘Oriental’ society directly influenced French policies in Egypt, reinforcing a framework of violence and fostering the development of a colonial mindset, which later evolved into the dominant narratives of nineteenth-century imperialism. The book also examines the legacy of the Egyptian campaign during the French occupation of Algeria in the early 1830s.

Evgeniya Prusskaya is Research Fellow at the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Marburg University, Germany.