Summary
Egyptian notable and ‘alim (religious leader) who witnessed and lived through the French expedition to Egypt and recorded it in ‘Aja’ib al-Athar, which Edward Said reads contrapuntally against Fourier’s introduction to the Description de l’Égypte as two discrepant experiences of the same conquest (Culture and Imperialism, PDF p.60-62 / printed p.33-35).
Details
- Jabarti records a series of anguished and perceptive reflections on the conquest, writing as an embattled religious notable recording the invasion of his country and the destruction of his society: “This year is the beginning of a period marked by great battles” (PDF p.61 / printed p.34).
- Where the French scientific team surveyed Egypt as it had never been surveyed before, Jabarti has eyes for the facts of power, whose meaning he senses as a punishment for Egypt; French power bears on his existence as a conquered Egyptian, compressed into a subjugated particle barely able to record the French army’s comings and goings, its imperious decrees and its harsh measures (PDF p.61 / printed p.34).
- Said traces from Jabarti’s attitude a deep-seated anti-Westernism persistent in Egyptian, Arab, Islamic and Third World history, the seeds of Islamic reformism later promulgated by Muhammad ‘Abduh and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, and an early moment in the wave of national self-consciousness that culminated in Egyptian independence (PDF p.61-62 / printed p.34-35).
Related pages
Culture and Imperialism, Description de l’Égypte, Discrepant experiences, Contrapuntalism