Yasir Qadhi – Library Chat #15 – Napoleon’s 1798 Invasion of Egypt & The Ushering In of Modernity

			Miss min Hill Allahumma new
		

			setup Adi Kumara has a lot to say about our cattle in August of 1798. Napoleon Bonaparte, a then an
upstart general in the French military, at the time, not somebody who was very well known, was in
the ancient city of Cairo. And amazingly, he was getting ready. He was dressing up with the help of
a senior ship of an SSR by the name of chef al Bukhari, and he was wearing the garment of the
roadmap. In fact, he even donned a turban. And with the help of the chef, He then made his way to a
very, very well attended procession on the 12th of Robbie Oh, well, in the year 1213, after the
hedgerow. And of course, this was a motive celebration that Napoleon himself had sponsored with his
		

			own money. And at the end of the ceremonies, while he was sitting with the as head chef and with
hundreds of people in the audience. According to one leader report, he declared that he was a
defender of the faith, and he praised the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And he apparently
declared the Shahada and formally embraced Islam. The crowd went wild with shouts of joy and to
Kabir. And this grand share of as her, gave him the title a soul pond and Kabir, and the people
bestowed upon him the name Ali. So how exactly did a Corsican born short statured French general by
the name of Napoleon become a Sultan? It can be an idea IE buena polity. And how would this
		

			particular incident change the entire course of history? Well, that is what today's library chat in
shallow data will introduce you to because this incident, Napoleon's invasion of Egypt is one of the
most significant episodes in our entire 14 and a half centuries of Islamic history. And it is the
one incident that pushes the Muslim world into modernity and onto the global scene. And please stick
with me, because there are some aspects of this Napoleonic story that are exaggerations. And we will
get to that, by the way, if you're wondering why I'm dressed like this, or the camera angles, or
whatnot. So we are just in the middle of the worst winter Arctic storm that Texas has ever faced.
		

			We've just gone through three, three days of not having electricity, or intermittent bouts of
electricity. So the electric electricity is up and running. Right? This I hope it isn't shallow,
either. But it is still very, very cold. So I'm dressed up like this, as well. By the way, I
purchased a new camera and lens and lighting. And so please tell me and Jazakallah head to the
brothers who online helped me set this up. But this is all being set up by myself, but they're
brothers. You know who you are, you helped me set it up online. So any comments or any feedback,
please leave them in shallow tada at the bottom. Now let's get back to our story. And let's begin
		

			with the French Revolution of 1789. And again, by the way, this entire, you know, library chat. It's
really it's a very condensed, very condensed chat that really could be discussed in many different
episodes. It's very multifaceted. But the point is that, again, the purpose is just to introduce a
very basic overview. It's a bird's eye view of this very interesting episode of Napoleon's invasion
of Egypt. Now, let's begin with 1789. And the famous French Revolution. Of course, the French
Revolution changes the course of history. It's the first time that the nation state or the will of
the French people basically supersedes that of a royal family. So now we're getting the beginnings
		

			of the modern world, both in America and in France, where the people are sovereign and not the king.
And within a decade of the establishment of the French Republic, in May 1798, the French Parliament
authorizes a army invasion of Egypt, more than 20,000 troops are authorized to take their naval
forces. Napoleon Bonaparte is put in charge of this. However, the troops are not told where they're
going. They're simply told to say surprise mission. And in the spirit of the Enlightenment, very,
very interestingly, along with 20,000 people to kill and * and plunder 150 scientists are sent
with equipment and with you know, anthropologists, historians, linguists, they're sent to
		

			theologians as well to chronicle and to record and to study the peoples and the civilizations of
Egypt. So, why is France wanting to invade Egypt in 1798 and realize that 1798 you know, there is
there is no direct
		

			colonization yet of the Muslim world. True. England has its its its hands very deep inside India.
But the British Raj has yet to be established. Right? You still have the East Indian trading
company. So they're they're trading, they have an alliance and they have an understanding with the
Mughal Emperor. So why are the French interested in invading Egypt? Well, there are a number of
motivations, first and foremost, primarily, to have the upper hand over the British and to threaten
the British Empire in India. They felt that by invading Egypt, they might be able to block a British
trade route routes to India. Also, there are there are theories that because of the, this the the
		

			slave trade being abolished and banned, French, the French decided to replace the income from slave
trades via colonization. Also, one of the explicit goals of France was to weaken the Ottoman Empire.
Bonaparte mentioned this explicitly that France wanted a share of the pie. And of course, Egypt is
under Ottoman rule. We're going to get there, of course, the mamluks were in charge the governors
but obviously, indirectly, it was under Ottoman rule, as well. There was a personal motivation for
Napoleon as well, he felt that this was established his own credentials, Napoleon was definitely
very, very ambitious. He was aiming to be very significant player in global history. And he felt
		

			that this expedition would jumpstart that route, which of course, by the way, it did, there's also
theories that the French establishment was getting irritated and Napoleon. And there was this notion
of sending him on a wild goose chase as well, which is, you know, it has its pros and cons that
theory because you wouldn't send 20,000 troops in a wild goose chase, but there are theories that
some of Napoleon's you know, enemies or whatnot, they wanted to just send him away. For the time
being, they didn't realize that, in returning he would actually be even more powerful than when they
sent him away. And of course, there was also the romantic understanding of Egypt and the Pharaonic
		

			lands and Moses and the Israelites. So Egypt has captured the imagination of peoples for time
immemorial. Now, France, of course, was well aware that Egypt was under the rule of the mamluks. Now
the mum Luke's were a is famously known the slave dynasty, right, the mum Luke's Of course, had been
there since the time of Salahuddin Allah up since the time of the ayyubid. Right. So we're literally
talking about you know, more than five 600 years, and the mom Luke's had defeated the the Mongols,
the Mongols had defeated so many different enemies that were attacking the lands that of course, the
mob Luke's ethnically originally, they were primarily from the region on Acacia, which is basically
		

			a bordering Russia. And also there were elements of the Turkish elite as well. And the Mum, Luke's
were the actual governors and rulers of Egypt, but they were paying their ties or their taxes to the
Ottomans. And there was a love hate relationship, there was an awkward relationship between the
Mamelukes of Egypt and between the Ottomans based in Istanbul. And of course, the the the mameluke,
vassal state wanted its own independence at times, they didn't pay the taxes at times they did. And
so you have the local mameluke ruling elite, which are who are generally speaking, you know,
obviously, they're intermingling with the people but there's still a different category, the
		

			different class, and then you have the actual Ottomans, the Turks, and you have the Turkish
emissaries you have the actual Turks living in Egypt as well. And then of course, you have the local
Egyptian population, with groups of Roma, the elites, the merchants, the nobility, the peasants, all
different classes of society. That's in a nutshell, so we understand what is going on. Do keep in
mind as well, by the way that Egypt at this point in time, was one of the most neglected of all of
the Ottoman provinces. And so it had you couldn't compare Egypt to any of the mainstream Ottoman
lands. In fact, we have eyewitness accounts of Napoleon's soldiers and generals, when they were when
		

			they were chronicling their their journey into Egypt and their interactions with the people that
they are appalled at the poverty of the people of Egypt. Overall, the extremely emaciated bodies are
the nakedness of even adult women and men, especially amongst the peasant class, there was nothing
to cover to cover their their their themselves except maybe the outer people, you know, very hungry,
dying of starvation. One chronicler says there were more dogs in the city of Cairo than people
obviously that's an exaggeration. But the point being that realized that Egypt was not the way we
understand it in terms of being a one of the capitals of Arabic and Muslim culture is going to
		

			change and Napoleon's invasion is the beginning of that change. Now, what are the sources of our
talk are about this, this this era? Well, there's lots of information that's available, Napoleon's
diaries and Napoleon's observations.
		

			shins are well known and published about his whole life. Of course, he wrote about his own life in a
lot of detail. We also have many of the French elite and the nobleman writing and we have their
their their writings preserved and translated. We also have perhaps the last of the great Muslim
historians, abdominal jeberti, who was an eyewitness, he was actually alive during the invasion, and
he was an eyewitness to some of these key incidents. And, of course, the invasion has been
chronicled by many different historians. I personally would like to recommend two books to all of
you, that I think are very useful introductory books, even though of course, much has been written.
		

			The first of these is this one here it is called Napoleon's Egypt it is written by one coal,
Napoleon's Egypt invading the Middle East, this is probably one of the better and the more easier
books to understand this a very nice introduction. And then the second is a translation of a god
this is a little bit more difficult to read, because it has a way of just like the ancient
historians, or how they used to how they used to write with lots of details, but a Jabbawockeez
Chronicles have been translated. And you can find this online both of these books
		

			there's of course many other books as well, you can just do a Google search and you find like tons
of articles and, and and many other books written about Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, and the
repercussions of that. Now again, the goal of a library chat is literally a bird's eye view. And
more important than the incidents or what we can derive from them. Now to briefly summarize the, the
the the debacle of the invasion, when the French force forces sailed. The British with their spies
and their networks, were fully aware of what's going on. And so the British knew that the French
were going to invade Egypt, but they didn't know where they would land. And they didn't know the
		

			exact dates there are no Spy Satellites is 1798. And so the British and the French, of course, are
the rivals, the British sent an envoy to the mamluks. And the British Jew literally landed in Egypt
to get an A appointment with the mameluke emissary of Alexandria, which is the port city and they
tell him, Hey, the French are going to invade. Now the mum looks are completely oblivious, and they
thought that the British were just, you know, going crazy, have no clue what's going on. And the
Mamelukes told them to get lost, and they did not take that threat seriously. And therefore on the
first of July 1798, the first of July 1798 is interesting, by the way that America has been founded.
		

			We have the founding fathers going on over here in 1798. Dinesh these are, you know, active in the
Arabia, they're attacking MK trying to get to to conquer Makkah. And in 1798, Napoleon is in Egypt.
So really interesting, global affairs, you know, I'm going on simultaneously. In 1798, the first of
July, Napoleon's forces land outside the ancient and the historic city of Alexandria, one of the
most historic cities of the world. And Alexandria was taken by a complete surprise, to say that, you
know, the mum looks we're not expecting an invasion is an understatement. It's literally Napoleon,
as if out of nowhere, brings his 20,000 troops, and within a few hours, he conquers the entire city,
		

			there was a feeble attempt by the local, you know, the mameluke guards, the Mum, Luke, you know,
army of Alexandria. But you see, what we're gonna see throughout this entire invasion is the
disparity of civilizations is the technological gap that existed between the French and between the
groups, you literally had no exaggeration. On the one side, you had rifles and you had cannons and
you had weaponry. And on the other side, you had skim tars, you had knives and swords. And yes, you
did have some, you know, old you know, guns. I mean, you know, those those, those those long guns
that are 1700s, early 1700s Napoleon's of courses, were talking about rifles. The mom, Luke's
		

			generally speaking, did not have the weaponry. Not every one of their soldiers sorry, not every
soldier was armed with an actual firearm, many of their soldiers were still using the weapons of the
past. So you had the Mamelukes fighting the French, you know, in their regalia, with their weaponry,
how do you think that battle is going to last? So literally, within a few hours, a foreign nation,
the French, they come in, they literally just waltz in and they attack one of the most ancient and
magnificent cities in the world. And power is transferred from the mum Luke's to the French
Bonaparte's, by the way, it was very clear to his troops he was he wanted to make sure that the
		

			people were not mistreated to the best way possible. He actually made an announcement amongst his
troops. And he proclaimed and we have these announcements recorded. Meaning written down. He
proclaimed and I quote, the people that we're going to are the mohammedans their first article of
faith is there is no god
		

			But God and Muhammad is His Prophet, do not contradict them show respect for their Muftis and their
moms should show respect for their ceremonies prescribed by the Quran for and show respect for their
mosques, etc, etc. So he wanted to make sure that the that his troops did not over the act sack
religious. And do remember that Napoleon and his army are now they're the embodiment of the
Enlightenment era. Generally speaking, you could call this like the first secular army. Napoleon's
invasion was the most significant interaction with Europe since the crusades, remember this point,
right. So since the crusades, the Muslim world has not interacted with Europe, in a military manner,
		

			to the extent that it is now going to, to undertake, and Napoleon is not coming as a Christian, he's
not coming as a Catholic, Napoleon is coming very much as a secular person, where religion is
something private religion, generally speaking, his troops are not overtly religious, and they had
abandoned many of them. Most of them have abandoned Catholicism, Napoleon in particular was very
much a deist. He believed in a God, but not necessarily the God of Christianity. And Napoleon issued
a proclamation that all weapons should be handed over. And if they are, then everybody would be
safe. He told the people of Alexandria, that Imams and scholars are not going to be harmed, they
		

			should continue their prayers, uninterrupted the five day to sort of watch, and he said that he does
not want to interfere in the lives of the Arabs, but they cannot side with the mom, Luke's or the
Ottomans. And he wanted to eliminate the Turkish rule and eliminate the Mum, Luke, ruling over the
Egyptians, and Napoleon had brought with him from France, an Arabic based printing press, a printing
press, and with Arabic typesetting. And he used that printing press to start printing propaganda in
his favor, and distributing it to the townsfolk, and the Egyptians. Now, some of you might have
listened to my other talk that I gave many years ago about the printing press to realize the Muslim
		

			world did not have a functional printing press up until this point in time. And it is truly surreal
to point out that the first Arabic printing press that was used in the Muslim world was manufactured
in Europe, literally brought on the ships of Napoleon, by an invading army and used for political
propaganda. The symbolism of all of this is just too profound, you know that the metaphors that we
want to get extract from this one incident are very, very deep. So think about that, right. The
first printing press that was used on Arabian soil on are absorbed in Muslim lands was manufactured
in Europe. And it was literally brought by an invading army and thrust on the people and then used
		

			for the first thing printed was political propaganda. And we still have the the initial, you know,
printing of the proclamation, I think I can put on the screen over here. And the translation
reasonably obviously is much longer than this. But what what one paragraph reads that it begins in
the name of God ever, the recommander Rahim there is no God but Allah, he has no son, and he shares
his power with no one. The commander in chief of the French armies, Napoleon, General, Napoleon
Bonaparte says to the people of Egypt, for too long this bunch of slaves brought in Georgia and the
caucus meaning the mamluks has tyrannized the most beautiful country in the world. In the eyes of
		

			God, all men are equal. So what entitles the man looks to all that makes life comfortable and
pleasant, who owns all of the great estates, the Mamelukes, who have the loveliest slaves, the
Mamelukes, who have the most splendid horses and the finest houses that Mamelukes if Egypt truly and
rightfully belongs to them, let them produce the deeds by which God gave it to them, once you had
great cities, large canals and prosperous trade, what has destroyed all of this, if not the greed,
iniquity, and tyranny of the blocks and quote, and it goes on and on. So we find over here that
Napoleon is appealing to their love of this dunya telling them that all of the problems of the world
		

			are because of the man blocks. And again, I'm not defending the man blocks, I mean, definitely a lot
can be said for any, any government in any leadership, especially the Mamelukes of the time, and
even the Ottomans, again, all of this is part of history that we need to see. So Napoleon is
basically using the standard age old
		

			tactic of divide and conquer exacerbate ethnic tensions, you know, bring an enticement of this world
bringing racism you know, those are the main loops or occasions the Georgian slaves Who are they to
rule over you. And then of course, Napoleon is appealing to Islamic sentiment in the name of God
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim, etc, etc and realize that
		

			You know, realize that, you know, the the the notion of European invasions was unknown up until this
point in time. And of course, the Egyptians had heard of the French, but they didn't understand
Napoleon's reasons for invasion, they didn't understand why this group would be coming in. And they
most definitely did not understand the the Enlightenment era, you know, a Zeitgeist of the time, if
you like, you know, the theology and the politics of Napoleon. So Napoleon is trying his best to
convey that I'm not a Catholic, I'm actually pro Islam, I'm more closer to Islam than I am to
Catholicism, and maybe in some ways, in some ways, you know, one could see where he is coming from.
		

			It's interesting that our guy, Rihanna, giovannetti, you know, the famous chronicler, he tries to
explain to his Egyptian readers who these who these invaders are, because, again, they've never
seen, you know, these types of people. And so LGBT rights, that they aren't quite Christian, but
they're most certainly not Muslim. And he mentioned that they lack all types of hair, and all types
of common sense. They're women don't veil, they fornicated. Well, he says, He says, The men defecate
anywhere they want, they'll just, they'll just urinate in the streets or defecate anywhere. And then
he says, and when they're done, they don't even wipe themselves. This is a novelty writing about
		

			this. And then he also quotes Napoleon's proclamation, and he quotes it bit by bit, and he does a
bit of a shadow habit, mocking It is a very ingenious way of mocking, good point is like a line by
line commentary, you know, pointing out, you know, errors, or maybe he meant this, or is very worthy
of reading, if you understand the Egyptian humor, but that's in the original Arabic. And it's
interesting to note, by the way, that, you know, as Djibouti is describing his antagonism towards
the French, and their backward and they smell it, they don't dress properly, and, and they, they,
they, they defecate in this manner, and the women are lacking hyah You know, when you look at the
		

			French descriptions of the Egyptians, Subhanallah you find similar types of sentiments, right,
backwardness and hatred, and the same notions of women lacking higher, that's really interesting.
Both civilizations are accusing the other of their women lacking higher, and it's just a very
anthropological, you know, point here that a lot of times one reads in one's own weaknesses into the
other. This is well known, well known issue in anthropology. And we're back to our story. Of course,
we talked about Napoleon's capture of Alexandria, but like Alexandria was a small port city, you
really need to capture all Hera IJA in Cairo. And once you've done that, then of course, you know,
		

			the rest of the country will open up for you. And so Napoleon realized that, of course, he has to
march on to Cairo. And the locals of Alexandria had already alerted the people of Cairo that
		

			Napoleon's invading and so for the next few days or weeks, Cairo comes under a panic mode. The basis
of course, in Cairo, that's where the majority of the army is. And so for the next, you know, 1015
days do I know it was done, you know, Salah special prayers were done. All of the prayers had
constant Salawat of the Prophet system. And then, and as her universities started having to
coordinate every single day, all of the metro says the children's schools and whatnot, they began
having, you know, special prayers, and the city became very much on Red Alert. So unlike Alexandria,
Cairo was prepared and Cairo knew there was going to be a showdown. Now, the French left Alexandria,
		

			while there was a small contingent left, so the bulk of the French troops, they started marching on
towards Cairo. And of course, there is no way to march other than on foot. Okay, Napoleon came on
ships. And now from Alexandria, they have to march on foot in the month of July. Okay, think about
that. And the French were wearing their ridiculous costumes head to toe. This is not the era of
modern warfare, where people wear camouflage, and they know what to expect. This is 1798 here, and
the French have their plumes and everything, you know, top to bottom. And of course, you know, leave
it to invading armies to not really specially the French to not really think about the logistical
		

			details. Napoleon had forgotten to give his troops adequate water canisters as they marched in the
heat of the summer of July, in the deserts of Egypt, you know, from Alexandria to Cairo, and they
started marching and they don't have adequate water canisters. What do you think is going to happen?
When the temperature is reached literally in the 120 130 Celsius, what is going to happen? Behold,
10s and 1000s of troops are marching and water, of course runs out. People started going mad. Many
people died, many of them actually committed suicide every time they came across the village. By the
time the end troops came, the water had already been finished from the entire village.
		

			stampedes were caused at Wells as they're marching through by the French soldiers killing one
another for water. And by the time they get to, by the way, of course, mirages as well, for the
first time, the French soldiers see mirages everywhere, and they think they're going mad, they start
running, they think they see water. And then of course, it turns out to be a mirage. So because of
that a number of French soldiers even committed suicide, they thought they're going crazy. When they
see water, and there's no water. Eventually, they reached the river Nile. And the entire army, it is
said just went berserk and crazy rushed into the water, like mad men. And hey, who wouldn't do that
		

			it's just started drinking and gulping and whatnot. And of course, you're not supposed to drink
water to fill after you've been dehydrated for a week or two took them more than two weeks, okay, to
march more than two weeks from Alexandria to Cairo. Many of them died. And by the time they got
there, they're just gulping up this water, which of course is going to make them sick, dysentery and
whatnot. In any case, after a few days of recovery on the 21st of July 1798. This is the key battle.
And it's called the Battle of the pyramids that took place. Because obviously, the famous pyramids
of Giza were in the background, the famous parents that we've all visited are those of us that have
		

			been to Cairo visited. So the French soldiers could see the tips not to fall because remember, the
Muslim civilizations by and large, had ignored the phoronix. They thought them to be why why would
anybody be interested in those, you know, for monic monuments, so the three pyramids of Giza, and
even the Sphinx was most of them were covered up with sand, nobody would really care about them, you
could see the tips of the pyramids. And so you could see the tips of the pyramids, with Napoleon on
one side with his roughly 20,000 minus Allah knows how many hundreds or 1000s died on the one side.
And you have on the other side, the mameluke army here. Okay. And this is not a few 1000 like
		

			Alexandria, no, you have 1000s and 1000s. We don't i don't know exactly how many we don't know
exactly how many, but probably probably to the tune of more than 10,000 mameluke soldiers were in
Cairo at the time. Still, though, you're talking about trained French Battalion, despite the fact
that they're tired, disheveled, thirsty, many of them are sick. Still, though, they have weapons,
and they have rifles. And they have cannons. Now the the the mom Luke's did have a very very
rudimentary cannon system, but nothing like the the the French right. And most of the mameluke army
didn't have, as we said weapons, they had ancient muskets going back to the 16th century or whatnot.
		

			You can't compare them to the long distance rifles of the French. And there are vivid descriptions,
multiple eyewitnesses of this particular battle, the Battle of the pyramids, where the mum Luke's
charged and mass 1000s and 1000s of people were charging on their horses, and Napoleon had his
troops lined up. And there's actually you know, modern movies that have been done by the French and
others to depict this model. You can see this online and Napoleon use the standard tactic again,
we've seen this in the movies all the time, but the mum looks hadn't seen the movies, the mom looks
didn't know what to do, right? And so the mom looks are literally charging, you know, with tech
		

			videos and whatnot. And Napoleon TELLS US Army steady, steady, steady, don't fire don't don't don't
do anything, until finally when they're in firing and visual distance. Everybody fires
simultaneously the guns go off the rifles go off, the cannons go off. And what do you think is going
to happen right? There is simply no comparison. The man looks with the skin guitars and horses and
Napoleon with trained battalions and with cannons more than 6000 mameluke soldiers decimated and
Napoleon's losses were in the 100 at max, maybe 200 French soldiers, more than 6000 of them, Luke's
completely gone. And this basically paved the way for the French to conquer the rest of Egypt. Quite
		

			literally in the morning of that day. The Ottoman mameluke leader his name was more on debate. The
automatic block leader left his palace with his pageantry with his horses with his you know, army
and whatnot. And that same evening, Napoleon slept in his bed quite that same day. This is like the
symbolic takeover the same evening, Napoleon was in the palace of motoroads Bay surrounded by the
the luxury and whatnot of Morro Bay, and he was now he had taken over literally in a few hours the
Battle of the pyramids the next few months. You know, we're we're set about, you know, consolidating
his power over Egypt and the West learn for the first time that it is super easy to invade. It is
		

			super easy to conquer, but it is impossible to actually rule. This was the historical precedent
Napoleon set that nobody ever learned from up until our times with the invasions of Iraq and
Afghanistan and the innovations that will follow along those when nobody learns from history. It is
super easy to bring your gun to break.
		

			Your weapons to bring your bombs and to conquer. But once you've conquered, you cannot rule over a
population that does not want you. Nonetheless, it was at this stage with the conquest of Cairo that
Napoleon began to court, the elites and the nobles and the ruling class. And he felt that if he
could get the class to be his allies, that the rest of the people would follow. So he made a very
special effort with the roadmap class, and especially with the other scholars, and he told them that
he was their Liberator and ally, and he told them that he was not a Christian, and that he was an
admirer of Islam. Now, the story of his conversion, quote, unquote, right? Yes, it is mentioned in
		

			one or two early sources, but not of the first generation of actual eyewitness accounts. And
technically speaking, it does appear that the conversion was a misunderstanding or an exaggeration
of a later chronicler. He did in fact, meet with the scholars of Azhar, he did finance the mode
celebrations, by the way interesting was that bit or not, but I'm not even gonna go there. Right.
Bonaparte, a financing the mobile It is interesting here. The reason why he financed it was because
there was no money that year, because of the invasion, there was chaos. And Napoleon said, Don't
worry, I'll take care of the finances. So he sponsored the motive. There was a massive motive every
		

			single year that year, Napoleon financed it, he gathered all of the roadmap, and one of the senior
scholars of it as her kept on, you know, pressuring him to convert and told him if you convert, we
will be behind you, if you convert the lands of Islam can be yours. Basically, he uses using the
Islamic Courts, they look because they didn't like the mom looks for many reasons they didn't like
they wanted another leader, every I mean, it's human nature, by the way. I mean, politics is a dirty
business, you're never going to appease the majority of people, because it's just not possible to do
that. But nonetheless, so a senior share COVID as her was pressuring Napoleon. And in the course of
		

			that conversation, what appears to be the case is that Napoleon praised Islam immensely. And he
praised the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And he expressed his admiration of Islam. That's
really what happened. Doesn't look like he actually converted. Yes, there are some books that say
that. And yes, you'll find it in Muslim websites and whatnot. But I'm highly skeptical. And if you
look at the original sources, they don't mention that. And in fact, we know because we have clear
statements from his own generals, from the people that are on the other side, where they're saying
that Napoleon was basically using this as a ruse to court the Lima class to praise Islam and
		

			whatnot. He was not a religious person, per se. And
		

			True, true. he admired certain aspects of Islam, but he never practiced Islam. He never prayed or
did anything or did anything that a Muslim would do. And there's no indication from the original
sources that he actually uttered the Shahada. So the notion of his conversion seems to be a
misunderstanding, by maybe a second generation third generation chronicler, where the extreme praise
of Islam Yes, he did praise Islam, and he praises the Prophet. So somebody praised the Quran. And in
fact, the next week, he wrote a letter to a shift that was preserved, you were a letter to a chef in
another city. And he said that, I hope that I should be able to unite all of the aroma of all of the
		

			countries and establish a uniform regime based upon the principles of the Quran, which alone are
true, and which alone can lead men to happiness, end quote. Now again, nobody seriously thinks that
he actually believed these words right his own his own chronicler, his own generals and whatnot,
they're writing very factually like, in a Napoleon's making a fool out of these guys by, by by
flirting with their religion and making them feel that you know, the religion is the best. And in
reality, yeah, he does have some praise of the Koran or whatnot, he felt it to be more sensible than
the Christian Bible. That doesn't mean he was a believer. And we should not embarrass ourselves by
		

			by reading and more than the facts, you know, tell us you have to be very careful in an academic
year. So To cut a long and complicated story short, the French attempted to rule over a completely
alien land, foreign land to them, one whose culture they didn't understand one whose language they
had no, they didn't even speak fluent Arabic. It's just bizarre to imagine what's going on in 1798.
You know, it's just a bunch of French people invading and then thinking they can rule over all of
Egypt. But they tried. And for the next two years, they eked out an existence and they brought about
lots of reforms and lots of changes. They introduced European customs, European notions, they
		

			introduced so many, you know, largest small things, the 150 scientists, by the way, they were given
carte blanche authority to study and research and they opened up scientific Institute or this
Institute for the Study of science in in Egypt here, and they did a lot of interesting things. Let
me quote you giovannetti, our Guile giovannetti Let me quote you some of these descriptions of what
he has
		

			Saw who's an eyewitness here. So I quote you from a Giovanni's book.
		

			The French installed in one of the houses a large library with several librarians who guarded the
books and gave them to the readers who needed them. This library was open every day from two hours
before midday, the readers gathered in the big hall besides the one where the books were kept, they
sat in chairs arranged around the large tables and set to work. Even ordinary soldiers could come
and work in the library. If a Muslim wish to come, he was not in any way prevented. On the contrary,
he was welcomed in a friendly manner. The French were most pleased when a Muslim visitor appeared
interested in the sciences, they immediately made themselves available to him, showing him all sorts
		

			of printed books with designs, representing certain parts of the terrestrial globe of animals and
plants. And then jeberti says, I have had the occasion to visit this library several times and
remain constantly astonished at the sight of all of these beautiful things. And quote, eligibility
is impressed at a modern library. Well, law you cannot help but feel the reality of how things have
changed this is that this is one of the key points. Muslims, I'm not going to say invented the
concept of the latter. That's a bit of a stretch. But there's no question 500 years before this
point in time, there was no massive library in all of Europe, when there were libraries in faulted
		

			Egypt, when there were libraries in Baghdad, when there were libraries with half a million books in
andalas. Right. Europeans had nothing like this now. javante is impressed his mouth, his jaw is
dropping, because he sees a modern library that is up and running. And anybody can go and read books
over there. Also, a job Aarthi writes about about science, right? He talks about the astronomical
insert instruments, he talks about the telescopes that could open and close and they could be fitted
into little boxes. And he says they were used to observe the stars and determine their distance,
their volume, their conjunctions, and their opposite. And oh, the irony. Again, Djibouti is
		

			impressed at telescopes and looking at the stars. And again, this shows you how things have changed
from where to where, right. It was the Muslims who mapped out who charted all of the stars named
most of them, it was the Muslims who invented the precursors to the very telescopes that the French
are now using an algebra is incomplete, all like what am I seeing over here, he writes about biology
as well. Of course, he doesn't name this discipline. And he says, and I quote, when an animal or
fish unknown in France is discovered, they put it in a liquid, which preserves it indefinitely
without alteration again, you know, he's the preserve the preservation of samples, and of chemistry.
		

			He says that he visited one of their laboratories, where one of the assistants took a flagon
containing a certain liquid poured a part of it into an empty glass, and lo and behold, it became a
colored smoke when the smoke disappeared, the liquid turns solid and remained a yellowish color, I
touched this solid, and I found it was hard as stone, the same experience was repeated with other
liquids. And they produced a blue stone, and a third produced a red stone, like a Ruby, and he goes
on and on. Once again, he is impressed at chemistry, and he doesn't even remember or realize that
the term for chemistry and leukemia came from the Arabs, and again, from where to where Subhanallah
		

			you really see the disparate worlds now of Europe and of the Muslim world 1798, these two worlds are
colliding together. And you see, the one has superseded the other by light years, this is the
reality. Now, of course, a lot of interesting things happen because the French were in England,
England, the French were in Egypt for two years, right? So a lot of very interesting things happen
over here. Small anecdotes are mentioned in so many different books of Jeopardy, for example,
mentions that the French introduced the concept of restaurants, right. And he was bemused at the ala
carte menu system, where you have the option of choosing a particular dish for a particular price.
		

			Because again, back in the day, the cook cook whatever, he wanted to cook one meal, and everybody
ate the same meal and you paid you know, you you bartered, you negotiated it's a very different
system, you know, so the notion of having a set menu, right, and then you choose and then it's it's
something he's, he's intrigued by one of the most predictable and yet awkward realities was the
interaction between French men and the ladies of Cairo with us a very sordid chapter, which again,
much can be said, but it's not the time to get into there. But do realize that when you're going to
have 20,000 soldiers, and you have people in a very poor situation starving literally do realize
		

			that you're going to get the inevitable whenever any invading army comes whenever you have lots of
men
		

			And then you have a population that's impoverished. You're getting you're going to get a lot of you
know, ladies of the night, and that business flourished in Cairo because of the, the the soldiers,
and lots of lurid and sad details of young ladies offering themselves for money, literally teenagers
or younger men, this isn't their French Chronicles, and you know, they're, they're starving, and
then they're offering themselves and they became well known places. And what as you can understand,
this is what happens anytime an invading force comes as well, the elite of the French, those who
could afford it very soon picked up the habit of purchasing slaves and concubines, which was against
		

			all notions of the enlightenment. In fact, it was illegal in France to do so, technically, it was
not allowed for them as French citizens to purchase slaves, much less concubines, or whatnot. But
hey, it's Egypt, who's going to care who's going to do anything and it shows you the clear, you
know, double standards, if you like, right, and so, the French would be very the French nobleman
because again, his money requires money, not the soldiers, but those who could afford to, they would
regularly go to the slave markets, they would purchase young boys for their errands, and they would
purchase girls for you know what, and you also had a very interesting phenomenon of French soldiers
		

			and French elite, wanting to marry you know, certain noble ladies of the Egyptian elite for doing so
for whatever reason, are they because they're lonely, or because they're gonna establish ties or
contact or because you know, human beings are human beings and romances are going to occur. And many
of these ladies families, they demanded that French convert to Islam, and perhaps the most famous
was General munhu, m n o UI, General minoo. And generally, my note was the person who was in charge
of Napoleon left is we're going to come to gentleman who took charge of the entire operation of the
French being in, in in Egypt, and he fell in love with a young teenager by the name of Zubaydah.
		

			Albert Webb, and he was so enamored with her when her family said that he must convert, he actually
converted to Islam, and he took on the name Abdullah, and he married Zubaydah, and when he returned
to France, he brought Zubaydah with him. And he had a child with Zubaydah whom he he named Sulayman.
And, I mean, as far as I know, they didn't really practice Islam many generations afterwards. But
this particular general manual is actually famous and his name is inscribed, to this day in the
famous, you know, Arc de Triomphe. For the famous arc of Paris, everybody who's been there has seen
it right. His name is inscribed over there, and he actually converted to Islam. Liberty also
		

			remarked with a lot of sadness that a lot of the Muslim ladies who associated with the French, they
began to dress like the French ladies, they discarded their veil, and they started walking around,
you know, displaying, as Liberty says, they're Xena, to to everybody. This causes a lot of anger in
society as well. And again, realize that anytime you have lots of troops in a particular area,
you're going to get the the night ladies you get my point you're going to get * or rubella,
you're going to get price. Not just that prostitutes, you're also going to get Wizard of gang
gambling. Oh, yes, of course. I'm alcohol, right? How can you have a Western army invading without
		

			alcohol? And so alcohol became widely available and of course, it's going to cause resentment and
anger, the morality is changing and people are you know, things are happening that are
		

			riling up the the population. And
		

			in 1798, he finally sold bonds selling the third was roused into action, and he ordered a fit Amman,
he issued a fit Amano royal decree, in which he declared jihad against Napoleon, and a part of that
footman read about the French and I quote, they mock all religions, they reject belief in another
life as well as its punishment and reward. They do not believe in the resurrection of the body, nor
in the last day, and they think that there is a blind chance that presides over life and death, that
they owe their existence to pure matter, and that after this life, their body was turned to this
earth. I either secularists they're atheists or agnostics, they don't believe in a hereafter and God
		

			and whatnot. So, the foreman of the Ottoman rulers set him The third is describing atheism and
agnosticism because Muslims have never heard of this right? Nobody no civilization is secular, until
the French come along. And they they they are basically propagating these, these views. The Furman
also reason I quote, Their aim is to spread disunity amongst the rulers trouble amongst the
Emperor's and incite the subjects to revolt. And then listen to this. 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
		

			opinion and have his own 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 and quote now, it's
very profound and interesting that modern notions of liberty, were so alien to
		

			the peoples of Istanbul and other lands, that all that the footman had to do was to describe
European liberalism and say, Look at how ridiculous that is. Now, I'm not commenting on pro or con,
I'm simply saying that the concepts of the Enlightenment was so foreign to the minds of the
populations of that time that also transiting the third had to do was described. These are who the
French are, how can you be like this? Right, interesting. So I'm going to remark over here right?
Now, obviously, with the decree of Sultan setting the third of jihad, this now presented a crisis to
the Roma and the religious clergy. And the basically the loyalists in Cairo now, what are they going
		

			to do now? Now the halifa has declared jihad, and suddenly theology says you have to obey the
halifa, especially when he calls for jihad. And so so Vaughn said him the third's Fetterman actually
provoked, one of the most famous attempts to overthrow Napoleon. And Jihad was declared by 1000s, of
local Cairo residents. And it was led by a group of odema from us heart University, and the senior
clerics of us who were involved, and many of the students of us who were involved. And in October of
1790 8000s, upon 1000s of us, her students, and local Cairo residents, they banded together, and
they declared jihad against Napoleon. And they armed themselves with makeshift weapons with
		

			household items, you know, literally, sometimes even pots and pans, well, not positive, but you can
get my point things in the household, right. And there was a respected chef, who was their main
leader, and all of the deputies and all of the military commanders were basically most of them were
from Assad. And so this became the as our resistance. And interestingly enough, and others campus
and its famous Masjid, became the base of the resistance. Now, unfortunately, you know, as with most
such rebellions, as a lot of good spirits, but not a lot of planning, there was no one strong
unified leader, no concrete plan of action, no thinking to two or three steps. And in reality, this
		

			is standard for all such movements, you know, good or bad. Just look at the mutant of India, which
definitely deserves a library, check out the mutant of India, just look at the mutant of India, look
at any other without getting specific think of any other attack or what not. Nobody thinks two steps
ahead. Nobody's thinking things through. And so the same goes over here, the 1000s of people come
together. But unfortunately, they had a mob mentality, they themselves wreaked a lot of havoc,
killing innocent people burning down people's residences, we're not there, we're not really guilty.
Unfortunately, sometimes even you know, women issue comes up because they can't we have a bunch of
		

			men doing things. Obviously, there's no excuse, but things are going to happen. So obviously, you
know, along that you're going to get the very population you're trying to protect also gets
frustrated at you. It lasted less than a week, Napoleon himself led the charge against the seminary
students and their teachers. And of course, eventually, you know, Napoleon brought in the troops and
the cannons, the French literally literally dragged in the cannons in the narrow streets of Cairo,
and aimed it at as how the university will lie. It's surreal. It is surreal. And as her University
becomes the bastion of resistance, pause your footnote. What happened to it as her with the with the
		

			anyway, listen, let's not go there. There were many good roadmap. There are many good rhythm as
well. But things have changed very clearly and while long was dying. In any case, the cannons were
pointed, the troops were sent in and a massacre ensued over 3000 rouda and students and locals were
massacred. Buildings collapse, the complete mayhem of the insurrection, hundreds were taken prisoner
of war, and many hundreds were executed and their heads put on sticks because that's what the that's
what's going to happen when you have a rebellion. Giamatti, who was an eyewitness eligibility
remarks sadly, that the French soldiers entered the masjid with their horses they urinated inside
		

			the masjid to desecrate it, they tore up copies of the Quran, they they anybody who was because the
mosque became the the the the the center of the rebellion, right. So anybody home they found in the
mosque they beat and they stripped naked so that he had to be humiliated and whatnot. And that's if
they didn't capture and kill him because all of the senior leaders are many of them. Were not, not
all many of them.
		

			were executed. And according to a jibbety, many ancient relics and ancient books were destroyed. It
is said that some of these books ended up in Europe and Allah knows best It is said. But in any
case, the rest of the chef's have it as they were forced to surrender. And the senior most leaders
were executed. And the second tier, Napoleon, had them repent, gave them a forced Oath of Allegiance
or forced them to give the oath of allegiance. And he didn't want to alienate the rest of the
population. He also spirit as a university, because there was talks of demolishing, there was talks
of, of literally leveling to the ground by the cannons. But he felt that that would not be a wise
		

			thing to do. Interesting, the algebraic dimensions, there were three factions of rula, you had the
first faction who were leading the charge there, were waging jihad against Napoleon. And of course,
you know, all of them either were killed or had to be forced to sign and whatnot. algebra says there
was a second group por quietist. They didn't take sides. They didn't support Napoleon, but they also
didn't support the insurrection, thinking that it would fail. And so they simply did not
participate. And then he said there was a small third group that supported Napoleon and allied
themselves with Napoleon. And their leader. Of course, we already mentioned his name at the
		

			beginning was, say, Akali Bukhari this was the leader he was a chef. And he was Napoleon's main
liaison main right hand man when it came to dealing with Muslim affairs. And interestingly enough,
even the Christian chronicler of the time he documents that this shithole bakery, he was highly
respected by the Napoleon by Napoleon and the French, but He was despised by the Muslims, because
his loyalties were with the French and not with his core religion is even a Christian chronicler
points out that this Sheriff was despised by the other Muslims because he was viewed as a traitor.
In any case, I'm going to finish off the next year and a half in two minutes that
		

			in the next year, a number of key battles were fought in the Sinai Peninsula and in Syria. The
Ottomans really did try hard, and perhaps they were close to succeeding. But in the end, Napoleon
managed to delay the the main assault, and was, if not victorious, at least repelled the attacks of
the Ottomans. And he returned to Cairo with great fanfare, a pompous ceremony was held in July of
1799. So we're fast forwarding a full year, and Napoleon came back a victor. However, there were too
many problems happening, low troop morale, lots of troops dying from diseases, the plague, there was
a huge outburst of plague during this timeframe. The locals as well, were constantly killing the
		

			soldiers attrition. There are stories of things falling from the sky from houses and whatnot, and
killing the soldiers anonymously. It is even said women were used to lower men, soldiers and then
kill them and leave them in the streets, they so there was a very thriving underground resistance
going on for this entire duration. And the main point is that the troop morale was going lower and
lower and lower. And therefore, literally, literally, in August of 1799, Napoleon decided to simply
abandon his cause himself and leave somebody in charge without telling his troops, the troops woke
up. And they heard the news that Napoleon had left. And so Napoleon returned quietly to France. And
		

			he announced he had been victorious. And the people in France believed him that we have a successful
colony in Egypt. And so obviously, this jettison his own career. And of course, the rest is history
in Napoleon's trajectory, that's a whole different category. He never came back to Egypt after that,
from August 1799. And Napoleon left in charge his right hand, man, within a few months, his right
hand man was assassinated in the streets. Another person, the one I told you about the new he came
in charge, and he converted to Islam, at least outwardly and whatnot. But it was obvious that this
was a lost cause. And the the the camel, the straw that broke the camel's back was actually the
		

			introduction of the British, the British got tired of this French plague going on in Egypt, and the
British sent their naval force, and they decimated completely or almost completely the French naval
forces. And so for the rest of the 18 hundred's, throughout the turn of the century, the French and
the British are having a proxy war in Egypt. And eventually the French realized they're simply not
going to win. And so in 1801, the French forces negotiate a treaty of surrender with the British,
not with the Egyptians, but the British, and then they slink away so from 1798 to 1801 1798 to 1801
is the French expedition to Egypt. Napoleon is there for less than a little bit less than half of
		

			that timeframe Jade. Okay. What are some of the main lessons that we learn from this really
interesting episode?
		

			So well, Napoleon's invasion of Egypt was the first of many dozens of invasions.
		

			And the famous Edward Saeed, one of the most the greatest minds of the last, the last generation,
Edward Saeed remarks that Napoleon's invasion is the original sin in the nexus of Western quest for
hegemonic power and knowledge. What Napoleon did was that he ushered in the era of colonization, he
demonstrated Europe's insatiable appetite to control the world. He showed that Europe had this this
this arrogance, the sheer assumed arrogance that it is divinely ordained to rule the rest of the
world, and that it's qualified to do so and that it will succeed when it actually does so. And of
course, all of these presumptions are false. Another interesting point is that of course, this
		

			invasion launched Napoleon's career,
		

			even though the occupation was in many ways, a failure, right? Yet still, Napoleon came back to
France and he was lauded, returned to France, he was lauded as a victor. And this is, of course, a
subtle form of racism is like you hate the other so much that any invasion is automatically
considered to be a victory. One of the things as well that was sparked was knowledge was impacted
the French government and this institute of scientific development that was founded by Napoleon, it
commissioned a series of publications describing Egypt in a lot of detail, these books are still
around, and these are amazing books written by again, these are scientists and thinkers, and, and
		

			historians, and you find these books, you still have these books in French libraries. And I think a
few of them are in American libraries as well, these massive books that are that are talking about
Egypt and the people of Egypt diagrams, very beautiful diagrams, the first pictures ever not not
photography, but you know, diagrams carefully carved of what they discovered, the Rosetta Stone is
discovered. By the way, the Rosetta Stone hired the graphics and translating Irelia graphics is
discovered by this team of scientists, and a lot of interest is generated, Egyptology is basically
formed by these group of scientists, right, the study of Egypt, also, Orientalism the study of
		

			Islam, I'm not gonna say was invented by them, but it reaches a new level with these thinkers, and
they're writing about Islam, and they're talking about the Muslim world. Another thing that this
invasion demonstrated, as we mentioned already, is the disparity of technologies is the wide gulf of
knowledge of all types of knowledge between the East and the West of warfare, and of the sciences.
And of anything, really, the the West really has invaded the 17th by the 1790s, is very clear which
of the two civilizations is superior in terms of technological achievements. And in terms of
scientific developments. And again, there's no better demonstration of this, then the actual battles
		

			taking place. On the one side, you have skim tars and swords and ancient muskets. And on the other
side, superior cannons and weaponry and training, there is simply no comparison. also one of the
most important one of the most important points of this invasion is the printing press. And I've
already mentioned the ironies of its introduction. And by the way, because of this, it's no surprise
that Egypt in particular became the center of Muslim printing and of out of printing and especially
in the Bullock region, with the Bullock printing press became the first or the most famous of the
earliest printing presses. Also, one of the things that we see in this invasion is the Muslim land
		

			becomes a proxy for greater superpowers to battle it out. It is so ironic that this would not be the
last time that two superpowers are fighting in Muslim lands using Muslim resources and killing
Muslims as a part of their battles. The French and the British had it out in Egypt, and 200 years
later, America and Russia would have it out in avani, Stein, and in so many other places, you know,
superpowers Don't get involved in other countries out of a sense of, of goodness, no, you know, they
want to their share of the pie. And the British got involved because they hated the French. But as
soon as the French left, the British now had direct control over Egyptian authorities, and a few
		

			decades after this, the British literally ruled over Egypt until the 1950s, and the Suez Canal
inserted, you can read your history over there. One of the repercussions of this invasion as well,
was that Napoleon's invasion of Egypt ironically, actually launched Egypt from becoming one of the
most backward and socio economic, socio economically deprived lands of the Muslim world to
relatively speaking, becoming one of the intellectual and cultural capitals of the Arab Muslim
world, the center of attention, so much so that a past US president
		

			I intentionally chose Cairo to make an address when he wanted to show that he's building bridges
with the Muslim world. The effects of this invasion directly catapulted Egypt to its current status
of being a center of Arab and Islamic civilization. And again, this all happened as a result of
Napoleon's invasion. Why? And again, that's a whole different history. But that is because the
Ottoman sent a brilliant Albanian general by the name of Mohammed Ali Bhatia, who initially was sent
to kick the French out, but
		

			he the French already left anyway, he did help a little bit in this regard. But when Mohammed Ali
Baba came to Egypt, he decided to take charge of his own. And he seize control of Egypt from the
from loops, and he famously invited all of the Mamelukes to a massive feast in his own palace. Over
500 Mum, Luke's were killed in that Palace in that infamous dinner that he held and you can go and
visit the actual palace and the actual streets. It's called the street of blood because it was
flowing with all the blue blood. Muhammad Ali Bhatia literally wiped out the mamluk dynasty in one
dinner. And then he became he declared himself the ruler of Egypt. And he even had ambitions to
		

			become the Sorbonne or the halifa of the Muslim world. But he began a series of modernisations
sending people to study in France because of Napoleon. And some of the great minds like the hallway,
the hallway and others, the very first chef and had him to go and study abroad and bring back ideas
and whatnot. Although this is coming because of Mohammed Ali Bhatia, and understanding that the
French are superior to the to the Arab world and technological matters. And of course, Muhammad Ali
Bhatia established the dynasty that lasted in Egypt all the way up until King fall rock and his over
the king photo is a direct descendant of Muhammad Ali Basha and King photo is overthrown in 1952, by
		

			Gamal Abdel Nasser. And of course, Egypt has been under military dictatorship ever since, except for
that brief interlude after the Arab Spring. Another point of interest for us as well is the
introduction of ideas that were alien to our Arab and Muslim minds, right jubba T is mocking the
introduction of ala carte menus. But in reality, a la carte menu is didn't radically change the
structure of the Middle East. What did change the structure of the Middle East is Western concepts
of liberty, Western concepts of rights, Western concepts of nation states, and again, I'm not
commenting good or bad. I'm simply saying, that is exactly what happened. These notions are now
		

			being introduced for the very first time. And of course, we have the change of the morality, the
change of the vices now being publicly done, and the hijab and whatnot. All of this is now changing,
for the very first time these types of changes are happening at a societal level. Another very
interesting point for me in this particular incident, is to see the realities of Roma Visser v.
tyranny, and you always have a spectrum you always do. It's never nothing new about it categorizes
three, I have actually done in a Facebook post last year, I did a more detailed, like I did a five
type typography, but in reality is the same concept. Right? You have those that are opposed
		

			vehemently so much, so they're willing to fight. And these were the people who declared Jihad on on
Napoleon. And then you have the middle category, who were quietest, who decided they don't want to
get involved, and they're just going to go about their stuff. And then you had the people who tried
to validate Napoleon. And it's really interesting that that category is universally despised me
personally, I excuse all the rest of the categories. And I say that all of them they, you know, they
there's not really I don't see a problem, each one has to decide where they want to go. And it's,
you know, there there were a man who decided to work with Napoleon, but not for Napoleon. Big
		

			difference. There were senior odema of Al Azhar, they decided, you know what, there's nothing we can
do. We don't want to get killed all of us here. So we'll work with him but not for him. And the
small group and Chef Bukhari was the main one of them, he decided that he's going to work for
Napoleon to legitimize Napoleon and to rat out his own people, and he lost the respect of all
people. And that's something that we find To this day, all tyrannical regimes, we have their
equivalents to this day of their rubber stamping rhythm, and they lost all of their there is and the
main point here for us and with this, I concluded our low data, the most importantly, the French
		

			invasion. It wetted European greed, and it incentivized other superpowers, attempting to leapfrog
each other to see who could eat the largest share of the prize. It ushered in the era of
colonisation Muslim lands being colonized. And Britain Of course, was the most nefarious with India
and with strips of the Arabian Peninsula and then we
		

			Egypt and then with Sudan in the late 1800s, France then invaded Algeria in 1830s. And then Morocco,
the Dutch and then the Portuguese were competing with Malaysia in the Far East. Libya was taken as a
toy by the Italians, you know,
		

			Mozart and others, you know. And so less than 100 years after Napoleon declared his Islam or I
should say his support of Muslims, because that's really what it was less than 100 years after
Napoleon spoke with the Redeemer of Azhar, less than 100 years after that the bulk of the Muslim
world was under direct colonial rule. And those that were not we're under proxy rule, there was
direct contact, and then of course, World War One, and that was the straw that broke the camel's
back. That's a deep pun over there. Because the camel he represents the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim
world, the straw that broke the camel's back because World War One, the sick man of Europe's janazah
		

			was prayed in 1922, if you like metaphorically, and the Muslim world was then divided up into all of
the nation states via the Sykes Pico agreement, barely a century and a decade after Napoleon and
France have handled law, right. And all of this was predicted by our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam in a hadith in Muslim a moment when he said, You should go into the Komodo Malmo, it is only
a matter of time before the other nations are going to be inviting one another to come and feast at
your table meaning your own, just like hungry people are called to eat at a common plate of food,
the profitsystem predicted this that is going to happen and the Sahaba said, Are we going to be very
		

			few in number Yasuda law? And he said no, but you're going to be like, you know, the form of the
ocean, the flotsam and jetsam of the ocean, lots of things in the ocean, but you know, nothing of
benefit over here. And that is because you won't have that demand. You're gonna you know, not be
looking forward to meeting a lot of xojo you're gonna have weak faith, you're not looking at
preparing for death. This Hadith predicts quite literally, the colonization of the Muslim lands. And
in our case for this particular incident, Napoleon's invasion is a watershed moment in our history.
And it is the one single event that ushers in the modern era. It thrusts us directly without even us
		

			wanting to do so. It thrusts us into modernity and with Napoleon's invasion, the modern era of the
Muslim world begins it is something that this incident is something that every single serious
researcher and student of knowledge should study and be aware of, and with that, inshallah tada we
finished today's chat and I'll continue whenever the next time arises, and I hope inshallah we get
electricity back full time, full time.