Egyptian elites deliberately treated the French as colonial guides

Evidence

This work resulted in the publication of Description of Egypt, a compendium in twenty-three volumes published between 1809 and 1828. Its detailed information on every aspect of Egyptian society, from monuments to facial structures, was created for use not by Egyptians but by the French. While there is much accurate and valuable information in the Description, the important point that Said makes is that such vast knowledge was amassed without the input of the native people. This account of Egypt, Said argues, served to displace Egypt’s own sense of itself and its place in the world in favor of a French colonial vision of the same. It was ultimately created to help the French dominate the Egyptians. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 114 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Napoleon’s geographers aimed to instill an active imperial sense in Egyptians; French colonial scholarship displaced Egyptians’ own self-understanding — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 114; Egyptian officers were simultaneously targets and agents of colonial power (+2 more)

Related

• French colonial scholarship displaced Egyptians’ own self-understanding (similarity 0.91)
• Vast scholarly knowledge of Egyptians was compiled without native input to serve French domination (similarity 0.86)
• Napoleon’s geographers aimed to instill an active imperial sense in Egyptians (similarity 0.86)
• Colonial scholarship amassed vast knowledge about Egypt without any native input. (similarity 0.84)
• Colonial scholarship displaced natives’ own self-understanding with the colonizer’s vision (similarity 0.84)
• Napoleon’s expedition deliberately taught Egyptians imperial ambition (similarity 0.83)
• Napoleon’s Egyptian conquest modeled the civilizing mission on scholarship, preparation, and justification (similarity 0.82)
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egypt invasion made scholarly knowledge central to colonization (similarity 0.81)
• Egyptian intellectuals studied British imperial success to emulate it. (similarity 0.80)
• Egyptian officers were simultaneously targets and agents of colonial power (similarity 0.80)
• Egyptians realized Europe ranked them closer to Africa than to Europe in civilizational terms (similarity 0.79)
• Napoleon’s expedition spawned both a scientific and a geopolitical Orientalist project. (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian students were literally trained on French ethnography blaming their own indolence. (similarity 0.79)
• Napoleon inaugurated the systematic use of scholarship for empire (similarity 0.79)
• Napoleon’s failed Egyptian invasion modeled scholarly exploitation for later empires (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• French colonial scholarship displaced Egyptians’ own self-understanding #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 114
• Egyptian officers were simultaneously targets and agents of colonial power #expands (0.60)
• Egyptian colonial rhetoric replicated British civilizing-mission justifications #expands (0.55)
• Egyptian writers saw adopting European ways as a path to imperial power #expands (0.50)