Bonaparte's proclamation to the people of Egypt (Muharram 1213 / 1798)

The first Arabic document the French addressed to the people of Egypt: a proclamation they wrote and printed at Alexandria on arriving there, and sent in copies to the towns ahead of them "to reassure them". Al-Jabarti copied it into Aja'ib al-athar, saying: "This is how I copied it, letter for letter." ^{2 3}

Al-Jabarti says the proclamation came with a number of captives the French had found on Malta and brought with them; some of them reached Bulaq a day or two before the French, carrying several copies, "and among them were Maghribis, and among them spies". ²

It opens with the basmala and a declaration of God's oneness, then names its author: "On behalf of the French Republic, founded on liberty and equality, the great commander Bonaparte, amir of the French armies." ² It rests on a series of claims, in this order:

• that the beys ruling Egypt had treated the French nation "with humiliation and contempt" and wronged its merchants, and that "the hour of their punishment has now come"; ²
• that anything they might be told about his having landed only to abolish their religion is "a plain lie", that he came only to rescue their rights from the oppressors, and a claim that he respects the Prophet ﷺ and the Qur'an; ²
• that people are equal, and what distinguishes them is "reason, virtue and knowledge alone", asking what sets the Mamluks apart that they alone should have the fertile land, the slave women, the horses and the fine houses; ²
• that "from this day on" no Egyptian would be barred from high office, and that "the wise, the virtuous and the learned" would manage affairs; ³
• that the French are "sincere Muslims", offering as proof that they had destroyed the papal see in Rome and driven the Knights from Malta, and that they were "the most sincere friends" of the Ottoman sultan, while the Mamluks refused to obey him; ³
• a promise to those who joined them, and "woe upon woe" to those who sided with the Mamluks. ³

It closes with five articles: villages near the army's route are to send delegates to declare their submission and fly the French flag of white, dark blue and red; any village that rises against the French army "will be burned"; obedient villages are to fly the French flag together with the flag of the Ottoman sultan; the shaykhs are to seal the stores, houses and property of the Mamluks; and the shaykhs, ulama, qadis and imams are to stay at their posts, with prayers continuing in the mosques. ³

It ends: "Written at the camp of Alexandria on 13 Messidor, year 6 of the establishment of the French Republic, that is, at the end of the month of Muharram 1213 of the Hijra." ³

The editor Shmuel Moreh points out that the proclamation's text has many linguistic errors and that later copies and printings introduced "many alterations", and he compares it with the printed proclamation. ² He notes that in his Muddat al-Faransis and Mazhar al-taqdis al-Jabarti added a long passage after it, beginning: "An explanation of some of the disjointed words and garbled constructions this ill-starred letter contains", which does not appear in Aja'ib al-athar. ³

The proclamation was issued after the taking of Alexandria and before the battle of Imbaba, and belongs to the French campaign in Egypt. ^{2 4}