Napoleon and Arabia

• Department of History

This event, organised by the Ottoman History Working Group, features a talk by Louis Blin on Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign and its impact on French perceptions of Arabia and Islam.

Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign of 1798 marked a turning point in France’s engagement with Arabia. Seeking to control the route to India and build an eastern empire, Napoleon turned his attention to the Red Sea and attempted to secure an alliance with the sharif of Makka. Unaware of emerging forces in Arabia, his army instead faced fierce Hijazi fighters in Upper Egypt. After returning to France in 1799, Napoleon became fascinated by the rise of Saud bin Abdulaziz, leader of the first Saudi state, and imagined a land route to India through the Middle East. Although his efforts failed, they were followed by an unsuccessful Saudi attempt to approach France.

Napoleon’s interest in Arabia and Islam left a lasting imprint on French political thought. Although France never established formal relations with the first Saudi state, Napoleon closely followed its developments, shaping both his own eastern ambitions and the policies of his successors. His views on Islam and Arabia deeply influenced nineteenth-century French intellectual life. The parallel rise and fall of Napoleon and Saud the Great reveals a neglected convergence between European and Arabian imperial histories.