In the book Napoleon in Egypt, the story of the French leader is told from the point of view of an Arab scholar, Shaykh Al-Jabarti. The book not only tells the history of Napoleon's visit to Egypt in 1798 but also offers a contrast and analysis of the differences between the French and the Arabs of the area, cultural differences which would be important in later history and which are still of import today.
At the time, Egypt was still part of the Ottoman Empire, and Mamluk military households ruled the country and had since 1517. Napoleon defeated the Mamluk forces in 1798 just outside Cairo, and this shocked the Muslim community and created the situation and the conflicts that are reported by Al-Jabarti in this book. In the opening chapter, the imminent arrival of the French is clearly of great importance to Al-Jabarti, for he keeps hearing that the French are nearing and reports it each day, as if discussing an impending doom. He is at the same time hopeful that the French will be the friends of the Muslims that they have claimed to be. He finds that the French have a lengthy agenda related to punishing those seen as enemies and raising taxes in order to acquire funding, with the assistance of the Shaykhs. Al-Jabarti also finds that the French do not honor certain customs or attitudes prevalent among the Muslim population, though war may have something to do with some of their actions. The battle for Cairo is one such instance:
So the French stopped firing at them and left them alone. After the first watch of the night, the French entered the city like a torrent rushing through the alleys and streets without saying anything to stop them, like demons of the devil's army. They destroyed any barricades they encountered. They went and came as they pleased and brought the wrath of God upon their heads.
His description of many of the acts of the French shows disapproval, disapproval he rarely voices in those terms and...