History of Bonaparte’s Egyptian Campaign in Modern Historiography

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In this article, the author presents a comprehensive analysis of the most recent foreign publications on the history of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign, published over the past five years. He begins by providing a concise overview of the historiography of this topic, outlining the key areas of development over the past decades and identifying the works that have become classics in each field. Furthermore, he highlights the increasing prominence of anti-colonial discourse, largely influenced by the concepts articulated in Edward Said’s seminal work, Orientalism, within the historiography of the Egyptian campaign since the early twenty-first century. The classic representation of these concepts in the historiography of this topic is a monograph by the American orientalist J. Cole. The impact of this discourse on the content of recent works is evident, particularly in the selection of topics by their authors. Consequently, the French military historian A. Pigeard was compelled to disguise his somewhat unconventional interest in the military aspects of the Egyptian campaign by discussing scientific topics that were not characteristic of his previous works. The Irish historian J. Clarke selected the topic of war crimes perpetrated by the French against the Egyptians for his research. Furthermore, the most significant works related to the history of the expedition that have appeared over the past period — the monograph of the English historian T. Sarafatti — can be characterised by the author’s desire to refute Said about the motivation of the French Orientalists who created the Description of Egypt. Concurrently, a notable recent trend in the historiography of the Egyptian campaign has been the inclusion of brief excursions into this topic by specialists from related fields of historical science. While this does contribute to a certain revival, it does not facilitate the emergence of fundamental research comparable in depth to the classical works of previous years.