Abstract
The hypothesis guiding this session (and the following one) is that the Napoleonic period is an essential milestone for understanding the transformation of the languages of the universal inherited from the Enlightenment, and their revival in an imperialist context. We begin with the Egyptian Expedition (1798-1801), focusing on Bonaparte's policy towards Muslims. From his very first proclamations, the republican general never ceased to refer to Islam and the Koran, going so far as to assert that French soldiers were " true Muslims " and that he himself was considering converting. Is this to be seen as strategic hypocrisy and political Machiavellianism, or as a new imperialism made possible by the secularization of European thought ? We need to put this policy, which was undoubtedly more than just rhetoric, into perspective with the changing images of Islam in the eighteenth century, and especially that of Mohammed, perceived at the end of the century as a great legislator and founder of empire. We can then return to the expedition to better understand its ambivalence, between the universalist dream of regenerating Egypt through political freedom, on the one hand, and the desire for cultural assimilation through adherence to the Great Nation, on the other. Finally, despite the decisive impetus given to scholarly Egyptology, we must also take the measure, by turning to Arab and Ottoman sources, of the failure that was the invasion and occupation of Egypt.