Bonaparte's Egyptian Expedition (1798) was a decisive turning point not only in the history of the Ottoman Empire, but also in that of the entire region and, above all, in relations between East and West. A founding element of scholarly Orientalism(Description de l'Égypte), the kick-off for French and British colonial policy in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and the first steps towards the formation of a modern state in Egypt, this event was a traumatic event for the Ottomans, from which they would never fully recover. Unable to respond to this coup de force with arms, the Sublime Porte found itself at the mercy of international alliances to ensure its own survival in an increasingly threatening environment. The crisis was resolved thanks to British support, but throughout the Napoleonic period, the Ottomans found themselves tossed from one alliance to another, navigating the waters of European diplomacy with some success. The transformative power of this shock was enormous: the Porte now knew that it could no longer stand aloof from European politics, and that it was likely to play a secondary, subordinate role in the new world order.
As a blatant example of these new diplomatic stakes, the Ottomans were obliged to invent a Western-style system of decorations - orders and medals - to reward Nelson and his braves. Until the late 1820s, these objects were never used to reward the Empire's subjects. This is an important common feature of the novelties introduced: they are often "good for the West", like Mahmud Raif Efendi's Tableau des nouveaux réglemens (1798), mentioned the previous week, of which a Turkish version, never published, has only recently been discovered.
