In 18th-century Egypt, Frenchmen often decided to “turn Turk” (se faire turc) or convert to Islam. French consuls did not say how often Frenchmen slipped through their net, settling down with Muslim women, or taking jobs on Turkish or Maghribi ships. But...
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The cases in which the French consuls intervened to stop Frenchman from “turning Turk” or converting to Islam were frequent, striking, and poignant.
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There was the young monk from Languedoc who turned up in Egypt with a declaration of Islamic faith in his pocket. “Happily,” the consul “was able to arrest him at the very moment at which he apostatized,” and he was sent back to his parents by the next available ship.
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There was the case of a French priest, who decided to convert after suffering years of ill-treatment from his father superior. The priest took refuge with the aga of the Janissaries, where the consular officials were “frozen with surprise” to see him,...
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..., “still clothed in the habit of his Order, and with the cord of St. Francis, but having on his head a white turban of an ordinary Janissary.”
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There was Honoré Olivier, the leather buyer, who “went mad in consequence of a love affair” and insisted on turning Turk. “Since he would not stop crying out in Arabic that he wanted to apostatize,” he too was saved from himself and packed off to Livorno on a Dutch ship.
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And then, there was Etienne Sauvaire, womanizer, gambler, and pimp, who was on the verge of converting to Islam with his Greek mistress, when the consul clapped him into chains: “I spared his family and la nation the discomfort of seeing him turn Turk.”
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Sources:
–Jasanoff, Maya. 2005. Cosmopolitan: A tale of identity from Ottoman Alexandria;
–D’Evant to ministry, July 25, 1756, AN: AE B/I/108;
–Chaillan to ministry, August 18, 1769, AN: AE B/I/970;
–Vallière to ministry, December 15, 1760, AN: AE B/I/180.
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