Tea at Trianon: The Islamic World’s Perspective on the French Revolution

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

The Islamic World’s Perspective on the French Revolution

From The Collector:

France and the Islamic world enjoyed a close relationship since the Crusades. Both sides benefited from their multilayered contacts, influencing each other in differing fields. This reciprocal relationship was so significant that the Islamic societies called the entire Europe “Frangistan” (The Land of the Franks). Sociopolitical and economic developments in the sixteenth century facilitated their close ties, even leading to alliances for France, notably with the Ottoman Empire. It eventually prepared the ground for the wide-ranging impacts of the French Revolution on the Islamic Empires.
These empires experienced socioeconomic and political problems since the eighteenth century. When the Ottomans were at war with Russia and Austria, Selim III became the new sultan in 1789, and the Qajar tribe under Mirza (Agha) Muhammad revolted against the ruling dynasty (Zand) in the same year, demolishing it after a civil war in Persia.
In this context, Ottoman and Persian authors of the Islamic world differed in perceiving the French Revolution. While Ottoman ambassadors viewed the American Revolution and fiscal crisis as the main reason for the French Revolution, Persian travelers regarded the suffering of ordinary people under royal pressure as its leading causes. Therefore, the Islamic world had different responses to the French Revolution which were complicated. (Read more.)