There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

Modeling himself on Alexander the Great—the warrior who marched into battles with artists and philosophers by his side—Napoleon gathered painters, sculptors, linguists, writers, engravers, art historians, geographers, zoologists, geologists, engineers, botanists, cartographers, mathematicians, musicians…when he launched his expedition to Egypt. A hundred and fifty men of letters joined his military campaign. The forces of the Enlightenment versus the benighted Orient. The superiority of the West had to be established not only via warfare but also via science, art and literature. The French army consisted of thousands of soldiers, heavy artillery and horses, coupled with the latest technological equipment and navigational instruments. They brought along a printing press with Arabic type to communicate with the locals. Napoleon’s massive flagship contained a spectacular library that specialized in volumes from the Ancient and Modern Middle East, and was given, aptly, the same name as the vessel it was borne on—L’Orient.