Arab France: Islam and the Making of Modern Europe, 1798-1831

Many think of Muslims in Europe as a twentieth-century phenomenon, but this book brings to life a lost community of Arabs who lived through war, revolution, and empire in early nineteenth-century France. Ian Coller uncovers the surprising story of the several hundred men, women, and children-Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks, and others-who followed the French army back home after Napoleon's occupation of Egypt. Based on research in neglected archives, on the rediscovery of forgotten Franco-Arab a...