Past Read: An Imam in Paris: Al-Tahtawi's Visit to France (1826–31)

 
Newman, Daniel. An Imam in Paris: Al-Tahtawi's Visit to France (1826–31) (London: Saqi Books, 2004)

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Daniel Newman’s (1988, reprinted in 2010) translation of Al-Azhar-trained luminary Rifā'ah Rāf'i al-Ṭahṭāwī’s (1801-1873) autobiographical account of his government-sponsored sojourn in Paris (1826-1831). Originally published in serialized form in 1834 by Muhammad Ali Pasha’s (then newly-established) Egyptian government press, Ṭahṭāwī’s autobiography reflects the flowery, poetry-inflected style of the period. For example, though Newman titles his translation sparely and directly An Imam in Paris, Ṭahṭāwī’s original is the ornate and rhyming Takhlis al-Ibriz fi Talkhis Baris (roughly The Extraction of Pure Gold in the Summary of Paris). Indeed, one of the more dramatic shifts heralded by the nahdah is one toward more pointed, pithy and less emotionally expressive language. In addition, as we shall see, the Arabic lexicon itself expanded dramatically throughout the course of the nahdah in order to accommodate the influx of new scientific terminology.

Newman’s translation begins with an unusually long introduction situating the reader and explaining significant events in Paris, highlights from Tahtawi’s life, and some historically weighty moments in Takhlis. Newman does not significantly abridge Tahtawi’s original, leaving in passages of Arabic poetry that underscore the characteristics of Arabic stylistics prevalent during Tahtawi’s day and serving to maintain the feel of the original. The book then proceeds to Tahtawi’s original introduction and the six essays that comprise Takhlis, written in the rihla tradition. The first two essays describe the journey of the student mission of forty-four young students, over which Tahtawi served as chaperone and chaplain, from Cairo to Marseilles and then on to Paris. The third essay is an introduction to Paris and its culture that systematically describes the city in detail: its topography, its government, medicine, approach to education, types of occupations, and inhabitants - including their mode of dress, gender norms, cuisine, hygiene, charitable establishments, and leisure activities, including arts and entertainment. (Tahtawi is quite shocked at French gender norms, noting among other things that: “The Franks do not have a bad opinion of their women, despite their many faults,” and then soliloquizing that “it is indeed necessary to protect oneself against women, as the poet said.”[1]) Essays four, five, and six move to the specific activities of the student mission; the French Revolution of 1830; and the ways in which the French categorize and classify knowledge. Six includes a long comparative section between traditional Arabic grammar (à la Sibawayhi), and the ways in which French grammar and poetics are evaluated by the Franks. Tahtawi is particularly taken by the double entendre, lingering on it and offering several examples, as well as the science of rhetoric. His fascination with and passion for translation was to last for the rest of life, as he established a translation school in Egypt, the School of Languages, in 1835. In sum, Takhlis is an introduction to an extraordinary mind, well educated in the intellectual traditions of his own culture, soaking in a new and exotic culture and closely analyzing different forms of approaching knowledge. Through the details that Tahtawi finds worthy of notation and excursus, a portrait of the intellectual and cultural presuppositions of his day is painted.

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[1] 283.