Page 203 - Memory of the East
P. 203
Prosper Marilhat, 1811 / 1847, View of the Nile, Oil on canvas, 55 x 78 cm.
Chabrol also called this behavior " total surrender of pain" and said it distinguishes
eastern people in general. He attributed it to the recognition of fate, as well as to the
feeling of helplessness and lack of resourcefulness; "the Egyptian knows how to walk
and has been angered by pain, and how to die by the archer stick without saying a
word, this is the will of Allah, etc." These are also among the many generalizations
abounding in the description of the sons of Egypt from the Orientalist viewpoint of
Chabrol, which are based on stereotypes that are simplistic, hostile and resistant to
change. The Egyptian history is replete with the revolutions of peasants and others on
dictators and tyrants, but this is not an appropriate context to mention.
In addition to the qualities: " the complete static features, obliviousness artificiality,
and also the painful delivery of pain, Chabrol added another characteristic of the
Egyptians which is inactivity, especially among urban inhabitants, especially when
they have some wealth. "You see them lying for a long part of the day to their couches
or straw mats, depending on the degree of wealth; you think that there is nothing in
this world only to fill or empty consecutively their long pipes."
Obviously, of course, Chabrol is also generalizing here. He speaks only of a class
of Egyptians that are wealthy as we have said; the vast majority of people were
201
Chabrol also called this behavior " total surrender of pain" and said it distinguishes
eastern people in general. He attributed it to the recognition of fate, as well as to the
feeling of helplessness and lack of resourcefulness; "the Egyptian knows how to walk
and has been angered by pain, and how to die by the archer stick without saying a
word, this is the will of Allah, etc." These are also among the many generalizations
abounding in the description of the sons of Egypt from the Orientalist viewpoint of
Chabrol, which are based on stereotypes that are simplistic, hostile and resistant to
change. The Egyptian history is replete with the revolutions of peasants and others on
dictators and tyrants, but this is not an appropriate context to mention.
In addition to the qualities: " the complete static features, obliviousness artificiality,
and also the painful delivery of pain, Chabrol added another characteristic of the
Egyptians which is inactivity, especially among urban inhabitants, especially when
they have some wealth. "You see them lying for a long part of the day to their couches
or straw mats, depending on the degree of wealth; you think that there is nothing in
this world only to fill or empty consecutively their long pipes."
Obviously, of course, Chabrol is also generalizing here. He speaks only of a class
of Egyptians that are wealthy as we have said; the vast majority of people were
201
