You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Welcome to the Age of Napoleon.

Episode 50, Egypt Epilogue with Derek Davison.

Thanks for joining me.

This episode, we are taking a step back from the narrative and returning to the Middle East.

Now that Napoleon has left Egypt, the whole region has become kind of peripheral to our story.

Egypt and the Ottoman Empire will probably get no more than a few lines for the whole rest of the show,

despite being our setting for seven episodes. Napoleon left quite abruptly without so much as a farewell, but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging the way he did with the Army of the Orient.

So before we see Bonaparte ascend to power, I thought we'd use this episode to provide an epilogue to our time in Egypt.

I discussed the end of the French expedition in episode 48, but there's still a lot more to say

about the long-term consequences of the campaign.

The French were not able to realize the dream of a Middle Eastern Empire,

but their invasion and brief occupation still represents a crucial turning point

in the history of the region.

To help us unpack the legacy of the Egyptian expedition, I've brought back Derek Davison, an

expert on Middle Eastern history who you'll remember from episode 40. Without further ado, here's my interview

with Derek Davison.

So I thought we'd start off talking about Egypt. The British stuck around until 1803, then they left the country to the Ottomans and the

Mamluks.

Why don't you take us through what happened after that?

Right, so this is the place where Napoleon's impact was probably most readily apparent because the

Mamluks are not long for the world now having suffered defeat at his hands.

...