Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 3 | Page 8

his triumphs by
protecting and even elevating the religion of the conquered people.
Bonaparte's principle was, as he himself has often told me, to look upon
religions as the work of men, but to respect them everywhere as a
powerful engine of government. However, I will not go so far as to say
that he would not have changed his religion had the conquest of the
East been the price of that change. All that he said about Mahomet,
Islamism, and the Koran to the, great men of the country he laughed at
himself. He enjoyed the gratification of having all his fine sayings on
the subject of religion translated into Arabic poetry, and repeated from
mouth to mouth. This of course tended to conciliate the people.
I confess that Bonaparte frequently conversed with the chiefs of the
Mussulman religion on the subject of his conversion; but only for the
sake of amusement. The priests of the Koran, who would probably have
been delighted to convert us, offered us the most ample concessions.
But these conversations were merely started by way of entertainment,
and never could have warranted a supposition of their leading to any
serious result. If Bonaparte spoke as a Mussulman, it was merely in his
character of a military and political chief in a Mussulman country. To

do so was essential to his success, to the safety of his army, and,
consequently; to his glory. In every country he would have drawn up
proclamations and delivered addresses on the same principle. In India
he would have been for Ali, at Thibet for the Dalai-lama, and in China
for Confucius.
--[On the subject of his alleged conversion to Mahometanism
Bonaparte expressed himself at St. Helena as follows:
"I never followed any of the tenets of that religion. I never prayed in
the mosques. I never abstained from wine, or was circumcised, neither
did I ever profess it. I said merely that we were the friends of the
Mussulmans, and that I respected Mahomet their prophet, which was
true; I respect him now. I wanted to make the Imaums cause prayers to
be offered up in the mosques for me, in order to make the people
respect me still more than they actually did, and obey me more readily.
The Imaums replied that there was a great obstacle, because their
Prophet in the Koran had inculcated to them that they were not to obey,
respect, or hold faith with infidels, and that I came under that
denomination. I then desired them to hold a consultation, and see what
was necessary to be done in order to become a Musselman, as some of
their tenets could not be practised by us. That, as to circumcision, God
had made us unfit for that. That, with respect to drinking wine, we were
poor cold people, inhabitants of the north, who could not exist without
it. They consulted together accordingly, and in about three weeks
issued a fetham, declaring that circumcision might be omitted, because
it was merely a profession; that as to drinking wine, it might be drunk
by Mussulmans, but that those who drank it would not go to paradise,
but to hell I replied that this would not do; that we had no occasion to
make ourselves Mussulmans in order to go to hell, that there were
many ways of getting there without coining to Egypt, and desired them
to hold another consultation. After deliberating and battling together for
I believe three months, they finally decided that a man might become a
Mussulman, and neither circumcise nor abstain from wine; but that, in
proportion to the wine drunk, some good works must be done. I then
told them that we were all Mussulmans and friends of the Prophet,
which they really believed, as the French soldiers never went to church,

and had no priests with them. For you must know that during the
Revolution there was no religion whatever in the French army.
Menou," continued Napoleon, "really turned Mahometan, which was
the reason I left him behind." --(Voices from St. Helena.)]--
The General-in-Chief had a Turkish dress made, which he once put on,
merely in joke. One day he desired me to go to breakfast without
waiting for him, and that he would follow me. In about a quarter of an
hour he made his appearance in his new costume. As soon as he was
recognised he was received with a loud burst of laughter. He sat down
very coolly; but he found himself so encumbered and ill at ease in his
turban and Oriental robe that he speedily threw them off, and was never
tempted to a second performance of the masquerade.
About the end of August Bonaparte wished to open negotiations with
the Pasha of Acre, nicknamed the Butcher. He