France celebrates its National Day

A few days later, France celebrates its National Day on 14 July, one of the most memorable days in France’s history, and the French consider it a long-lasting feat for generations to come.

And July 14, the day when the inhabitants of Paris – during the French Revolution of 1789 – stormed the Bastille prison, which was the symbol of power in France. From this day, the spark of the French Revolution, which spread beyond the borders of France, the borders of Europe itself; to influence the world in its three principles (freedom, equality, fraternity)?

The most famous revolutions affected by the French Revolution were the American Revolution against the British occupation, which considered Americans themselves to be the bearers of freedom, fraternity and equality in the Americas, until they gained independence from England in 1776.

But what concerns us is the Arab world, where the French Revolution was a breeding ground for Renaissance thinkers in Egypt, headed by Refaah El Tahtawi, who writes in his book, “Clearance of the Ibres in Summing up Paris”: “The French love revolutions as they look for freedoms”.

And that when he lived in the 1830 Revolution in Paris, he saw the extension of the first revolution in the second revolution, saying: “I hope that Muslims will rebel for the principles of freedom, brotherhood and equality.”

The politician and thinker Ahmed Lutfi El Sayed, is from the most ones who get influenced by the French revolution, he is one of the thinkers of the Renaissance in Egypt, who was calling for Egyptians to enter the Renaissance not only by steam train and telegraph, but also by the train of justice, brotherhood and equality.

The approach of Ahmed Lutfi al-Sayyid, is also taken by Taha Hussein and Ali Mubarak. Taha Hussein stated in one of his articles published by the magazine «Leporte» on Egyptian-French relations, «that the principles of the French Revolution rooted in the conscience of the Egyptian people. And that France is not only the country that helped Egypt to extract its independence from the Ottoman Empire and then from England, but it is the patron of modern Egyptian thought in the field of social justice and free education ».

Taha Hussein added: “Paris was a stronghold for all the fathers of the modern Egyptian nationalism from Rafaa Tahtawi, even Taha Hussein himself.”

But the most beautiful thing about the principles of the French Revolution and its impact on modern Egyptian thought is what the late leader Gamal Abdel Nasser said in his book “The Philosophy of Revolution”: “The Egyptians’ thirst for freedom has always been inspired by the principles of the three French revolutions. The French campaign itself, which invaded Egypt in 1798, had failed militarily, because of the Egyptians’ resistance, but it succeeded culturally because it broadcast in the Egyptians the spirit of resistance and returned to them the meaning of «Egyptian nationalism».

“The era of mutual prospects between the two countries, is interesting,” Nasser said. The Egyptian and French governments took this Nasserite expression and launched it to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Egyptian-French relations in 1998.

The scenes of French aviation, the military parade, or the enthusiastic speeches of the President must not distract us from the fact that the origin of all this was the principles of freedom, brotherhood and equality, principles of humanity as a whole.