Sacred Rivals: Catholic Missions and the Making of Islam in Nineteenth-Century France and Algeria

Sacred Rivals examines how French Catholic ideas about Islam and Arab-ness changed in the context of religious culture wars in France and missionary work in colonial Algeria. It reveals that conservative Catholics were often more sympathetic to Muslim religiosity than liberal, mainstream Catholics, who were quicker to denigrate it. Missionaries in Algeria also joined in with racially-coded attacks on Arab Islam, revealing how religious prejudices against Muslims transformed into racial ones.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 12 April 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

In 1839, the Abbé Jacques Suchet was dispatched to the Algerian city of Constantine, which had recently been conquered by French forces, to serve the burgeoning French colonial population there. His observations of the Arab Muslims were largely positive, perhaps seeing them as a potential source of missionary work. However, a mere forty years later, in the mid-1870s, the Abbé Edmond Lambert embarked on a tour of another colonial Algerian city and recorded a markedly different perspective. He portrayed the Arabs as inherently deceitful, thieving, lethargic in both body and spirit, and even their apparent piety as insincere. This drastic shift in perception occurred within a span of less than forty years, marking a significant transformation in the attitudes of some French Catholics towards Muslims in Algeria.

Sacred Rivals delves into the complex and multifaceted French Catholic ideas about Islam and Arab-ness, encompassing the concept of Catholic orientalism. It explores these ideas within the context of religious culture wars in France and the missionary work undertaken in colonial Algeria. The book examines the ways in which the stereotype of Islam was employed and manipulated in religious and political debates within French society, as well as the firsthand encounters that missionaries had with Muslims in Algeria. What emerges is a nuanced and often surprising narrative, revealing that it was sometimes the most conservative Catholics who expressed the most sympathetic understanding of Muslim religiosity.

On the other hand, liberal, mainstream Catholics tended to be more quick to denigrate Islam as backward, fanatical, and dangerously theocratic. As Catholics increasingly aligned themselves with France's more secular civilizing mission, any admiration for Islam was overshadowed by a more racialized and colonialist view of Islam. Even missionaries in Algeria, disillusioned with the prospects of Muslim conversion and seeking an explanation for their failures, joined in with racially-coded attacks on Arab individuals.

In conclusion, Sacred Rivals provides a valuable insight into the shifting attitudes of French Catholics towards Islam and Arab-ness over a period of forty years. It sheds light on the complex interplay between religious beliefs, cultural perceptions, and political ideologies, highlighting the ways in which stereotypes and prejudices can shape our understanding of other faiths and cultures. Through its examination of French Catholic ideas about Islam and Arab-ness, the book offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of oversimplification and the importance of nuanced and empathetic engagement with diverse religious and cultural traditions.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197605271