Paris’ canons

In December 2021, and May 2022, Rémi undertook fieldwork in Paris to visit the archives and collections of the Musée de l’Armée, the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac, and the Bibliothèque Ottomane et Turque of the Collège de France.

 The Musée des Armées is a treasure trove of material about early modern firearms. Rémi was warmly welcomed by the Commandant Philippe Guyot, the museum’s curator of the of artillery collections. He generously introduced Rémi to the collection, and gave him access to the incredible archives of Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont (CNRS). Professor Bacqué-Grammont is a world-renowned Ottomanist, who worked on the Ottoman cannons and the foundries of Istanbul. He created an inventory of Ottoman cannons and their Arabic and Ottoman inscriptions in Paris, Istanbul, and several other places. Several of these canons were produced by migrants, be they internal migrants within the Ottoman empire, or European migrants in Algiers or Istanbul.

Panel on the “Triumphal Battery”

One mortar from 1776-1777, cast by Velī b. ‘Abdu-LLah

The Musée de l’Armée also has a huge collection of canons that were produced, or owned, by the Ottomans. The pieces date from the 14th to the 19th century. If most of the canons were taken during the colonial conquests, many were also offered as gifts, such as the European canons of Rhodes, presented by the Ottoman sultan Abd ül-Aziz (1861-1876) on a diplomatic visit to Paris in 1862.

One of the most interesting ones is a canon taken during the conquest of Algeria. This canon, manufactured in France in the beginning of the 16th century, has several graffities in Hebrew, which date from its stay in Algeria. The canon of Kala'a provoked a lot of interest in the 19th century, but has since been neglected. For us this is a great way into the to study the diffusion of skills, materials, and technologies in early modern North Africa.