The most common historical justification for 18th century colonialism was the notion of a civilizational disparity between Europeans and other peoples of the world.

Today, white nationalists continue to depict the “third world” as being savage and repugnant in all manners of life, among which a major theme is on the subject of hygiene.

Practices such as eating with hands, squatting outdoors instead of toilets, and overcrowded living environments are often brought up as relevant examples in the media.

On the other hand, Western supremacists present themselves as peak representations of personal hygiene. This claim is challenged even in modern settings, and many articles exist to this effect. But during the colonial era, when purported Western cultural superiority was the primary basis for expansionism, the disparity between Muslims and Europeans in terms of hygiene is quite striking.

European skepticism of personal hygiene arguably had its origins in the pre-colonial era. Christian church fathers, who represented the peak of human morality, often spoke against the “luxuriousness” of washing oneself or smelling good. Jerome of Stridon, a 4th century Saint, praised refrainment from bathing:

“Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer bathe? He that is once washed in Christ needs not to wash again.”[1]

Another Saint and famous church father, John Chrysostome, condemns ointments and scented perfume as Satanic:

“ … he does not use scented unguents, for this is the habit of sensual and dissolute men … For when Satan makes his approaches to corrupt the soul and fill it with all indolence, then also by means of ointments he impresses upon the body the stains which mark its inner defilement.”[2]

Of course, such quotes from church fathers may only be referring to those who attain ascetic perfection, as this opposition to cleanliness is typical of monastic religions. But there is something to be said in how what is perceived as “moral perfection” impacts the culture of commoners as well. Sources mention that hard, pleasant smelling soap for personal washing was only introduced to Europe by the Muslims in the 10th century.

Hundreds of years later, in the 19th century, the British city of London was saddled with a description that sounds much closer to a city in modern India rather than the capital of the most “civilized empire in history”:

“It had choking, sooty fogs; the Thames River was thick with human sewage; and the streets were covered with mud (horse dung)”[3]

RELATED: The Hindu Roots of India’s Public Defecation Problem

Putting these anecdotes aside, perhaps the best way to determine the hygiene practices of Europeans compared to Muslims is their description by contemporaneous chroniclers. ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (may Allah have mercy on him), the 18th century Somalian scholar in Egypt, was one such individual. As Somalians and Africans in general are often the target of racist remarks on the basis of poverty and perceived backwardness, it is particularly ironic that he would be the one to provide revealing descriptions of European hygiene. During Napoleon’s brief occupation of Egypt, Jabarti would describe the behavior of the French as follows:

“Whenever a Frenchman has to perform an act of nature he does so wherever he happens to be, even in full view of people, and he goes away as he is, without washing his private parts after defecation. If he is a man of taste and refinement he wipes himself with whatever he finds, even with a paper with writing on it, otherwise he remains as he is.”[4] 

Some readers may attempt to chalk up the aforementioned squalid and foulness of Victorian era London to overpopulation and a lack of modern infrastructure. But what is notable is that this squalor carried on even into the European quarters in Egypt, and Jabarti was quite taken aback by the state of their dwellings:

“…the streets and houses where the French lived, were full of filth, infected earth mixed with bird feathers, the entrails of animals, garbage, the stench of their drinks, the sourness of their alcoholic beverages, their urine and excrement, such that a passerby was obliged to hold his nose.”[5]

The fact that Jabarti found this to be notable and worthy of recording, is evidence that the Muslim people were unaccustomed to such disgusting living conditions. Indeed, the average Egyptian would not find the need to hold his nose if his own house and neighborhood shared this type of stench. The French would also demonstrate their revolting hygiene and their virulent hatred towards Muslims in their defilement and destruction of mosques and madrasahs throughout Egypt. In one particular incident, soldiers forcefully entered the famed Al-Azhar University and acted in a manner which parallels that of Israeli and American soldiers today:

“…they soiled the mosque, blowing their spit in it, pissing, and defecating in it. They guzzled wine and smashed the bottles in the central court and other parts…”[6]

It can thus be stated that the culture of the colonizing French (and Europeans in general) well into the 19th century, is in complete contrast with virtually any understanding of proper civilization, let alone Islamic civilization. Muslims are, after all, commanded by the Prophet ﷺ to maintain high standards of cleanliness by performing ritual ablution, bathing regularly, maintaining impeccable toilet hygiene, and employing perfume for good smells. This is not incidental. It is an inherent part of the all-encompassing nature of the Shari’ah, which some missionaries in modern times ironically try to use as a polemic against Islam. Their unwashed rear ends will remain a concrete example of what constitutes true backwardness.

And Allah ﷻ knows best.

RELATED: Is the Muslim World’s “Backwardness” Its Strength? Non-Muslim Biohistorian on Islam

Notes

[1] Jerome. “Letter 14 (To Heliodorus).” In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 6, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, translated by W. H. Fremantle, G. Lewis, and W. G. Martley. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001014.htm.

[2] Stephen Beale, “What Does Sanctity Smell Like?,” Catholic Exchange, August 11, 2014, https://catholicexchange.com/sanctity-smell-like/.

[3] “‘Dirty Old London’: A History of the Victorians’ Infamous Filth,” Fresh Air, NPR, March 12, 2015, https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-london-a-history-of-the-victorians-infamous-filth.

[4] ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of the French Occupation of 1798, trans. Shmuel Moreh, introduction by Robert L. Tignor, expanded ed. (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2004), p. 29.

[5] Ibid, p. 66.

[6] Ibid, p. 93.