Zarafa was a gentle 19th-century giraffe, a simple animal
whose life was dictated by the tumultuous times around her. From
the African savanna where she was caught and tamed as an infant,
Zarafa was shipped down the Nile--along with the meat of her mother
and several hundred human slaves--to the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. From there she sailed on to France, a gift from
Muhammad Ali, the "Renaissance Barbarian" viceroy of Egypt,
intended to distract King Charles X while Egyptian forces invaded
Greece. As political ploy, it didn't work. But as ambassador from
an exotic land, this odd animal captivated the French people for
almost two decades, as she lived out her life as part of the royal
menagerie.
Michael Allin intertwines natural history with a brutal chapter
in the history of civilization, augmenting the clarity of both.
This story of one docile animal contrasts sharply with those of the
human profiteers, warmongers, and interlopers who ultimately decide
her fate. But Zarafa's otherworldly charm also helps us to
understand the intrigue that led Napoleon to bring not only his
troops, but a small army of European intellectuals to study all
aspects of Egyptian culture and history, in the invasion that sets
up her story.