It Is Only Gazouz: Muslims and Champagne in the Colonial Maghreb

Abstract

Abstract French authors in the nineteenth century assumed that before the colonial conquest of the Maghreb, all Muslims in the region had abstained from alcohol. As a consequence, they were both surprised at and fascinated by the alcohol consumption of the colonised Muslims in the Maghreb, which they interpreted as an irreversible break with Islam (i.e. turning drinkers into apostates) and a necessary consequence of the spread of French colonialism. Some French authors even tentatively interpreted alcohol-drinking Muslims as showing signs of assimilating French culture and thus – in the colonial worldview – advancing in civilisation, while others regretted both their loss of abstinence as well as their alleged taste for particularly strong forms of alcohol, such as absinthe. This article will focus on the consumption of champagne. The French discourse on Muslim champagne drinkers focused on often ridiculed “justifications”, allegedly reported to French settlers and travellers in the Maghreb, through which Muslims “explained” why the consumption of champagne – as it was only “gazouz”, i.e. lemonade – did not constitute a transgression of one of the most visible of Islamic laws. These colonial descriptions of wine-abstaining, champagne-consuming Muslims offers an insight into how differences were created between coloniser and colonised, between civilised and primitive, and how the consumption of the same drink did not necessarily lead to a shared experience.