This depiction of the former sultan of the Ottoman empire as an absinthe enthusiast is particularly interesting if we consider that Abdul Hamid II apparently did not drink alcohol as an adult.

On this, see, for example Abdulhamit Kırmızı's 2022 article "The Drunken Officials of Abdülhamid II: Alcohol Consumption in the Late Ottoman Bureaucracy" (https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/17780)!

Another sketch about Abdul Hamid II by Paul d'Espagnat in "Le Sourire", this time from October 1908 - i.e. just a couple of months after the Young Turk Revolution! Abdul Hamid II states: "Oxygénée Cusenier, dear Sir, a pure marvel! In the three months that I have been taking it, it has had such an effect on me that from an Old Turk, I have become a Young Turk!"

Many of these sketches promise that women will be more attracted to a man who drinks "Oxygénée Cusenier". This one shows two Muslim men, smoking a water pipe. One of them says: "By Allah! my hundred and twenty wives have been crazy about me since I started drinking that delicious liqueur of the infidels: Oxygénée Cusenier."

The sketch thus combines Orientalist prejudice about Muslims with the alleged advantages of this specific absinthe - fascinating!

There were also #ColonialAdverts for the anisette "Phénix" that included some Arabic - which is rare! This one here, found in "L'Echo de la presse musulmane" - a publication in French & Arabic, notably - advertised in 1936 in both languages for the "famous" Algerian Phénix.

This #ColonialAdvert from 1928 is for the CTM, the "Compagnie de Transports au Maroc", published in "L'Algérie Illustrée". Such adverts also repeated the harmful colonial binaries of progress (the car) vs. tradition (the North Africans), agency vs. passivity, etc.

And another amazing #ColonialAdvert for a car manufacturer! This one - for the French company "Latil" - was published in the newspaper "L'Afrique du Nord illustrée" in 1928. A fascinating - and illogical! - mix of "exotic" colonial imagery!

Here are a few more depictions of Muslim men drinking alcohol - in the company of European men! - in #ColonialAdverts from the late 19th and early 20th century! These adverts are for "Absinthe Rivoire" (2x), "Byrrh" and "Ricqlès".

I've come across a slightly less intricate version of one of my favourite #ColonialAdverts for alcohol in North Africa: It's for the bizarrely named champagne "Mousse d'Islam" (i.e. the "foam of Islam"), by the French artist Charles Brouty (1897-1984), published in 1920 in "L'Écho d'Alger".