Al-Kassär perfected a character known as Osman Abd al-Basit, a servant whose affability and humor won al-Kassär the honorific Barbarï Masr al-Wahïd (the one and only Nubian of Egypt). Al-Kassär performed in blackface at the Majestic Theater on Imad al-Dïn Street in downtown Cairo, in the heart of the the- ater district that grew so lively in World War I (see fig. 8).

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 875