As this chapter shows, however, al-Tahtawï's perceptions were different from those of the other three writers, reflecting, I think, a hardening perspective of Egyptian intellectuals about the nature of Egyptian identity and its mea- sure against African societies. Racial differentiation sharply defined the con- trast between Egypt and others. Egyptian society was bound to the South both by memories of conquest and by increasing sensitivity to its own vul- nerability to western Europe.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 137