One point drawn from al-Nadïm's dialogue was that slavery was an inter- nal matter for Egyptians to settle. It presented a painful and troubling his- tory to Egyptians, the ramifications of which they had not even begun to cope with. But nowhere in al-Nadïm's poignant dialogue, or earlier articles on similar subjects, do the British appear. For al-Nadïm, slavery was part and parcel of Egypt's historic relation with the Sudan; the British did not, and should not, figure in the debate.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 690