Although he strongly protested the British occupation of Egypt, Fawzï believed fully in the idea of a hierarchy of civilizations in the world of the late nineteenth century, according to which schema the advanced cultures bore both the right and the responsibility to colonize and “civilize” societies considered less developed. In Fawzï's perception, the acts of empire united a culture and made it a nation; the agents of his empire were therefore Egyptians, native-born and nationalist-minded. His two-volume work waved the flag of Egypt with as much flourish as any official institute, and perhaps no other monument or text better represents the conflicts of iden- tity that shaped Egyptian nationalists. Ibrahïm Fawzï was an enforcer of colonialism in the Sudan and a colonized subject at home in Cairo.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 510