Khulkhäl Aga, who appears in several other sketches, is the supreme gatekeeper and guardian of that most intimate part of the khedive's life, just as Abü Rida performs the duties that keep Sitt Banbah's household running. But Khulkhäl Aga also offers Sanü`a's audience insights into the outer peripheries of Egypt's borders, because, with his amputation, he personifies the very act of conquest of the Sudan. It seems clearer here, though, that Khulkhäl Aga is as much a victim of the Ottoman ruling class as any Egyptian: he lost his manhood and is thus symbolic of Egyptians' own inability to gain autonomy in the government that ruled them.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 434