Prior to Selim Qapudan’s trip, Muhammad Alï had tried to enlist his commander, or hikimdar, of the Sudan, Khurshid Pasha, to lead another expedition up the Nile. In a letter to Khurshid Pasha, Muhammad Alï wrote that “each of the greatest of men who have come to this world and then left it, left a trace on which their name lies, or their highest hopes, or their fame.” To that lofty end, he instructed Khurshid Pasha to prepare for the exploration of the Nile’s ori- gins, not only for the promise of promotion and personal fame this would guarantee Khurshid Pasha but also for Egypt, in its new state of “fluores- cence”: “It is incumbent upon you to extend the greatest of your efforts to heighten and augment her situation.”

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 193