The characters presented in the collection of short stories Ma tarähu al- `uyün (What the Eyes Saw) are not timeless archetypes of Egyptian society but are presented as being well aware of their own temporal elasticity.With social and cultural circumstances changing so quickly in Egypt as a result of the end of both the Ottoman Empire and World War I, and the growth of the nationalist movement, these characters struggle with a sense of their own mortality.The circumstances that created them were being effaced, cre- ating new social habits and, in effect, new Egyptians.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 945