Rather than give in to Mehmed Ali's manipulation, the shrewd visitor set out to demystify the mysterious Pasha and instead of starting his account with a description of the Pasha's physical features, he ends with it: … Mohammed Ali is a man of middling stature . . . His features . . . are plain, if not coarse; but they are lighted up with so much intelligence, and his dark eyes beam so brightly, that I should not be surprised if I found persons familiar with his countenance thought him handsome. In dress he differs but little, if at all, from any other Turkish gentleman; he has, however, a certain dignity in his manners which . . . borders upon majesty. But this dignity seems almost inseparable from the possession of power: the man who can do much good or harm, whatever may be his stature, form or features will always appear to exhibit it; as the scorpion, in size no larger than a snail, is viewed with awe, because he is supposed to carry death in his sting.

XREF: Connects with the earlier highlight on staging power through spectacle; here the Western eyewitness recounts — and inverts — that staged mystery. Pays off: "Pasha reception rituals staged power through deliberate shadow and spectacle."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 66