In contrast to the nationalists' insistence on the pure essence of the Egyptian nation that led to the easy dismissal of three centuries of Egypt's history as unworthy of study, scholars are now taking this long period more seriously, seeing in it a lively and vibrant society. A good example is Ehud Toledano's State and Society in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Egypt which seeks to challenge the notion that Egypt constituted a distinct entity within the Ottoman Empire and instead stresses the Ottoman nature of Egypt during the nineteenth century.

XREF: Builds on the theme at loc 103 about nationalist distortion of Ottoman-era history; this highlight offers the corrective view. Builds on: "Nationalist lens distorts historians' translation of Ottoman-era documents."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 106