A writer lacking African experience shaped Egypt’s map of Africa

Evidence

However, the fourth man, Alï Mubärak, the one chronicler with no African experience, most influenced that map. Thus, his book Alam al-Dïn, about a mythical encounter—written in 1857 but published in 1882, just before Egypt’s first nationalist rebellion—is not only one of a series of books “dealing with the theme of ‘Arab re-discovery of Europe,’” as has been claimed, but also is part of a much different tradition of representing Africa. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 132

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the theme of imagined versus experiential geography — the armchair intellectual shaping a colonial map of Africa despite never visiting. Could connect to Marlow’s maps in Heart of Darkness.
• QUESTION: How did Ali Mubarak’s textual imagination of Africa differ from the actual travelers’ accounts? Worth chasing.