An exiled Egyptian scholar experienced Sudan as both geographically and temporally remote

Evidence

Al-Tahtawï did return to Egypt after completing his translation, which was published in Beirut in 1867. It was titled Mawäqi al-aflak fï waqä´i Telemaque (The Accordance of the Planets in the Adventures of Telemachus). In the introduction to his translation, al-Tahtawï described the heat and the terrible conditions under which he lived in the Sudan,a country he considered very far away from Egypt. The Sudan was not only far geographically, but its distance from Cairo seems to have been temporal as well. He intended his translation to be a bridge over time,enabling Egyptian students to understand important lessons from the world outside of Egypt. He writes, “I thank God for having put me in this era,” when such brilliant books were available. Al- Tahtawï situated many of Telemachus’s adventures in ancient Egypt as well, to provide a context he felt would help contemporary Egyptians understand Fenelon’s lessons, but this also gave al-Tahtawï the opportunity to recapture for himself his Egypt while so far away in exile in the Sudan. He states that he “created in the book the picture of beloved Egypt which unlocked the reins of my pen.” He wrote himself a map that, at least in his imagination, could lead him closer to home. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 234