Arab travelers managed alienation by reclassifying themselves as scholars rather than Arabs

Evidence

As told in Tashhïdh al-adhhän bi-sirat biläd al-`arab wal-südän (Sharpening the Intellect with Travel in the Country of the Arabs and the Blacks), the book he would later write about his voyage, Muhammad al- Tunisï first made himself a foreigner, or confirmed his foreignness, by dividing the new world he was entering into that of the wild “Other,” the sons of Ham, and his own community, the sons of Shem. But when this became too overwhelming, too frightening, he situated himself in another collective, one of scholars, and, using the perspective of these teachers, envisioned himself as part of a greater community of voyagers. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 158

Categorization

• XREF: Shows an identity-shifting mechanism in the colonial encounter that parallels the reader’s interest in how colonial actors redefined themselves.