Defeated Egyptian `Urabist exiles publicly sanctioned joining the Sudanese Mahdi’s army

Evidence

In the Abü Nazzara Zarqa of 7 February 1885, Sanüa addresses "the chiefs of the Nationalist Party," in the French section of the paper (which was by then divided into two linguistic halves: one in Arabic, the other in French), saying: Observe that I don't blame at all those among you, former soldiers and officers of Arabï, who have joined the Mahdï, to fight the common enemy in the ranks of his army. If you are not of the same country, then you are of the same faith. Patriotism has its despairs, and the English have the bad grace to reproach you for it, they who, in Spain, united with the fanatics of the Inquisition in order to defeat the Napoleonic invasion. But allying with fanaticism has its limits. Do not ever cross them. Do not permit that in Egypt people follow the Russian nihilists, the “Fennians” of England, and the anarchists of France. No one has ever made their cause victorious, or liberated a nation, by cowardly murder and foolish destruction. May your hearts be strong. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 483

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to reading on anti-colonial solidarity between East and West, paralleling themes in The Reluctant Fundamentalist of cross-regional identification against a common imperial power.
• CANDY: The very odd and specific detail that an Egyptian exile courted a French readership by defending Egyptian officers joining the Sudanese Mahdi against the English.