Egyptian mapping of Sudan was shaped through deliberate European mentorship

Evidence

As the texts of Muhammad al-Tunisï, Selim Qapudan, Rifaa Rafi al- Tahtawï, and `Alï Mubärak demonstrate, the process of conceptualizing and mapping the Sudan was shadowed by European thinkers and explorers and their texts. Each text was heavily influenced by a European with prior experience in geographic exploration (and, thus. the basic mechanics of empire) in the Sudan. … Quite selfconsciously, intellectuals and elites in Egypt viewed the French as guides, and, just as self-consciously, many in France were aware of this. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 285

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to wider historiography on how colonized elites learned empire-craft from their own colonizers — parallels the reader’s comparative coloniality framework