Egyptian modernizers accepted Western diagnosis of their own decline

Evidence

‘It is we who have placed ourselves in this position. There is one thing that unites us all in the Orient: our past greatness and our present backwardness.’ — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 525 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: An Egyptian reformer accepted the indolence diagnosis and prescribed village schools to cure it; Rapid post-Ottoman change made Egyptian characters sense their own historical obsolescence — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 945; European colonizers attributed Egyptian backwardness to inborn mental traits immune to reform — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 362 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Egyptian intellectuals internalized the Orientalist self-image of past greatness and present backwardness #corroborates (0.95) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 525