Egyptian modernizing fiction borrowed Montesquieu’s Persian Letters device for cultural critique.

Evidence

The narrative is constructed so that Alam al-Dïn and his son are constantly in the act of discovery—about trains, steam engines, hotels, different countries—in a manner similar to that of the two Persians, Rica and Usbek, created in 1724 by Montesquieu to analyze the rights and wrongs of French culture. Like Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, Alam al-Dïn represents a fictional journey that mimics the narratives of geographers and explorers. The two Egyptian characters ask for help and information from their European friends, and they pull together to share their feelings about the unfamiliar world into which they step. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 272

Categorization

• XREF: The Montesquieu Persian Letters device parallels the defamiliarization technique modern authors still use; connects to postcolonial reworkings of the ‘reverse gaze’ on Europe. — connects to: Paris-educated Egyptian writers sought to Egyptianize literature while retaining French cultural reference points — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 942; Egyptian intellectuals translated European imperial self-analysis into reform literature — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 757; Arabic literary study was reorganized around European-origin decline narratives
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Paris-educated Egyptian writers sought to Egyptianize literature while retaining French cultural reference points — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 942; Egyptian intellectuals translated European imperial self-analysis into reform literature — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 757; Arabic literary study was reorganized around European-origin decline narratives