Egyptian nationalists linked genuine civilization to responsibility toward the rural and servant poor.

Evidence

If, as al-Nadïm posited often, there was a basic Eastern sense of civilization, built on the principles of Islam, then it was the duty of patriotic Egyptians to behave respectfully toward it. Those who blindly used European models as their guides betrayed their own heritage, and so did those of certain classes who mistreated the poor of Egypt, especially the rural farming classes of the fallahïn. Those lucky enough to be educated and to have servants and large households also bore a responsibility to be respectful toward the underclasses; he wrote in another essay, “You are not yourself and the one supposedly similar is not similar” (la inta inta wa la al-mathïl mathilan). This echoes a famous poem by the ninth-century poet Abu Tamam, “Lä inta inta wa lä al-diyar diyar,” about the discrepancies between appearance and reality. In “Ayyuhä al-mutamaddun” (To the civilized), al-Nadïm asks this fictionalized reader to look at his fine clothes, beautiful house, scholarly books, and imported finery. He then demands that the reader look at his servant, with his torn clothes, crumbling hut, and illiteracy.Al-Nadïm accuses the reader of disregarding this loyal and kind servant so terribly, of not even looking him in the eyes when he “kisses your hand,” of never considering his wife or his children, and, worst of all, of not helping him learn to see himself as an Egyptian. It is the responsibility of those with “civilization” to teach those whose share in life is deprivation and ignorance. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 445