Egyptian troops were routed by the Abyssinian army in 1876

Evidence

The officer, `Alï Effendi, claims to be broke because the government has overtaxed the land he inherited from his father. He also complains about the wars he and his fellow Egyptian soldiers have been sent to fight “against people who have never done anything to us while we go to deprive them of their freedom.” This is a direct reference to the disastrous Abyssinian campaigns of 1876, during which Circassian-led Egyptian troops were completely routed by a much less “modern” African army, and to the continual campaigns into the southern Sudan that occurred at the same time. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 433

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: Sanü`a’s satire voices an ordinary Egyptian soldier’s own conscience about colonial conquest well before formal British rule — the colonized-as-conqueror paradox as usable dramatic material.
• ADDENDUM: Speaks directly to the Egyptian-vs-Sudanese colonial comparison at this reader’s core; a ‘less modern’ army (Abyssinia) defeating Circassian-led Egyptian forces complicates the standard tools/ambitions frame.