Mehmed Ali’s restless eyes became his signature trait to European visitors

Evidence

Even those visitors who saw the Pasha as “undignified and ridiculous” could not help but comment on the “glance of his bright and restless eye,” noting that “as his unquiet eyes glided incessantly from one to the other of the party around him, or glanced stealthily at the door beyond, [they] could trace, in their workings, the restless and ever-watchful spirit of Mehemet Ali.” Shortly after his death A. Paton, one of the shrewdest observers of mid-century Egypt, admitted that the Pasha’s “features were remarkable neither for beauty nor the reverse; but, [he hastened to add] if ever a man had an eye that denoted genius, Mohammed Ali was that person. Never dead nor quiescent, it was fascinating like that of a gazelle; or in the hour of storm, fierce as the eagle’s.” — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 56

Categorization

• QUESTION: What did the badly lit audience chamber and repeated ‘light and shadows’ imagery actually mean — a real quirk of the palaces or a constructed effect the Pasha cultivated?
• XREF: connects to: Mehmed Ali deliberately performed a mysterious, all-powerful persona for European visitors — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 63; Mehmed Ali staged performances for European visitors to shape his image — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 45; Mehmed Ali staged interviews with European visitors to shape his foreign image (+5 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Mehmed Ali deliberately performed a mysterious, all-powerful persona for European visitors — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 63; Mehmed Ali staged performances for European visitors to shape his image — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 45; Mehmed Ali staged interviews with European visitors to shape his foreign image (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Nineteenth-century Egyptian visitors experienced Europe as a place of being stared at #complicates (0.72) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 58