Mehmed Ali deliberately performed a mysterious, all-powerful persona for European visitors

Evidence

The encounter with the Pasha, thus, besides being a tourist stop in the itinerary of European visitors, was a highly theatrical one: in it the Pasha comes across clearly as being aware that he is being seen, reflects this awareness and catches us, the readers of accounts of these encounters, unawares. Few visitors managed to escape the effect of that spell that Mehmed Ali would cast on his audience; most of them felt that the Pasha was in control of not only Egypt but even the encounter that they were part of. They were consciously aware of the Pasha’s piercing gaze seeing through them, and they often quoted the Pasha saying, “The only books I ever read … are men’s faces, and I seldom read them amiss.” As such, they, too, come across as accomplices in this haunting theatricality, and by transcribing their encounter into their published memoirs they made sure that the Pasha’s powerful, enigmatic aura would perpetually live on. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 63