Muhammad Ali’s Sudanese expedition was an empire whose agents were not Egyptians

Evidence

The expedition was an act of empire, mimicking acts of other empires— but in the name of which empire? Here lies the mystery. Although the expedition brought great glory to Egypt and to its ruler, it remains unclear how many native-born, Arabic-speaking Egyptians took part in the expedition. Its leader himself was a Turkish-speaking officer, and his journal was not translated into Arabic until 1922. Some Egyptian historians, like Maqqar, have claimed Selim Qapudan as an Egyptian pioneer or an Egyptianized hero. But this leads back to the opacity that continues to surround Muhammad Alï’s African empire. Selim Qapudan endured the hardships of his voyages out of duty to Muhammad Alï, but which community was he claiming as his own? In the name of which nation, if any, was he exploring? — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 210

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the reader’s Egypt-versus-Sudan question: the Egyptian ‘empire’ in Sudan was led by Turkish-speaking officers, complicating who exactly colonized whom.
• QUESTION: This raises who actually staffed the Egyptian administration in Sudan into the later Anglo-Egyptian period.