Keywords
Colonialism, Empire, Orientalism, Egypt, Imperial Japan
Abstract
Mustafa Kamil (1874–1908) is widely celebrated in modern historiography as a founding father of modern Egypt for his contributions to Egyptian nationalism. It is conventionally understood that he achieved mastery in "speaking back to the Occident" by leveraging both domestic and international support, reconciling his nationalist agenda of self-determination with Pan-Asianist rhetoric and international solidarity against Western imperialism. One of the most frequently cited pieces of evidence for this position can be found in his 1904 work on Japan, The Rising Sun, in which he praised Japan's modernization and its resistance to the West, and encouraged Egyptians to follow Japan's example in solidarity. This paper challenges that conception. Through a close reading of Kamil’s Arabic and French texts, this paper argues that Kamil did not reject Orientalist hierarchies wholesale, but rather objected only to Egypt's position within that hierarchy. His "discovery" and admiration of Japan was built upon the understanding that Egypt, like Japan, possessed essentialist traits that made it equal to Europeans and superior to other marginalized groups, such as the Sudanese. Ultimately, however, this paper exposes the irony that this solidarity was not reciprocated: just as Kamil looked down upon the Sudanese, the Rising Sun saw Egypt as nothing more but a Waning Crescent.
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Recommended Citation
Li, Hung Pan (Eric) (2026) "The Egyptian Discovery of the Rising Sun: Re-evaluating the Pan-Asianist Rhetoric of Mustafa Kamil and Trans-imperialism," Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal: 7 (2), 124-149. https://works.swarthmore.edu/suhj/vol7/iss2/4
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