Rifaʿa al-Tahtawi’s Mirror for Mehmed ʿAli: Reconsidering the Genre of Takhlis al-ibriz

This article demonstrates the importance of genre to the study of comparative political theory by re-evaluating the genre of Rifaʿa al-Tahtawi’s Takhlis al-ibriz fi talkhis bariz . While the text is typically read as travel literature (in Arabic, a riḥla ), I argue that it incorporates elements of advice literature ( naṣīḥa ). Approaching the text with its hybrid riḥla-naṣīḥa form in mind draws out the normative and political argument. Al-Tahtawi does not solely aim to describe the marvels and oddities that he saw in Paris but rather to actively advise Mehmed ʿAli, governor of Egypt to adopt and make use of the French scientific, technological, and political ideas that he observes. By framing the knowledge that he finds in France as naṣīḥa, al-Tahtawi blends the foreign with the indigenous, presenting foreign ideas in a traditional, indigenous genre of political advice to highlight their compatibility and continuity with Islamic political ideals.