“From the point of view of governing him rather than from that of scientific research into how he comes to be what he is, I content myself with noting the fact that somehow or other the Oriental generally acts, speaks and thinks in a manner exactly opposite to the European,” declares Lord Cromer in Modern Egypt. “Consider the mental and moral attributes, the customs, art, architecture, language, dress and tastes of the dark-skinned eastern as compared with the fair-skinned Western,” he adds. “It will be found that on every point they are the poles asunder.”1 The ease with which Cromer develops this sharp distinction between “us” and “them,” Occident and Orient, is evidence of the cultural and political construction that Edward Said identifies as Orientalism.