Colonising Egypt (Book)

Colonising Egypt is a scholarly work written by Timothy Mitchell and translated into Turkish by Zeynep Altok. The book examines the process of Egypt’s colonization in the 19th century, the operation of modern forms of power, and the role of knowledge production in this process. Through the lens of Egypt’s colonization, Mitchell analyzes the methods and metaphysics that modern forms of power and knowledge employ.

Subject

The book focuses on two main issues:

• Modern Forms of Political Power: Mitchell investigates how the modern nation-state acquired power and how more subtle and pervasive forms of power operate outside the state's formal powers and official administrative institutions. He explores how these forms of power are manifested in schools, workplaces, social organizations, economic planning, mass entertainment, mass culture, the spatial organization of cities and housing, and the control over nature and rural areas.
• The Relationship Between Modern Power and Knowledge: The book questions how modern forms of political power bring new experiences to the individual’s relationship with the world and whether these experiences helped give rise to new conceptions of what truth is and what it means to know the truth. Mitchell examines the methods and metaphysics that modern forms of power and knowledge employ, using Egypt’s colonization as a case study.

Themes

• Modern Forms of Power: The operation of subtle and pervasive forms of power that exist outside the formal powers and official administrative institutions of the state is discussed.
• Knowledge Production and Metaphysics: The influence of modern forms of power on knowledge production and the metaphysics they are based on is addressed.
• The Process of Colonization: How Egypt was colonized in the 19th century, and the relationship between this process and modern forms of power is explored.

Narration and Style

Mitchell uses academic language to provide a detailed examination of the operation of modern forms of power and knowledge. The book is considered an important resource in the social sciences and not only transformed Middle Eastern studies but also broke the Eurocentrism of the debate on modernity, proposing a new history and definition of the concept through its trajectory outside the West.