The purpose of this paper is to examine the complex balance between nationalist tendencies and loyalty to the Ottoman Empire in the works of the Egyptian politician Muṣṭafà Kāmil (1874-1908). More specifically, this analysis tries to understand how the young author, despite the controversial aspects of his experience as activist, managed to establish one of the most powerful theories in early Egyptian nationalism. Islam and patriotism, Western influences and chauvinism-all these elements blended together in a totally new approach to that debate on communal identity which involved the Arab world from the last decades of 19th century, modifying also the political vocabulary used by Egypt's intellectual elites.