In 1826, a twenty-four year old Rifa'a al-Tahtawi was among the first students sent to France by Muhammad 'Ali (Mehmet Ali Pasha) in an attempt to reform the educational system in Egypt. Encouraged by his mentor Shaykh Hassan al-Attar, al-Tahtawi sailed to Marseilles, then went to Paris and spent the next five years there. His travelogue, Takhlis al-ibriz 'ila talkhis Bariz (The extraction of pure cold towards the abridgment of Paris) was published in 1834, a few years following his return and soon after, was translated into Turkish upon the request of a thoroughly impressed Mohammad 'Ali. The Turkish translation appeared in 1839, as a publication of the government press (al-matba'a al-amiriyya) in Bulaq. As Daniel Newman remarks in his preface to the translation of the book into English, the timing of the translation is interesting given that the Ottoman capital was in the midst of a wave of reformations introduced by the government. As a matter of fact, the Hatt-i Sharif of Gulhane, marking the beginning of the Tanzimat was proclaimed that very year. The copies of Takhlis in Turkish, sent to Constantinople upon Muhammed 'Ali's order, were hence met with great interest from the Sublime Porte as one of the first comprehensive accounts of European society and culture. A year later, another travelogue, this time written by Mustafa Sami Efendi, appeared in Constantinople, following the sefaratname (the book of embassy) tradition of Yirmisekiz Mehmet ielebi, the ambassador in France during the early eighteenth century. Its author was a fervent supporter of Mustafa Rerid Pasha's policies, hence of the Tanzimat Edict. Yet, while al-Tahtawi's account has been praised and given a significant place in the developments of modern Arab social thought, Mustafa Sami was often mocked by his Ottoman contemporaries for his exaggerated admiration of the West. This paper will explore the possibilities to compare the ways in which the mentioned works were presented and perceived in their respective contexts in an attempt to establish a basis for the comparative study of the Tanzimat and Nahda movements that were developing during the same period, one in the imperial center, and the other in its provinces.