Egypt’s ruling elite was Ottoman in identity and tongue despite Egyptian birth.

Evidence

It argued that not only was Egypt technically and legally an Ottoman province, but that Mehmed Ali and his officials were also “Ottomans”: they originated from different parts of the Ottoman Empire, spoke Turkish, were familiar with the history of the Empire and of the dangers that confronted it, and thought of themselves in Ottoman terms, their eyes set on horizons that were essentially those of the Ottoman world. Seen in this light the career of Mehmed Ali appears not as that of a national leader who fought hard to deliver Egypt from the heavy burden of foreign oppression, but as a problematic reformer of the Ottoman Empire who, through the numerous changes he managed to effect in the Egyptian economy and society, showed the administrators in Istanbul an example of how to introduce much-needed reforms in the central lands of the Empire. In so doing, Mehmed Ali was not moved by any desire to improve the lot of the Egyptians, let alone to deliver them from “foreign oppression,” but by his constant, pressing desire to make more secure his precarious position as governor of Egypt. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1687 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Toledano rightly points out one of the most important characteristics of the upper echelons of Egyptian society in the nineteenth century, namely the fact that its members had more in common with the urban elite members of other provinces of the Ottoman Empire than with the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the province they were ruling. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 106 (#expands, via linked claim)

In contrast to the nationalists’ insistence on the pure essence of the Egyptian nation that led to the easy dismissal of three centuries of Egypt’s history as unworthy of study, scholars are now taking this long period more seriously, seeing in it a lively and vibrant society. A good example is Ehud Toledano’s State and Society in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Egypt which seeks to challenge the notion that Egypt constituted a distinct entity within the Ottoman Empire and instead stresses the Ottoman nature of Egypt during the nineteenth century. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 106 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

Related

• Scholars now treat Ottoman-era Egypt as integrated Ottoman society rather than foreign rule (similarity 0.85)
• Historical narratives retroactively reframed the Ottoman Egyptian conquest as Egyptian nationalism. (similarity 0.85)
• Mehmed Ali was an Ottoman reformer, not an Egyptian nationalist. (similarity 0.85)
• Egypt’s national identity was constituted in the nineteenth century by Mehmed Ali’s policies (similarity 0.83)
• Mehmed Ali and his officials thought of themselves as Ottomans, not Egyptians. (similarity 0.83)
• The collapse of Ottoman rule and rise of nationalism created a new Egyptian self. (similarity 0.81)
• Elite identity in Egypt was culturally porous but hardened within the military (similarity 0.80)
• Egypt’s identity as a distinct nation emerged only in the nineteenth century (similarity 0.80)
• Egypt’s nineteenth-century history shows elite boundaries continuously being crossed (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian nationalism grew from Ottoman elite domination, not patriotic awakening (similarity 0.79)
• Mehmed Ali’s officers were foreign newcomers with no roots in Egypt (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian nationalist historiography erases Ottoman rule as a foreign tyranny (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Mehmed Ali and his officials thought of themselves as Ottomans, not Egyptians. #corroborates (0.90) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1687
• Egypt’s nineteenth-century elite shared more with other Ottoman urban elites than with their subjects #expands (0.80) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 106
• Scholars now treat Ottoman-era Egypt as integrated Ottoman society rather than foreign rule #corroborates (0.70) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 106