Egypt’s standing army numbered roughly 130,000 men in the 1830s

Evidence

This is the figure cited by most contemporary observers; Clot Bey: 130,300 (Clot Bey, Aperçu, II, p. 232); Dr. Bowring: 127,150 (Bowring, “Report on Egypt,” p. 51); Barker: 125,143 (FO 78/231, 18 February 1833); al-Rāf‘ī: 130,202 (al-Rāf‘ī, ‘Aṣr Muhammad ‘Alī, p. 358). St. John arrives at the figure 193,932 only by including the bedouin irregulars, the workmen in the Liman of Alexandria and the students in the military schools (St. John, Egypt, II, pp. 478–9). — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 492