Egyptian fellahin fought as a personal army for Mehmed Ali, not for a nation

Evidence

It has often been argued that it was during the first half of the nineteenth century and mostly by being allowed to carry weapons and to defend their own country that the fellahin of Egypt came to think of themselves as Egyptians first and foremost. Given the fact that most banners of Mehmed Ali’s battalions had his name on them, would it be more accurate to argue that this was the Pasha’s personal army fighting what were in essence his own wars and not those of “Egypt,” and that the men who fought in them conceived of it as such, i.e. as a personal not a national army? — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1312

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the nationalist framing of Egypt’s modern army, echoing the reader’s existing interest in how military expansion produced identity.
• QUESTION: What does the historiography say about fellahin national consciousness forming from military conscription, and what counter-arguments exist?