Egyptian nationalist historiography casts Mehmed Ali as awakening a pre-existing national identity.

Evidence

By studying the army of Mehmed Ali this book has attempted to challenge the powerful Egyptian nationalist discourse on Mehmed Ali Pasha’s reign, according to which the Pasha is seen as laying the foundations for a national recovery of Egypt aimed at gaining her independence from the Ottoman Empire. The thousands of Egyptians who served in the Pasha’s army, while not seeing themselves yet as Egyptians first and foremost, are claimed in this powerful, dominant nationalist discourse to have eventually discovered their true identities and to have seen themselves as Egyptians fighting for the glory of the fatherland. The Pasha’s policy of conscription pushed the inherent nationalist feelings of these conscripts to the surface and gave the fellahin a chance to express their true sentiments after centuries of being silenced by Ottoman domination. The three centuries of Ottoman rule, thus, suddenly appear as foreign and oppressive, and Mehmed Ali’s greatness is seen as allowing, even if inadvertently, these sentiments to be finally exhibited. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1668

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of how nationalist historiography retroactively constructs nations, echoing similar arguments in studies of Ottoman successor states and of how ‘nations’ are imagined.
• ADDENDUM: The theme of nationalist myth-making around a figure parallels the ‘On Sacrifice’ piece’s treatment of how elites deploy narratives to stabilize rule, though the fit is indirect.