Ibrahim ultimately sided with the Turkish officer elite over his Arabic-speaking soldiers.

Evidence

In spite of this clear and stern warning, however, it proved difficult to force the officers to treat the soldiers respectfully and complaints about such bad treatment would not stop. Even if one believes that Ibrahim’s sympathies were with his Arabic-speaking soldiers, the problems he had with his officers that were highlighted in chapter 4 (above) were deeply ingrained in the army and were much more formidable than could be solved by his kind-heartedness or his ostensibly liberal ideas. In other words, when push came to shove Ibrahim knew where his true interests lay: with his father and the mamluk–Turkish elite that formed the heart of the officer corps. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1331

Even if one believes that Ibrahim’s sympathies were with his Arabic-speaking soldiers, the problems he had with his officers that were highlighted in chapter 4 (above) were deeply ingrained in the army and were much more formidable than could be solved by his kind-heartedness or his ostensibly liberal ideas. In other words, when push came to shove Ibrahim knew where his true interests lay: with his father and the mamluk–Turkish elite that formed the heart of the officer corps. This comes through clearly from the following letter in which he was responding to a letter from his father implicitly blaming him for lax discipline which Mehmed Ali thought had caused disturbances in Syria to go out of control. Ibrahim responded by saying that, in effect, he could not be more strict for he was faced with the possibility of officers defecting and with the likelihood of a massive mutiny by the soldiers. The matter, it seemed, concerned harsh penalties that were needed to maintain discipline and his belief that they might be counter-productive. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1331

Categorization

• XREF: This ethnic/class cleavage inside a modernizing army parallels the officer-soldier divide seen in midwifery-era hierarchical institutions from ‘A Midwife’s Tale’ and in imperial manpower organization generally.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1331