Mehmed Ali’s ambivalence about Ottoman authority shaped the Kütahia peace

Evidence

These are not the actions of someone who intends to pass on to his negotiating partner that his are going to be difficult terms to meet. Having won a decisive military victory this would have been the time to press with his demands for independence assuming that this was his desire and that he had been contemplating secession right from the start. However, in his negotiations with Halil Pasha, Mehmed Ali did not raise the issue of independence; again it was Ibrahim who was urging his father to do so. Mehmed Ali started asking for independence only in 1838; back in 1833 he could still not think of himself as being outside of Ottoman authority altogether. The inconclusive nature of the peace of Kütahia, therefore, was representative of the Pasha’s own ambivalent feelings towards the Ottoman Sultan and towards his own military activities against him. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 257