Mehmed Ali’s army founded Egyptian nationalism through control practices, not enlightenment.

Evidence

This narration will not start at the beginning, as he would have liked, with his childhood in Albania or with his arrival in Egypt, or at the end, as some nationalist historians would have preferred, highlighting his showdown with Great Britain, but in the middle of his long career as governor of Egypt, and precisely in the year AH 1236/AD 1820–1. This is the year that Mehmed Ali started to found a modern army in Egypt, an army which was based on conscription and which relied on the institutions of the modern state that he founded mainly to serve that army. It is this army, rather than Mehmed Ali’s character or his person, that is the subject of this book, and it is this central institution that is studied below in order to analyze the nature of Egyptian society in the first half of the nineteenth century. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 70 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mehmed Ali’s army was a personal, dynastic force rather than a national one.; Foreign-born officers could not sell nationalism to Mehmed Ali’s conscripts.; The army was motivated by religion and training, never by Egyptian nationalism (+9 more)

Related

• Within roughly a decade Egypt replaced Mamluk-style warriors with a trained modern army (similarity 0.89)
• Ali founded his conscript army in 1820-1 to secure his rule against Istanbul (similarity 0.89)
• Mehmed Ali conscripted even self-maimed men into his army and projects (similarity 0.89)
• Mehmed Ali founded a conscription-based army in Egypt in 1820 (similarity 0.88)
• Mehmed Ali’s army was a personal, dynastic force rather than a national one. (similarity 0.88)
• The conscript army founded Egyptian nationalism through surveillance and control, not enlightenment. (similarity 0.88)
• Egypt’s modern army was founded through conscription in 1820–21 (similarity 0.86)
• The army’s surveillance and control practices, not enlightenment ideas, founded modern Egypt (similarity 0.86)
• Mehmed Ali’s army was an institution of coercive power that transformed Egyptian society (similarity 0.86)
• Egyptian national identity was forged by army discipline, not pre-existing sentiment. (similarity 0.85)
• Mehmed Ali’s army unwittingly fostered Egyptian nationalism by turning fellahs against their Turkish officers (similarity 0.85)
• The army conscripted Egyptians by force to fight for Mehmed Ali’s dynasty (similarity 0.85)
• Mehmed Ali’s quest for independence was a dynastic struggle, not nationalist. (similarity 0.85)
• Mehmed Ali’s wars against the Sultan were dynastic, not national (similarity 0.84)
• Egyptian nationalism grew from Ottoman elite domination, not patriotic awakening (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• The Egyptian nation was constructed by institutions, not pre-existing. #corroborates (0.80)
• The Egyptian nation was created rather than pre-existing #corroborates (0.75)
• Mehmed Ali founded a conscription-based army in Egypt in 1820 #expands (0.60) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 70
• Mehmed Ali governed Egypt as a personal fief under a feudal overlord relationship #complicates (0.55) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1550
• The Egyptian army did not function along national lines in this era. #complicates (0.50)
• Mehmed Ali’s wars may be internal Ottoman power struggles rather than nationalist bids #qualifies (0.50) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 199