Mehmed Ali’s army unwittingly fostered Egyptian nationalism by turning fellahs against their Turkish officers

Evidence

It could be argued, however, that Mehmed Ali’s army was instrumental in propagating the idea of Egyptian nationalism, albeit unwittingly. It did this not because the Pasha, his son, or any of their chief military commanders thought of the various wars they waged as “national”; the dynastic aspect of these successive military confrontations, as was shown above, was clear to all to see, and Ibrahim, in spite of his often-quoted “Egyptian” sentiments, had no doubts about it. … Nevertheless, the army did unwittingly contribute to the rise of Egyptian nationalism by homogenizing the experience of tens of thousands of Egyptians over a period that exceeded twenty years by instilling in them the feeling of hatred of the “Ottomans,” and thus helped in their collective “imagination” of the nation. This creation of the “other” that wars are singularly successful at doing was operational in Mehmed Ali’s army not in directing the men’s sentiments of animosity against the army of the Greek rebels, or the Wahhabi brigands, let alone the army of the Ottoman Sultan, but against their own Turkish-speaking officers. These feelings of animosity towards the “Ottoman” eventually came to fruition two or three generations later when the frustrated leaders of these fellah-soldiers, the middle-ranking, Arabic-speaking officers, broke out in open rebellion together with other disgruntled members of Egyptian society against Turco-Circassian domination. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1371

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s larger puzzle about Ali’s army — a genuinely counterintuitive causal finding that the army Ali built to consolidate his dynasty seeded the ‘othering’ of Turks and later the 1882 Urabi revolt. — connects to: Egyptian peasant conscription began as a three-year substitute for Turkish troops; Egyptian soldiers served under Turkish officers in the reformed army; The ‘Urabi Revolt was partly a revolt of Arabic-speaking officers against Turkish-speaking superiors. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1368 (+8 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1371

Broader Connections

• Shared grievance against Turkish elites, not victory in battle, forged Egyptian national identity. #corroborates (0.85)
• Mehmed Ali’s army founded Egyptian nationalism through control practices, not enlightenment. #corroborates (0.70)
• Egyptian peasants strongly resisted conscription into Mehmed Ali’s army. #complicates (0.60) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 92
• Egyptian conscripts served Mehmed Ali’s army entirely against their will #complicates (0.50)