Mehmed Ali’s conscript army tested whether military service awakened Egyptian national feeling

Evidence

It has been argued that wars are essential for the creation of the nation, and that “to make the citizen a soldier is to give him a sense of duty to the country and the consciousness of doing it which, if spread through the whole population, will convert it into … a nation.” Being a conscript army and one that fought a number of victorious battles, Mehmed Ali’s army offers a good opportunity to check the validity of the Egyptian nationalists’ claim that the army allowed the population of Egypt to come to terms with the essential truth of the “nation,” i.e., that it is there waiting to be awakened. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 117