Mehmed Ali’s unannounced inspection tours cultivated an aura of omnipresence.

Evidence

Moreover, the Pasha was never content to sit in the Citadel managing affairs from afar. Never completely satisfied with the reports that he was receiving regularly, he constantly went on inspection tours to investigate things for himself. His visits were rarely announced in advance, giving rise to a feeling among his officials that the Pasha was omnipresent and all-knowing. Just like the stories woven around his physical person which we read in the Introduction, those unannounced visits helped to usher in his presence and to mark the areas he visited “like some wolf or tiger spreading his scent through his territory.” … In 1826, for example, he went in one of his typical rages, convincing himself that his governors and officials were cheating him. Feeling that he was understood by no one, he issued a general decree addressed to all of his provincial governors saying that he decided to tour the entire country and gather all those governors whom he considered to be lax and inefficient and would dig a hole in the middle of a wide field and bury them alive with his own hands for everybody to see. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 683

Categorization

• CANDY: The 1826 decree threatening to bury lax governors alive with his own hands is a striking, tweetable anecdote about his legendary rages.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 683