Mehmed Ali’s wars were dynastic struggles within the Ottoman Empire, not nationalist campaigns

Evidence

This chapter has attempted to challenge the popular view by which Mehmed Ali appears as a strong, perceptive reformer who tried to improve the position of Egypt and to deliver her from Ottoman control, and whose efforts were frustrated by European, especially British, opposition. Far from being a champion of Egypt’s interests (if by Egypt we mean a modern nation-state) Mehmed Ali was an ambitious governor of an Ottoman province who managed to introduce various reforms in his wealthy province and who was anxious lest the fruits of his labors would not be reaped by his family. As we have seen, the dynastic dimension of his struggle against the Ottoman Sultan was never far from his sight and it could be said that the various wars he waged against the Ottoman Sultan, far from being nationalist, could more appropriately be seen as dynastic struggles within the Empire at best, or a civil war at worst. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1587

Categorization

• XREF: Revises the nationalist framing of Mehmed Ali that the reader likely carries into this study of his military expansion.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1587