Mehmed Ali built his fellahin army to protect his post from the Sultan

Evidence

Mehmed Ali was clearly aware that his appointment to that important and lucrative post was made against the Sultan’s wish and he was equally aware that first Sultan Selim III and then Sultan Mahmud II had tried to have him removed from Egypt. Realizing that he lacked an effective military force that would enable him to rebuff any attempt by Istanbul to dislodge him forcibly from his wealthy province, he made numerous attempts to found one, culminating in the crucial attempt to create a modern army based on conscripted fellahin in 1820–1. Once he had taken that fateful decision, not only was the efficiency of his administration and its ability to affect and touch the daily lives of the average Egyptians greatly enhanced; his relationship with the Sultan in Istanbul was also radically changed. As was shown above, the crucial turning point came during the Greek war when he first agreed to send some of his newly trained troops to fight alongside the Sultan’s forces; after suffering from the major disaster of Navarino in 1827, he seems to have decided not to assist the Sultan any more and to engage in his own military exploits instead, even if these were at the expense of the Sultan himself. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1688

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Navarino disaster as the turning point toward independent expansion invites verifying against primary Ottoman and Egyptian sources.