Mehmed Ali cited Ottoman neglect as his justification for invading Syria

Evidence

The problem, however, was that although the Pasha might have thought that he was rejuvenating the Empire by showing the officials in Istanbul how to run it, by the late 1820s he had practically managed to create in Egypt another center of power. For while Cairo commanded a smaller proportion of the overall revenue of the Empire, it was being turned into a more efficient and vibrant centre which diverted more and more resources away from Istanbul. It was this ability of Mehmed Ali’s government to extract more revenue and to mobilize the resources of his province that enabled him to invade Syria. Seen in this light, the Syrian campaign, therefore, while highlighting the inefficiency and cumbersome nature of Ottoman reform to date, pointed out the way as shown by Mehmed Ali of how affairs of state could be better organized. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1545 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mehmed Ali staged manufactured requests to justify intervention in Syria; Mehmed Ali repurposed assembled troops toward Acre when Ottoman requests lapsed; Mehmed Ali invaded Syria in 1831 without the Sultan’s consent. (+1 more)

Related

• Egypt’s superior revenue extraction enabled the invasion of Syria. (similarity 0.90)
• Mehmed Ali’s revenue extraction and resource mobilization enabled his invasion of Syria (similarity 0.87)
• Mehmed Ali invaded Syria in 1831 without the Sultan’s consent. (similarity 0.85)
• Mehmed Ali’s Syria invasion combined sincere reformism with insoluble Ottoman loyalty tensions (similarity 0.84)
• Mehmed Ali repurposed assembled troops toward Acre when Ottoman requests lapsed (similarity 0.84)
• Mehmed Ali’s Syrian campaign ran from 1831 to 1840. (similarity 0.82)
• Mehmed Ali’s army briefly conquered Hijaz, Sudan, Syria and parts of Anatolia (similarity 0.82)
• Mehmed Ali invaded Syria after the Porte ignored his complaints. (similarity 0.80)
• Mehmed Ali invaded Syria partly because the Sultan denied him Syria as a reward (similarity 0.80)
• Mehmed Ali repeatedly petitioned for the eyalet of Damascus between 1812 and 1815. (similarity 0.79)
• The military build-up of the early 1820s was long preparation for invading Syria. (similarity 0.79)
• Egypt’s acute timber shortage drove Mehmed Ali to covet Syria’s forests. (similarity 0.79)
• Mehmed Ali repeatedly petitioned for the Syrian eyalet before invading (similarity 0.79)
• Mehmed Ali seized most of the Sultan’s Arabic-speaking provinces by the mid-1830s (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Mehmed Ali invaded Syria in 1831 without the Sultan’s consent. #expands (0.60)
• Egypt’s superior revenue extraction enabled the invasion of Syria. #corroborates (0.55) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1545