Mehmed Ali could not legitimate his wars religiously or ethnically.

Evidence

These developments, however, needed time to come to the surface and during the Pasha’s reign their manifestations were hardly perceptible. Yet, their seeds had already been sown, giving rise to an inherent paradox of the Pasha’s army and of his entire military career, namely, the absence of legitimacy for his incessant expansionist military activities. For while using a religious argument to justify fighting against a state that claimed to be upholding the Faith for five centuries could not have sold very well, at the same time using an argument based on ethnicity, as nationalist arguments necessarily do, would have been counter-productive for the Pasha, his household, and his entire elite, the very same elite that was leading their ethnically different soldiers in the various wars. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1372

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the theme of legitimacy in warfare raised in ‘On Sacrifice’ and the reader’s interest in Ottoman dynastic legitimacy — the Pasha lacked the tools Napoleon or the Sultan had.