Mehmed Ali used his own title to mock both the Sultan and the fellahin
Evidence
Amīn Sāmī highlights this letter by printing it in boldface, to stress the theme that runs throughout his book, that the Pasha was indeed the humane, enlightened reformer who had nothing but the well-being of his people in mind. As such, the letter could easily be dismissed as an hagiographical account of Mehmed Ali’s rule that finds its origins in the words of the Pasha himself. The letter should be taken seriously, however, since it shows the Pasha playing with words in a characteristic way that betrays his own ambivalent feelings towards his Egyptian subjects and his Ottoman adversaries. For when he says that both the Sultan and the fellah were his awliā’ al-ni’am, i.e. his benefactors, the Pasha is echoing here his own title: he was known in Egypt as wali al-ni’am, the Benefactor. Any contemporary would have seen the pun used here as a thinly disguised attempt at ridiculing both the fellah and the Sultan, for it was precisely these two “persons” whom the Pasha ridiculed, each in a different way. Let us give the Pasha the benefit of the doubt, though, and argue that he did mean what he said. In that case, and given the fact that he practically enslaved the fellah and repeatedly and ferociously fought the Sultan, the letter shows the ambiguity of feelings towards both his nominal sovereign and his fellah subjects, an ambivalence that characterized his rule and was behind all his major decisions. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1541
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Explains awliā’ al-ni’am / wali al-ni’am wordplay and how the pun worked for contemporaries.
- QUESTION: How does this ambivalence manifest in his actual military recruitment and conscription decisions?