The popular founder-of-modern-Egypt narrative obscures that his projects collapsed before his death.

Evidence

Owing to the introduction in Egypt of so many novel institutions in the first half of the nineteenth century Mehmed Ali is commonly believed to be “The Founder of Modern Egypt.” Through his various public projects – the opening of schools, the building of hospitals, the founding of factories and the creation of a modern army – the Pasha is seen not merely as having improved the finances of Egypt or as having enhanced the efficiency of the bureaucracy of Cairo, but as having laid the very foundation for a “national” take-off. These efforts at “modernization” on the part of the Pasha are usually portrayed as being part of a master-plan, a well-integrated scheme of development that was aimed not only at “modernizing” Egyptian society and transforming its economy, but also at gaining independence from Ottoman control from which it was believed to have been suffering for nearly three centuries. … Even before the Pasha’s death a large number of the factories, schools and other establishments that he had founded were either closed down or were abandoned and neglected. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 77

Categorization

• XREF: This frames the whole book’s argument: Fahmy intends to complicate the standard modernization/master-plan narrative, relevant to how the army is being presented throughout.