The problem, however, was that the vali was too ambitious to be content with his position as a subservient vassal, and as time went on and as he grew stronger and stronger, he began to have aspirations of more independence from Istanbul. As is shown above, this inherent tension acquired momentum during the Greek debacle and surfaced in 1831 when he ordered his son to lead an expedition to invade Syria without the consent of the Sultan.

Pays off: "Mehmed Ali could not conceive of himself as rebelling against the sultan."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 263