A colonel's costume was reported to cost 60,000 piastres; see David Nicolle, "Nizam – Egypt's army in the nineteenth century," Pt. I, The Army Quarterly and Defence Journal 108 (1978), p. 70.

SEED: The staggering uniform cost relative to soldiers' pay arrears highlights the regime's spending priorities on officers' display while rank-and-file went unpaid. Builds on: "Mehmed Ali's army provisioning innovations still left soldiers unpaid months in arrears."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1044