This was possible not only because the soldiers believed this to be the case, but more importantly, because their officers, since their Great Emperor’s time, had been convinced strongly enough of this themselves and were then able to pass on this feeling to their subordinates. In that respect Mehmed Ali’s army was different. Two crucial features characterized his officers. Like Napoleon’s, they were loyal to their master, owing him allegiance and devotion, and strove to appease him and his family. However, unlike the Emperor’s officers, they were not from or of the country they were defending. Being themselves newcomers to Egypt, the officers in Mehmed Ali’s army had no roots in the country that they were supposedly fighting for and the ethnic and linguistic differences that separated them from their soldiers made any attempt to convince the soldiers of any nationalistic argument nearly impossible.

XREF: Builds on the repeated theme that Egyptian soldiers were ethnic Arabs while officers were Turks (loc 1043), and that nation-state formation required monopolized violence and administrative reach (loc 119). Builds on: "Egyptian soldiers were ethnic Arabs while officers were Turks."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1306