The officer corps of Mehmed Ali's army was thus characterized by an odd mixture of their members; and their failure to create a working esprit de corps was offset only by Ibrahim Pasha's strong and decisive leadership. Realizing that they were profit-seekers and unwieldy he was constantly complaining of their impetuous behavior to his father in Cairo. In one stormy letter to his father's chief secretary, Sami Bey, the baş-mu'avin, he described the officers of the 9th Cavalry Regiment as "Turks with mixed ancestries [who were] nothing but drunkards and rascals (çapkɩn)." He suggested getting rid of them all and replacing them with natives.

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 928