As far as he was concerned these were wars that he waged in the name of his father and for the sake of his family. More important than Ibrahim’s sentiments, though, was the very composition of the officer corps that he was leading which, as this chapter has tried to show, was ethnically, linguistically and culturally different from the soldiery. Like their leader, the officers in the Pasha’s army had no doubt that they were serving the Pasha and his family and had no sympathies in common with the men they were commanding. With their origins in different parts of the Ottoman world and having come to Egypt to seek employment in the Pasha’s army and bureaucracy, they tied their own destinies to that of the household they were fighting for.

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1393