Still, it was only in 1838 that Mehmed Ali decided to get rid of the Ottoman suzerainty altogether and to ask for independence. For the seven-year period from the inauguration of hostilities and up to that time the Pasha was only claiming to be after reforming the Ottoman Empire. This does not seem to have been a mere pretext on the part of the Pasha. He might not have believed in it entirely himself, but at the same time he could not think of himself as an outcast vali rebelling against the Ottoman Sultan; he needed to think of himself as doing something from within the Ottoman Empire and not against it.

XREF: Connects to the earlier claims about Mehmed Ali's ambivalence and self-conception as working within the Ottoman system rather than against it. Pays off: "Mehmed Ali expected both rebellion success and sultan's pardon."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 261