On the face of it, Mehmed Ali seems to have seen the connection between his fighting force and a strong economic base. Both he and Ibrahim Pasha took care, for example, that their soldiers were regularly paid and well provided for and that they were not allowed to live off the land they marched through. Plunder and booty were strictly forbidden. Orders were issued attempting to send pay, food and other supplies to different army units, wherever they were. This is one of the most important features that distinguished Mehmed Ali's army from previous armies: whereas soldiers in previous armies were left to their own devices, Mehmed Ali's army depended on the modern state structure that had been founded primarily to support it. However, in spite of these orders, the pay of the soldiers was continually several months in arrears, and the soldiers were often complaining and causing disturbances and sometimes rising in open rebellion against their commanding officers. In one incident, troops sent to Cyprus to subdue a rebellion themselves revolted against Mehmed Ali and his government on the island; the Pasha wrote them an open order to be read aloud in front of them warning them of the consequences. He said, "I know that you still have not received a fifteen-month pay in arrears since you were in the Hijaz, and another fifteen-to-twenty-month pay since you were in the Sudan . . . You have to know, however, that you are not alone in this respect and that other troops in the Morea and in Crete also have their pay in arrears." He then warned them that if they did not end their rebellion, he would send troops by sea to deal with them and would write to the Sadrazam asking him to block their way to the north in case they fled. Even during the Syrian campaign, which was arguably the best organized campaign, Ibrahim was writing to his father urging him to send the pay of the troops regularly since the revenue he had been able to raise from Syria was not enough to meet the various expenses of the campaign and "the men are left penniless in these strange lands (şimdi asker bu gurbette parasɩz kaldɩ)." This was the case not only with soldiers' pay; army physicians and instructors were also complaining that their salaries were six months in arrears.

XREF: Builds on the earlier claim at loc 203 about armies' economic provisioning infrastructure explaining military success — this highlight shows the gap between provisioning ideals and actual payment failures. Pays off: "Armies' economic provisioning infrastructure explains their military success."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 935