These were the reasons he put to the British government for his asking for independence from the Ottoman Empire. There is nothing here or elsewhere in the contemporary documents to show that he had any illusions about the nature of his struggle with the Sultan. That struggle was a dynastic one and it was conceived of as such by him and his contemporaries.

XREF: Connects to earlier claims about Mehmed Ali pursuing dynastic ambition (loc 263, 1537) and ambivalence reflecting strategic rebellion rather than identity crisis (loc 41, 104). Pays off: "Great-power rivalry turned Egypt's crisis into a European-balance matter."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1551