In that respect, the main difference between the Pasha's army and that of Napoleon is that whereas the former preceded the national bourgeois revolution, the latter succeeded it. It is this difference that accounts for the fact that when fighting for "Egypt" the soldiers in Mehmed Ali's army were marching under banners with the Pasha's name inscribed on them, while the French soldiers, when fighting what were essentially Napoleon's wars and not those of the Revolution, did so under the tricolored standards of the Revolution.

Builds on: "Napoleon fused nobility and bourgeoisie into a loyal officer corps."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1369