In contrast to the late nineteenth century, the crucial years of Mehmed Ali Pasha’s government in Egypt (1805-1848) often appear as a veritable dark age for al-Azhar in the scholarly literature, in the sense of sparse sources and of “hard times” for the mosque-madrasa. Moreover, the virtual absence of al-Azhar and religion generally from our understanding of Mehmed Ali’s regime contributes to the untenable perception of the early nineteenth century as a time of profound cultural westernization. In fact, certain now-obscure Azharī scholars actually played a major role in providing ideological justification for the reforms of Mehmed Ali, especially the preacher of al-Azhar Ibrāhīm al-Saqqā (d. 1873) and the judge of Alexandria Ibn al-ʿAnābī (d. 1851). Far-reaching changes in the endowment (waqf) system, previously been the basis of so much scholarly wealth, did earn Mehmed Ali the emnity of many Azharīs, but archival evidence does not support the idea, advanced by writers like al-Jabartī (d. 1825), that Mehmed Ali failed to support religious institutions like al-Azhar. Contrary to the claims of his supporters, however, he did not allow full autonomy to al-Azhar either. What the surviving budgets and Ottoman-language state registers show is that Mehmed Ali was slow to intervene in Azharī affairs, but he was able to do so by the 1830’s, partly through repression. The blind shaykh al-Quwaysnī (d. 1838), intendant of the Badawī (Sufi) shrine in Tanta and eventually rector of al-Azhar, led symbolic resistance to some of Mehmed Ali’s policies, as demonstrated by numerous petitions. In 1830, many of his supporters were arrested as a result of their protests against the appointment of Ḥasan al-ʿAṭṭār (d. 1835), a reformer and close ally of the pasha, as rector of al-Azhar. Significantly, the period cannot be understood without reference to the Ottoman context, not only because Mehmed Ali’s centralization efforts and justifications thereof mirrored those of Istanbul, but also because Turcophones were increasingly favored within al-Azhar itself. Building on previous work concerning Ḥasan al-ʿAṭṭār and studies of early nineteenth-century Ottoman Sufi orders outside of Egypt, this paper will argue that the ideological conflicts of the era were reflected among Islamic scholars, not polarized between a “westernizing” state and its “reactionary” Islamic opponents.