A lost register can threaten the state’s system of control

Evidence

The clean, blank page which was sequentially numbered and neatly bound in a register was a symbol of the new power of the state: self-assured, rational, and consistent. When words were crossed out, when gaps existed between writing, or when the register itself was lost the whole system and machinery of the government was implicitly challenged. For example, on being informed that the scribe of the military hospital in Haifa had fled taking with him the hospital’s registers, Lokman Efendi, the director of hospital, was ordered by the administrative governor of Syria under Egyptian rule to set out immediately to catch him and to take even more care to find the registers at any cost. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 410

Categorization

• SHARE: The fleeing scribe who took the hospital registers — chasing a ledger over a man — is a wonderfully telling anecdote.
• XREF: connects to: Paper registers detected desertion before a runaway was physically caught — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 486; A state without change cannot conserve what it values — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1018; Name registers detected desertion before physical capture could
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Paper registers detected desertion before a runaway was physically caught — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 486; A state without change cannot conserve what it values — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1018; Name registers detected desertion before physical capture could

Broader Connections

• A state without change cannot conserve what it values #complicates (0.72) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1018