Army authorities could not control soldiers’ private lives even inside camps

Evidence

The second case concerns a soldier, ‘Alī Khalīl by name, who was wounded and sent to hospital to be nursed there. While hospitalized he met a Christian Syrian girl and fell in love with her. After she had agreed to convert to Islam, they decided to get married. His colonel, however, refused to allow the marriage to take place saying that “all the activities and stillnesses (harekat ve sekenat)” of the soldiers should be approved by their officers and the soldiers should keep themselves busy only with their weapons. On hearing this the soldier heedlessly and without asking permission (hodbehot bila istizan) left the camp. The colonel said that he thought that that was against regulations. That a woman could be found in an army hospital, that a soldier fell in love with her and decided to marry her and that his colonel could not stop him from doing so attest to the fact that the authorities had as much difficulty in controlling “all the activities and stillnesses of the soldiers” as they had with keeping an eye on the behavior of the senior officials. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1182