Conscription gave the Egyptian state power over peasants that Ottoman and Mamluk rulers lacked

Evidence

As large as this figure might seem, the importance of conscripting the fellahin into Mehmed Ali’s army does not only lie in its size. Given the Pasha’s imperial designs on Syria and his effective, albeit reluctant, assistance to the Sultan in his wars in Arabia and Greece, his reign cannot be viewed in isolation of conscription; as such, it was a cornerstone of his regime and his survival depended on it. … Gone were the days when an Ottoman vali or a Mamluk emir could issue an order or declare a wish and be practically ignored, cannily evaded, or met by cold indifference and a calculated lack of interest on the part of the population. Conscription was to transform the face of Egyptian society and to drastically alter the relationship between the government and the populace. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 464

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how Ottomans’ thin authority over Egypt yielded to a centralized Egyptian state.