Corporal punishment was a routine public spectacle in Mehmed Ali’s army

Evidence

At first glance physical, corporal punishment appears to have been a common feature of both civilian and military laws: the use of the culprit’s body as the site of punishment was as common in military camps as it was outside them. In the army the frequent and extensive use of the bastinado and the whip was one such means of executing corporal punishment. For example, two soldiers were given twenty lashes each for quarreling with each other during the march of their battalion. When a certain soldier was proven guilty of losing a water bucket, he was given fifty lashes in front of his battalion. Another soldier was given 150 lashes also in front of his battalion for stealing some apricots from the local market. As a matter of principle the physical punishment of soldiers was supposed to take place in front of their battalions in order for the spectacle to be watched by their colleagues. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 670

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete detail on army discipline that informs the reader’s question about the modern Egyptian army’s internal control and its soldiers’ everyday experience.