Egypt’s military regulations diverged systematically from their actual daily implementation.

Evidence

This chapter, having failed to take its lead from a funeral scene, follows on from this scene of “life behind the bars.” It is interested in the men at the lowest echelons of the military hierarchy – the soldiers – and specifically seeks to contrast the impressive and monolithic picture of the army as portrayed in the training manuals and the various military laws with accounts of the daily lives of the soldiers in the camps and barracks. It attempts to understand how these seemingly beneficial regulations and orderly manuals were actually applied, and to elaborate further on the reasons for the discrepancy that invariably existed between these model orders and regulations and the way they were performed. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1112

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets up the chapter’s method of contrasting written military blueprints with lived camp practice.