Egyptian law required registries without crossings-out or blank pages

Evidence

A law passed in 1844 organizing the internal structure of the civilian bureacuracy explicitly stated that the pages of the bureaucracy’s registers had to be clean and tidy. “The pages of the register (defter) have to be stamped and numbered. Writing has to be continuous with no blank pages in the middle. It has to be clear and legible, without any crossings-out or corrections.” 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. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 487