Egyptians were legally barred from carrying weapons through the nineteenth century.
Evidence
Heyd says that during Ottoman rule Egyptians found possessing arms were punished by death; Uriel Heyd, Studies in Old Ottoman Criminal Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 261. According to Toledano Arabic-speaking Egyptians were still legally barred from carrying weapons during the reigns of Abbas and Said; Toledano, State and Society, pp. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 559
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Feeds the reader’s question about the army’s social base: conscripted Egyptians were armed by the state while civilians remained legally disarmed.