Fatigue and lax discipline led sleeping Egyptian sentries to assault their officers

Evidence

This discrepancy between “hukm al-wāqi’” (reality) and “al-qānūn” (the law, the regulations) was also to be seen in the performance of the guards inside the camps. On passing in front of the camp jail one summer night, Colonel Ayup of the 11th Regiment could not find the guard who was supposed to watch over the jail. Looking for him, he found that he had gathered some of his friends together and they were chatting, laughing and telling stories in the middle of the night. During one cold December night some soldiers lit a camp fire and sat around it chatting and joking. The fire was close to the ammunition dump, however, and could have blown up the whole camp. When the guard on duty was asked why he did not forbid the soldiers from lighting their fire at such close proximity to the ammunition dump, he claimed not to have seen them. On another rainy night, two soldiers who were appointed as guards on Abbas Pasha’s tent left their site and went for shelter in the stable. Soldiers left on guard duties for long periods without enough sleep could not help falling asleep. During the bombardment of the castle of Acre a certain soldier, Ibrahim by name, was left with a number of his colleagues to act as sentries overnight guarding the cannon bases that shelled the city during daytime. On making his regular round, their commanding officer, a certain Hassan Ağa, found Ibrahim asleep. He attempted to take his rifle to show it to his commanding officer to prove that the soldier was asleep while on duty. The guard woke up, however, when he felt his rifle being taken from him. When the captain insisted on taking the rifle, the guard hit him in the face, knocking out some of his teeth. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1177