Illiterate conscripted soldiers left no written accounts of their own experiences.

Evidence

Given that the overwhelming majority of the people with whom this book is concerned were illiterate and did not leave behind written accounts which could inform us of what it was like to be objectified in this insistent manner, the question is whether it is still possible to include them as subjects and not merely as objects of power. Fortunately, the documents that this book relies upon made possible the incorporation of the soldiers’ perspective in narrating the history of Mehmed Ali’s army. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 20