Life in Mehmed Ali’s army was brutally exploitative for conscripts

Evidence

Serving in Mehmed Ali’s army was, therefore, a dreadful experience. The Pasha’s army was an army which the soldiers were dragged into against their wishes and with minimal use of persuasion. It was an army that they were conscripted to practically for life and in which they were forced to fight wars that made little or no sense to them. It was an army in which they were continuously humiliated and in which the conditions of camp life were appalling. They were insulted, abused and humiliated by an officer corps that was ethnically, linguistically and socially different and with which they had very little in common. They were, moreover, poorly fed, poorly clothed and poorly paid. It was an army that did not recognize the sacrifice given by those who were wounded while serving in it. Above all, and as was shown in the previous chapter, it was an army that did not respect its dead. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1343

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mehmed Ali’s army embodied power and order more than his schools did — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 655