Mehmed Ali conscripted even self-maimed men into his army and projects

Evidence

This narration will not start at the beginning, as he would have liked, with his childhood in Albania or with his arrival in Egypt, or at the end, as some nationalist historians would have preferred, highlighting his showdown with Great Britain, but in the middle of his long career as governor of Egypt, and precisely in the year AH 1236/AD 1820–1. This is the year that Mehmed Ali started to found a modern army in Egypt, an army which was based on conscription and which relied on the institutions of the modern state that he founded mainly to serve that army. It is this army, rather than Mehmed Ali’s character or his person, that is the subject of this book, and it is this central institution that is studied below in order to analyze the nature of Egyptian society in the first half of the nineteenth century. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 70 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mehmed Ali first looked to Sudanese slaves rather than Egyptian peasants for his army; Mehmed Ali introduced internal passports and body tattooing to control conscripts.; Mehmed Ali’s ambitious programs routinely foundered at implementation (+6 more)

Related

• Mehmed Ali founded a conscription-based army in Egypt in 1820 (similarity 0.93)
• Ali founded his conscript army in 1820-1 to secure his rule against Istanbul (similarity 0.91)
• Within roughly a decade Egypt replaced Mamluk-style warriors with a trained modern army (similarity 0.90)
• Egypt’s modern army was founded through conscription in 1820–21 (similarity 0.90)
• Mehmed Ali’s army founded Egyptian nationalism through control practices, not enlightenment. (similarity 0.89)
• Syria’s two million people attracted Mehmed Ali’s conscription plans (similarity 0.89)
• The army conscripted Egyptians by force to fight for Mehmed Ali’s dynasty (similarity 0.88)
• The Egyptian army coerced conscripts for the Pasha’s dynastic wars (similarity 0.87)
• Mehmed Ali’s army was an institution of coercive power that transformed Egyptian society (similarity 0.86)
• The modern army built in 1820-1 enabled Ali’s expansion. (similarity 0.86)
• Egyptian peasant conscription began as a three-year substitute for Turkish troops (similarity 0.86)
• Fear of removal drove Mehmed Ali to build a conscript army in 1820-21. (similarity 0.84)
• Mehmed Ali’s conscript army drove the creation of the modern Egyptian state (similarity 0.84)
• Mehmed Ali’s conscripted soldiers resisted his modernizing project (similarity 0.84)
• Conscription arose only after Albanian insubordination and failed Sudanese recruitment (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Mehmed Ali founded a conscription-based army in Egypt in 1820 #expands (0.70) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 70