Mehmed Ali had exhausted alternatives before conscripting Egyptian peasants wholesale

Evidence

As the option of training his Albanian soldiers had failed, the alternative was to depend totally on the Egyptian fellahin and go beyond the 4,000 troops that he had conscripted early in 1822. As was shown above, these peasants were to be conscripted only for three years after which time they would be returned to their villages. Moreover, the main purpose of conscripting them was to relieve the Turkish soldiers in the Sudan from the main task of gathering Sudanese slaves. Any attempt at gathering more Egyptian fellahin carried with it the danger of moving significant numbers of laborers out of the agricultural sector. Moreover, the Egyptian fellahin had not been used to military service and during Ottoman rule were, de jure, forbidden to bear arms. Nevertheless, the Pasha had no other option and was determined to try things out. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 454

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of fellahin as a reservoir of labor/military power in Egyptian history I’ve read elsewhere; also echoes European mass conscription debates from the Napoleonic era.