Mehmed Ali ordered Egyptian fellahin conscription to spare Turkish soldiers Sudan duty

Evidence

It is obvious that we are sending troops under the command of our children to the Sudan so as to fetch us blacks to use in the affair of the Hijaz [campaign] and other similar services … However, since the Turks are members of our race, and since they must remain close to us all the time and should be saved from being sent to these remote areas, it has become necessary to gather a number of soldiers from Upper Egypt. We thus saw fit that you conscript around four thousand men from these provinces. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 445

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the reader’s core interest in the birth of the modern Egyptian army: the Pasha’s earliest conscription order reveals the racial hierarchy (Turkish officers spared, Egyptians drafted) that later defined Egypt’s officer corps.