Mehmed Ali treated handwriting as bodily discipline and foiled students gaming the promotion exam

Evidence

It could be argued in this respect that good handwriting was a sign of more than knowledge of reading and writing: it “supposes a gymnastic a whole routine whose rigorous code invests the body in its entirety, from the points of the feet to the tips of the index finger.” Good handwriting in that respect was another spectacle that the Pasha was interested in, a minor spectacle, probably, but one that was supposed to be a sign of discipline, and a corollary of good training. … When the Pasha heard about this trick of the students, he wrote to the Director of his War Department telling him to inform the students that he was keeping samples of their handwriting that had been previously sent to him. On arriving at the camps, he said, he would dictate an unprepared text and then compare their previous handwriting with that of the dictated text, and “whoever is discovered to have been cheating in the above-mentioned way will be dealt with in the appropriate manner.” — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 915

Categorization

• XREF: Foucault’s discipline-of-the-body framework, and the reader’s interest in small acts of decorum, fit this treatment of handwriting as embodied training. — connects to: Mehmed Ali promoted officers on handwriting quality as well as merit.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Mehmed Ali promoted officers on handwriting quality as well as merit.