Military camp journals from the Egyptian Archives reveal soldiers’ reactions to orders

Evidence

Given that the overwhelming majority of the people with whom this book is concerned were illiterate and did not leave behind written accounts which could inform us of what it was like to be objectified in this insistent manner, the question is whether it is still possible to include them as subjects and not merely as objects of power. Fortunately, the documents that this book relies upon made possible the incorporation of the soldiers’ perspective in narrating the history of Mehmed Ali’s army. … In contrast to the very monolithic picture of power that comes across from reading these sources, the Archives, fortunately, also contains very valuable information in the form of the “journals” (yevmiyyet, lit. daily accounts) from the military camps and war fronts that include such documents as roll calls, inventory lists, courts martial, pay rolls and descriptions of marches and of battles. By relying on this diverse array of official documents it is possible to present an integral view of the army which not only avoids the usual concentration on the person of Mehmed Ali that often characterizes the historiography of Egypt during his reign, but also allows one to have a closer look at the every-day performance of that army and the manner in which the soldiers reacted to their officers’ commands and orders. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 20

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what specific courts-martial and roll-call entries survive in the Egyptian National Archives for this period?
• DEFINE: Defines yevmiyyet as daily camp account books and names the archive source base.