Military drill and surveillance failed to overwrite Egyptian soldiers’ civilian loyalties and thinking.

Evidence

Second, it shows that in spite of years of training, of being subjected to a strict system of surveillance and control and in spite of continuous drills and exercises, the sergeant-major in question did not show signs that all this had had any significant effect on the way he was supposed to think and act – i.e. as a soldier and not as a fellah/civilian. Having come across a fellow villager, it was natural for him to extend him an invitation to stay with him on the camp and he could not see why his commanding officers were so harsh and inhospitable to his visitor. When his friend was arrested he could not see why he was being reprimanded and punished. His body might seem to have been closely controlled, but his heart and mind appeared to still belong to a different world, that of civilian life back in the nostalgically remote lands of Egypt. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1110

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces fellah/civilian as the category the army tried to erase in the soldier.
• DEEPTHINKING: A sharp empirical demonstration that bodily discipline does not entail mental transformation — the body controlled while the heart stays in civilian life.
• XREF: connects to: Egyptian battle success came from drill, not morale or courage