Name registers detected desertion before physical capture could
Evidence
Unlike a soldier whose body had been tattooed by the authorities and whose desertion was discovered after he was found, a soldier whose name appeared in a village conscription register would have his desertion detected even before he was found. Any missing item could only be truly missing if it did not show up in the list; otherwise it was still considered present albeit only in name (ismi var cismi yok.: lit. having a name but no body). — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 486
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: The ‘having a name but no body’ shift from physical to paper presence is a strong legibility/seeing-like-a-state motif.