Paper roll-calls and inventory lists were the army’s key tools for controlling soldiers.

Evidence

After interning the soldiers in barracks it was not enough to control their movements; a need was felt to have a close inspection and analysis of their stillness. A strict regime was established creating presences and checking them. Similarly, absences had to be known, proven and accounted for. The most powerful tool in controlling men, their activities and their bodies appeared to be no more than a piece of paper: the roll-call and the inventory list. It was through these tables that the authorities came to observe the presences of the soldiers and their absences; it was according to the inventory list that equipment was accounted for and distributed; and it was by the drawing up of hospital journals (yevmiyyet) that patients were distributed in hospitals, segregated from each other and their diseases systematically classified. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 722

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: The insight that administrative paperwork itself is the load-bearing control technology connects directly to the reader’s standing interest in how institutions and records constitute order.