Roughly one in three Egyptian conscripts deserted Mehmed Ali’s army

Evidence

Six years into the campaign, however, Mehmed Ali received a report which was most alarming regarding deserters. It said that as many as 60,000 men had gone missing from the army in addition to 20,000 from the navy! Bearing in mind that the army could not have been larger than 130,000, this means that for every two conscripts, one soldier managed to desert. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1349

Categorization

• QUESTION: How reliable is this single alarming report as a source, and did rates vary dramatically between units and years?