The 1822 decree initiated conscription of Egypt’s fellahin into the army.

Evidence

It was then that the Pasha thought for the first time of conscripting the natives of Egypt in order to relieve his Turkish soldiers from this task. In a letter dated 18 February 1822 to the Governor of Jirja, Ahmed Pasha Tahir, he said … It is obvious that we are sending troops under the command of our children to the Sudan so as to fetch us blacks to use in the affair of the Hijaz [campaign] and other similar services … However, since the Turks are members of our race, and since they must remain close to us all the time and should be saved from being sent to these remote areas, it has become necessary to gather a number of soldiers from Upper Egypt. We thus saw fit that you conscript around four thousand men from these provinces. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 444

Categorization

• XREF: The ethnic logic — sparing Turks, drafting Egyptians — is central to the reader’s interest in the birth of the modern Egyptian army.