Village shaykhs held the local knowledge conscription depended on and often refused to cooperate.

Evidence

Ultimately, Egyptians, seeing that life had become so unbearable under the new “enlightened” regime of Mehmed Ali because of corvée, taxation, monopolies, imprisonment and, above all, conscription, decided that even if they could bear these atrocities themselves, there was no reason why they should see their own children subjected to the same fate. Thus a new method of resistance developed which reflected the Egyptians’ utter despair: they simply refused to marry and have children. In 1828 Mehmed Ali wrote to the Director of his War Department, Mahmud Bey, telling him that a lot of fellahin were abstaining from marriage in order to avoid seeing their children being subjected to these various government demands, e.g. taxation and imprisonment. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1355 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Village shaykhs faced escalating penalties, up to hanging, for sheltering conscription fugitives; Egyptian peasants strongly resisted conscription into the modern army; Village shaykhs were whipped and fined for harboring deserters (+1 more)

Related

• Egyptian conscription depended on village shaykhs who often resisted state demands (similarity 0.86)
• Conscription drove Egyptian peasants to refuse marriage and childbearing (similarity 0.86)
• Egyptian peasants refused marriage and children to protest conscription. (similarity 0.85)
• Village shaykhs resisted enforcing conscription despite escalating penalties up to hanging (similarity 0.84)
• Village shaykhs helped peasants evade conscription by force (similarity 0.83)
• Local Egyptian officials resisted conscription to protect village agricultural production (similarity 0.80)
• Egyptian villagers resisted vaccination fearing it marked children for conscription (similarity 0.80)
• A village shaykh captured and delivered a fugitive peasant to conscription. (similarity 0.80)
• Fellahin resistance to Mehmed Ali’s conscription was pervasive. (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian peasants overwhelmingly resisted conscription despite ideological appeals, via open rebellion (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian peasants strongly resisted conscription into Mehmed Ali’s army. (similarity 0.79)
• Entire Egyptian villages were abandoned to escape conscription (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian peasants strongly resisted conscription into the modern army (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian peasants blinded and mutilated themselves to evade conscription. (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian conscripts resisted the Pasha’s army through desertion and self-mutilation (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Egyptian peasants strongly resisted conscription into the modern army #expands (0.70)
• Village shaykhs were whipped and fined for harboring deserters #expands (0.60)
• Conscription drove Egyptian peasants to refuse marriage and childbearing #corroborates (0.50) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1355