Wounded veterans’ promised pensions went largely unpaid

Evidence

On the other hand, those who received serious wounds and were of no use whatsoever to the army were designated by the chief physician as disabled, given a certificate to the effect that they were unfit for military service, and sent to Egypt by ship. According to an order from the Pasha those sakat were entitled to a monthly salary. However, judging from the number of petitions requesting a pension, it does not seem that this order was strictly adhered to. Some of the petitioners felt betrayed by the army which they had spent their whole life serving, as the case of a certain soldier named ‘Abdallah shows. He said in his petition that he had fought against the Wahhabis in Arabia, with Ismail Pasha in the Sudan, and then in both Crete and Morea. He was then wounded and released from service. He said, however, that he could not work and had a lot of children and was thus requesting the Pasha to give him a regular pension. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1341

Categorization

• CANDY: A soldier losing an eye, yet being recalled despite an exemption certificate, petitioning for ‘merciful consideration of my blindness’ is vivid, shareable material.
• SEED: Angle on how modern state armies discard disabled veterans despite formal welfare provisions.