As the option of training his Albanian soldiers had failed, the alternative was to depend totally on the Egyptian fellahin and go beyond the 4,000 troops that he had conscripted early in 1822. As was shown above, these peasants were to be conscripted only for three years after which time they would be returned to their villages. Moreover, the main purpose of conscripting them was to relieve the Turkish soldiers in the Sudan from the main task of gathering Sudanese slaves. Any attempt at gathering more Egyptian fellahin carried with it the danger of moving significant numbers of laborers out of the agricultural sector. Moreover, the Egyptian fellahin had not been used to military service and during Ottoman rule were, de jure, forbidden to bear arms.

XREF: Builds on earlier claims about Muhammad Ali sparing Egypt's agricultural labor by seeking Sudanese manpower (loc 410, 438), and about the limits of early conscription (loc 446, 429). Builds on: "Egyptian governors' propaganda tours augmented the army's deterrence value."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 454