As far as the fellah-soldiers were concerned, the allegation that this was their army, and that they were fighting for their own sake, would have been the most ludicrous claim they would have heard. For them, nothing could have been further from the truth. The soldiers came to see the army as the most detestable aspect of the Pasha’s already hated regime. They were dragged to serve in it practically for their entire lives, often never to see their families again. During their life-long period of conscription they were ridiculed, beaten and humiliated by their Turkish-speaking officers. They saw the army as an institution that came to represent to them in the most concrete and direct way the atrocious, inhuman and dreadful policies of Mehmed Ali.

Builds on: "Ibrahim reconsidered universal conscription to preserve experienced soldiers."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1394