More seriously, many fellahin went as far as maiming themselves in the hope that they might be declared medically unfit for service in the army. Initially, the most common way of maiming was to remove the front teeth in order to be deemed incapable of loading the muskets. However, when Mehmed Ali was informed that a lot of men in Upper Egypt had resorted to this habit, he said that since the training manuals did not specify which teeth should be used in loading the musket, these men could use other teeth and should therefore be conscripted. Other ways of maiming were more dangerous and resulted in serious bodily harm. One such method resorted to by the fellahin was to blind themselves by putting rat poison in their eyes.

XREF: Builds on the earlier claims that Egyptian peasants resisted conscription (loc 41, 92) and that conscripts resisted through self-inflicted wounds (loc 593). This highlight documents the specific extreme forms of that self-maiming. Builds on: "Conscripts universally resisted through desertion and self-inflicted wounds."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1306