Rather, it testifies to what Foucault calls in his Discipline and Punish a shift from spectacular to representational and finally to disciplinary punishment. What informed this shift was not the humane, rational and progressive ideals of the Enlightenment as much as the need to make the power of the sovereign (in this case Mehmed Ali) tolerable and acceptable to his subjects. For “power is tolerable only on condition that it mask a substantial part of itself.” Hence this shift to what appears as a humane execution of the law was in fact a shift to a more cunning, cynical and hidden kind of power.

XREF: Connects to earlier highlight at loc 490 about conscription's resistance forcing Egypt's shift to subtle control techniques, and loc 664 about surveillance aiming to bind soldiers' minds. Builds on: "Conscription's resistance forced Egypt's shift to subtle control techniques."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 669