The scale and regularity of desertion was the most striking testimony to the fellahin’s willingness to resist a regime they found oppressive, intolerant and inhuman. There is something almost splendid about defying Mehmed Ali and his authorities in that way and at that level. Desertion and the authorities’ frustration with it show how much Mehmed Ali’s policies found no echo in the fellahin’s minds and souls.

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