By closely studying this army – how it was fed, supplied, and medically cared for, and more importantly, how its soldiers were conscripted and trained, how they reacted to their officers' commands, and how they resisted the military authorities – this book argues that this army was, indeed, instrumental in founding the modern Egyptian nation. This it did, though, not by enlightening Egyptians regarding the essential truths of the "nation," but by instituting novel practices of surveillance, control and management that radically altered the nature of the government in Cairo and fundamentally changed the manner in which it dealt with the Egyptian population. This army was also a crucial element in changing the ethnic and linguistic configuration of Egypt's middle and upper classes in a manner that unwittingly gave rise to "nationalist" sentiments among the soldiery who were mostly Arabic-speakers and who resented being ruled and dominated by a Turkish-speaking military/bureaucratic elite.

DEFINE: The book's core thesis: the Egyptian nation was built not by enlightenment but by surveillance, control, and management practices.

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 23