Given the traditional role that bedouins played in Mehmed Ali’s army, however, it seems equally plausible to argue that they were placed there to catch any deserters from the Egyptian side. When the actual battle started a large number of soldiers felt trapped not only between their ever watchful sentries behind them and the enemy ahead, but also between the strong urge to flee and desert the army altogether, on the one hand, an urge that was never really effectively quenched, and, on the other hand, the obligation to obey orders and “engage with the enemy” in a courageous, “manly” way. And unless one uncritically believes accounts of nationalist historians arguing that Mehmed Ali’s troops were willing to give up their lives for the sake of “Egypt,” these men had still not lost their instinct of self-preservation that kept them human in spite of years of training and indoctrination. “Placed in intolerable and unprecedented circumstances of fear and stress, deprived of their sense of control, and expected to react with . . . unnatural ‘courage’” a lot of these men could not continue fighting, broke down, and reacted in a manner that recalls the behavior of many British soldiers in the Great War of 1914–18.

SEED: This challenges nation-state origin myths by showing soldiers preserved self-preservation instinct over nationalist loyalty. Pays off: "Nationalist lens distorts historians' translation of Ottoman-era documents."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1095