Through numerous rebellions and mutinies, and by repeatedly performing small acts of defiance, and, above all, through desertion and countless, tragic acts of self-mutilation, the soldiers showed that they could and did retain for themselves an area from where they could resist power, a territory from which they were able to assert their own wills above a system and a regime that attempted to enslave and dehumanize them.

Pays off: "Mehmed Ali manipulated interlocutors to shape his positive historical image."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1701