This and the previous chapters have shown the authorities attempting to capture the fellahin's bodies and minds, and the fellahin, on the other hand, resisting these manipulative attempts of the state. Yet, was there no positive incentive that induced the fellahin to join the army out of their own accord, or, having joined it, to think about it in some positive way? The following chapter deals with this question, namely, the possibility that soldiers might have thought of it as a national army fighting for their own country.

QUESTION: The chapter poses a genuinely open question: whether conscripts found any positive incentive in army service or conceived of it as fighting for their own country. This is the pivot from coercion to possible voluntary loyalty. Builds on: "Nationalist historians overstate soldiers' willingness to die for "Egypt.""

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1184