New techniques of surveillance were introduced to enable the government to have a tighter control over the population both in the cities and in the countryside. For example, in an attempt to curb the phenomenon of fellahin fleeing their villages and escaping to neighboring ones where they might be caught by the shaykhs of these new villages, the authorities decreed that every villager should carry a stamped certificate or passport (tezkere) which should state his name, his father’s name, his physical description, and his village. If found without this certificate he would immediately be sent back to his village. Even village shaykhs were ordered to carry such tezkeres when visiting Cairo. More radically, the authorities resorted to tattooing some soldiers’ bodies in order to facilitate catching them in case they deserted. When it was discovered that sailors were escaping from their ships every Friday, the day on which they were given leave to go ashore, it was decreed that all marine soldiers should have their arms and legs stamped with the signs of a ship and an anchor.

XREF: Connects to earlier highlights about peasants resisting conscription (loc 471, 472) and whole villages emptying to evade the Pasha's gangs — this shows the state's administrative countermeasures. Pays off: "Whole villages emptied to evade the Pasha's conscription gangs."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 481