A clear message was being delivered to the Pasha and his military authorities: the fellahin resented his army and were going to extreme lengths to resist serving in it. In response, the Pasha was sending back an equally clear message to anyone who might be thinking of mutilating himself to evade conscription: he would still be taken for the service – if not for the army, then for any of the Pasha’s projects. In short, it proved extremely difficult to evade the army for it seems that there was a stubborn determination on the part of the Pasha that the mutilated would not escape conscription. When all methods failed in preventing the fellahin from stopping the terrible practice of mutilation, the authorities went ahead with drafting the maimed all the same. On visiting Asyout in 1834 St. John described a scene where “there was a whole regiment which had been composed of mutilated conscripts, every one of whom had either lost an eye, a finger, or the front teeth.”

XREF: Directly extends the earlier claims about fellahin self-maiming (loc 1306, loc 1352) by showing the state's counter-move in the evasion arms race. Builds on: "Fellahin maiming widened into an escalating conscription evasion arms race."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1354