There is nothing that represents this overpowering nature of the written word and its effect on things than the term qayd, which in Mehmed Ali's Egypt was the term used to mean conscription. Originally the term meant nothing more than "drafting" or writing a name in the conscription registers. The Arabic origin of the word, however, implies in addition to writing or inscribing the act of binding or tying (e.g. binding an animal to a tree). Moreover, it also implies subjugation, manipulation and control (inqiyād).

XREF: Connects to the theme that Egypt's control technologies—conscription, state lists—were reinvented under Muhammad Ali; the word's meaning itself encodes power.

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 410