I am reading Karen Armstrong’s The Battle For God. Its primarily about how religious (of the three monotheistic faiths) fundamentalism came into being. An excerpt about Mohammad Ali’s efforts on equipping an Egyptian army:
The pasha was thus forced to conscript the fellahin, dragging them from their homes, families, and fields. They usually had no time to make adequate arrangements, and their families were often left destitute, the women forced into prostitution. The possibility of conscription to an utterly alien military life filled many of the fellahin with such terror that they frequently resorted to self-mutilation, cutting off their own fingers, pulling out teeth, and even blinding themselves. An efficient fighting force was created, but at a terrible human cost. Not only were the fellahin themselves damaged by conscription, but agriculture suffered when the men were torn away from the land.
