It was a tool widely employed by officials for various purposes of the state, including the obtaining of confessions from criminals, the collection of taxes, and the enforcement upon the population of the form of servitude known as corvée labor.
In the interest of maintaining agricultural productivity and increasing state revenue, it was a common practice for foremen to enforce this type of labor by applying whip on the fellahin.
[8] Other such accounts of the military at the time list the whip being applied for various discrepancies of soldiers, from losing water buckets to stealing apricots from a market.
[10] The abolition of the kurbash as a tool of statecraft and maintenance of order in Egypt was an effort by both British foreigners with influence in the state as well as native Egyptians, respectively.
In the late 19th century, the British were in the midst of a reform project in Egypt characterized by humanitarian sentiment and a motivation to enforce stability in the state.
Upon arriving to Egypt, Dufferin was openly critical of the pervasive use of the kurbash, and worked towards abolishing its use as part of the greater schedule of reform along British lines.