This article examines banditry, embezzlement, and other insider crimes along Egyptian railway lines during a period when British officials exerted centralized control over the Egyptian railway and financial austerity had a negative impact on the rail sector. By exploring the motives and tactics of railway crimes, I posit that criminals, by making claims on and use of the technology outside the purview of state regulations, expressed their heterogeneous desires to redistribute social wealth, repurpose the technological promise of modern railways, and confound intentions of colonial governance. Using new archival materials, this article utilizes a bottom-up approach to examine grassroots activism, everyday knowledge, informal networks, and the social mores and norms that criminals harnessed to discern infrastructural vulnerabilities and elude surveillance from the colonial state. Ultimately, I contend that criminal acts uncovered social crises otherwise hidden under the shadow of the exterior prosperity and stability of late 19th-century Egypt.

本文考察了英国官员对埃及铁路实行集中控制且财政紧缩对铁路部门产生负面影响期间埃及铁路沿线的盗贼、贪污和其他内部犯罪行为。通过探索铁路犯罪的动机和策略，我认为犯罪分子通过对国家规定范围之外的技术提出索赔和使用，表达了他们重新分配社会财富、重新利用现代铁路技术承诺的异类愿望，并混淆了殖民统治的意图。本文使用新的档案材料，采用自下而上的方法来检查基层激进主义、日常知识、非正式网络、以及犯罪分子用来辨别基础设施薄弱环节和逃避殖民国家监视的社会习俗和规范。归根结底，我认为犯罪行为揭露了隐藏在 19 世纪晚期埃及外部繁荣和稳定阴影下的社会危机。