A weak officer corps undermined the Ottoman army’s performance against Egypt

Evidence

Another major problem that affected the performance of Sultan Mahmud’s army was the training and composition of his officer corps. Shortly after the Sultan got rid of the Janissaries, and in order to create a new nucleus for his officer corps, he founded the Battalion of the Agas of the Court’s Inner Service (the Enderun-i Hümayun Ağavati) in which young slaves from the Sultan’s own household, as well as from those of important notables and officials in the Empire, were enrolled. This unit, in effect the first modern Ottoman officer training institution, was, however, a battle-ground for intrigues and feuds among many dignitaries who tried to ensure that their sons would find a place in it. Dissatisfied with its performance, the Sultan finally abolished it in May 1830, only four years after it had been created. … In 1834, therefore, the School for Military Science (Mekteb-i Ulum-u Harbiye) was opened, although initial problems arising from opposition by leading dignitaries, as well as lack of funds, books, qualified teachers and a place suitable for instruction, all meant that the school came into real existence only in October 1837. Even then its curriculum was limited to such traditional subjects as reading, writing, arithmetic, Arabic, and military tactics. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1383

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Ottoman-British-Egyptian military performance thread and parallels the Egyptian army’s own officer-training story elsewhere in this book.