Egypt’s army standardized soldiers’ time and movement to coordinate mass force

Evidence

Fixing the soldiers was not only done in reference to the place they occupied, but also to the time they spent in performing whatever acts were demanded from them. The time of the soldiers was effectively dictated by timetables and schedules that aimed not only at regulating their movements and presences, but also at adjusting one soldier’s time to that of others “in such a way that the maximum quantity of forces may be extracted from each and combined with the optimum result.” The infantry training manuals probably show this new conception of time most clearly. Art. 33 of the Ta’līm al-Nafar wal-Bulok stated that the forward step was to be measured from the ankle of one foot to that of the other and it should measure 24 inches; the speed of the soldier should be 76 such steps per minute. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 720

Categorization

• XREF: Detailed time-and-motion regulation of soldier bodies connects to Foucault’s disciplinary power over bodies and the standardization of industrial labor time.
• QUESTION: The 24-inch step and 76-steps-per-minute cadence is strikingly close to the later standard British quick march cadence — worth checking whether Egyptian drill manuals were adopted from European models.