Egyptian army discipline combined drills, medicine, rations, and law

Evidence

What prompted this shift to disciplinary power was the desire to turn the “rabble” of Egypt into reliable, dependable body of troops. This was made possible not only through the vigilant and untiring efforts of people like Ibrahim and Süleyman Pashas; it was the result of the combined activities of the drill masters who attempted to execute the blueprints that these top-ranking officers had issued; of the physicians who subjected the bodies of the troops to a minute, careful scrutiny; of the quartermasters who issued calculated rations of food to the men to sustain their health and to prevent them from living off the lands that they had conquered; and finally of the legal experts who manned the military courts that tried deviations from military codes in exact, predictable manner. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 709

Categorization

• XREF: The mention of rations preventing soldiers from ‘living off the lands they conquered’ connects to the reader’s interest in how the modern Egyptian army’s provisioning differed from earlier looting-based armies.