Mehmed Ali’s army trained soldiers to obey mechanically without pausing to think.

Evidence

When Ibrahim Pasha reminded his soldiers of their duties before storming the fortress of Acre in May 1832, he significantly urged them to listen to their commanders’ orders and execute them without thinking. For the unit of the army to function as a unit, be it a company, battalion, or regiment, the combined forces of the soldiers had to be carefully measured and meticulously directed. This, in turn, necessitated the formulation of a system whereby the soldiers would be trained to obey orders in a mechanical way, without pausing to think of their meaning. During battle seconds count and a delay in minutes can dramatically change the outcome. Soldiers, therefore, were trained to be attentive to orders delivered by their officers in the form of signals “whose efficacity rests on brevity and clarity; the order does not need to be explained or formulated.” Ta‘līm al-Nafar, therefore, stipulated that the command shout should be divided into two parts; the first was the “attention” order, and the second was the “execution” order. The attention order had to be loud, clear and long, especially in its last syllable. The execution order, on the other hand, had to be brisk and short. The question was not whether the order was logical or sensible, but if it was clear and audible. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 734

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, which the author explicitly cites, and to the drill-based standardization literature.