Mehmed Ali’s loyalty-first officer selection produced inefficient commanders

Evidence

To a large extent, it could also be said that he succeeded in creating such a group of loyal and reliable officers. However, given the high priority he attached to their loyalty, they were often inefficient and many of them made bad officers. Moreover, given the ethnic origins of the majority of them, they were very different and distant from the men they were commanding. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 924