Officer candidates gamed handwriting exams by memorizing a single text

Evidence

It could be argued in this respect that good handwriting was a sign of more than knowledge of reading and writing: it “supposes a gymnastic a whole routine whose rigorous code invests the body in its entirety, from the points of the feet to the tips of the index finger.” Good handwriting in that respect was another spectacle that the Pasha was interested in, a minor spectacle, probably, but one that was supposed to be a sign of discipline, and a corollary of good training. Be that as it may, when sitting for this “exam” a lot of the candidates devised easy ways to get around this stipulation for promotion. Knowing that it was their handwriting that was decisive in getting them the jobs, they would repeatedly practice only one given text and would use it as a model (meşk) neglecting other tasks that they were supposed to be practicing “like dictation and composition.” When the Pasha heard about this trick of the students, he wrote to the Director of his War Department telling him to inform the students that he was keeping samples of their handwriting that had been previously sent to him. On arriving at the camps, he said, he would dictate an unprepared text and then compare their previous handwriting with that of the dictated text, and “whoever is discovered to have been cheating in the above-mentioned way will be dealt with in the appropriate manner.” — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 915