Ottoman army policy confined European advisors to training roles with low pay.
Evidence
Furthermore, when the Sultan decided to seek the assistance of Europeans in helping him create his new Mansure army, these were employed only as advisors or instructors and none of them was allowed to assume posts even half as important as that of Süleyman Pasha in Egypt. Whether because of religious reasons, or the sense of pride and jealousy with which the Ottomans regarded their military past, when Europeans were employed in Sultan Mahmud’s new army every effort was made to ensure, as an official directive put it, that “foreign officers will not gain influence and independence. Thus they shall have authority only in matters of training, and in all matters of command, discipline, and the like they shall operate only through … Ottoman officers.” This inferior position of the Europeans who were employed in the new army was also reflected in the low salaries that they were paid: whereas Süleyman Pasha was said to receive a monthly salary of 17,500 piasters, his compatriot, Gaillard, who was Sultan Mahmud’s chief infantry instructor, received less than one-tenth that amount. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1382
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Direct contrast with Süleyman Pasha’s rise in the Egyptian army elsewhere in this book and in the reader’s interest in Egypt vs Ottoman military organization.
Related
- The Ottomans deliberately kept European officers subordinate and low-paid in their new army (similarity 0.94)
- Religious difference did not bar Europeans from top ranks in Egypt’s new army (similarity 0.80)
- Egyptian army officers acted as mercenaries loyal to pay, not nationalists (similarity 0.78)