Soaring provisioning ambitions outpaced Egyptian logistics, leaving soldiers with inedible bread

Evidence

The bread issued to the soldiers was often either rotten or improperly cooked, and Ibrahim Pasha had to order an investigation into why it was constantly inedible and black in color. Earlier in Arabia the situation was not much better. In response to repeated complaints that the warehouses in Jedda were empty, Mehmed Ali wrote to the governor of Mecca insisting that enough food supplies had already been sent and it could not be true as was claimed by his officials there that the supplies had already been used up. It was later discovered that these warehouses were unsuitable for storing food and that in consequence a lot of the peksimet sent had gone bad and “entered the state of that which has a name but no body (ismi var cismi yok).” The problems of inadequate storage conditions, bad quality of food and untimely deliveries to the army in Arabia continued to irk the authorities which could not find proper ways to keep the army well fed. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 937

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader reading about how ambitious military expansion outruns the logistical-administrative capacity that would sustain it.