Turkish identity trumped military merit as the criterion for officer appointment.

Evidence

This caused much resentment among the soldiers who complained, “Why do we sacrifice our lives and put ourselves in danger to capture these men only to find them appointed as our officers ruling over us?” Neither Mehmed Ali nor Ibrahim found any problems with this practice, although Ibrahim, being closer to the soldiers and more sensitive to their sentiments, might have been more apprehensive than his father about it. As far as both men were concerned, these were evlad-ɩ Türk who were more entitled and capable than “Arabs” to be appointed as officers. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1329

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels modern colonial armies that promoted co-ethnics over locally-raised soldiers, e.g., British Indian Army officer selection by ‘martial races’.
• SEED: Angle: how institution-blind identity preference corrupts meritocracy — prisoner-of-war captured enemies promoted over loyal soldiers who captured them.