Point 5 of 6 — Lesson 14: Building the Modern State – Education, Administration and Army under Muhammad AliQuestion bank: 0 questions (0 with pictures)
05Building military strength: officers and soldiers
Training the officers
Muhammad Ali was a military man who understood the importance of military power, so he turned to building an organised national forcein place of theirregular, mercenary and mutinous troops.
He foundedmilitary schools to train officers and founded the Muhanfasakhana (school of engineering) to prepare experts for the industries connected with the army — so the army was aninstrument of the advance of civilisationbesides its military role.
Hisfirst attemptat regular officers: he ordered the training of a corps ofTurkish soldiers who had taken part in the Wahhabi wars, but theyrefused modern training, and matters went as far as aplot to depose him.
He returned to his idea in1820and opened a school atAswan to graduate officers on the modern system, relying on the French colonel Sève, who took the nameSuleiman Pasha al-Faransawi after embracing Islam.
Recruiting the soldiers
He decided to avoid recruitingTurks and Arnautsbecause of theirmutinous nature, and to avoidEgyptiansfor fear oftheir revolt; so he turned to recruitingSudanese.
The Sudanese experimentfailed: most of themdied because the climate did not suit them.
He decided to rely onEgyptians, and the experimentsucceeded in the war of Greece (1824).
When conscription widened, he brought a group of senior French officers to help organise the army, and sent young men to Europeto complete their military studies; theyreplaced the foreign instructors on their return.
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