Revisiting the History of the Egyptian Army
Revisiting the History of the Egyptian Army
This chapter is a major contribution to reshaping one's perspective on a topic of tremendous importance to both the monarchical era and Egypt's post-1952 years. The 1936 military reforms facilitated the entry of Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser and Anwar al-Sadat into the Officer Academy. Exploring the broad, long-term impact of these reforms on the Egyptian officer corps, this chapter challenges the accepted wisdom that the army was a Turco-Circassian institution before 1936, which the Egyptian petite bourgeoisie then took over. This chapter finds that, even before 1936, native Egyptians of wealthy families as well as soldiers of modest origins already provided a large component of the officer corps. This chapter also examines the organizational dynamics of the clandestine officers’ groups that ultimately led to the fall of the monarchy in 1952.
Keywords: monarchical era, Egyptian officer corps, Turco-Circassian institution, organizational dynamics, clandestine officers, monarchy
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