By Andrew McGregor

Egypt has one of many oldest civilizations and proudest nationwide histories on this planet, yet such a lot army histories deal with it as an insignificant battleground for different nice imperial powers similar to the Ottoman Empire, the French, and the British. In a full of life and stirring narrative, this paintings tells the untold tale of the Egyptian adventure. It appears to be like on the lives of Egyptian infantrymen combating at domestic and overseas, and indicates the jobs these infantrymen and their leaders have performed in Middle-Eastern and international historical past for 500 years—especially within the convulsions that experience remodeled the Muslim global in the past centuries.Beginning with an summary of Egypt's historical and medieval background, the e-book then explores Ottoman army rule, explaining how a tiny Turkish-speaking minority maintained absolute energy via holding army wisdom out of the seize of local Egyptians. Readers will see how Napoleon's failed Egyptian crusade of 1798 brought the state to Europe yet, extra vital, introduced smooth Western affects to Egypt. through the nineteenth century, new fingers and strategies and the emerging strength of nationalism remodeled Egypt because the empire of the Ottoman Turks slowly decayed. Independence used to be thwarted by means of the British, who took over the rustic within the Eighteen Eighties to safe hyperlinks to India. but the British cleared the path for independence, retraining and strengthening the Egyptian army to make it the most powerful and such a lot nationalist strength within the state. eventually, McGregor's last chapters examine Arab nationalism, and on the Egyptian military within the wars of the overdue twentieth century.