He was awarded the rank of liwaý (Brigadier General) in 1864, and in 1867 he was appointed sirdar (Commander-in-Chief) of the Egyptian army.įollowing the defeat of the Egyptian forces in the battle of Gundät, in November 1875, IsmaCil ordered the dispatching of a substantial army to destroy ase Yohannés IV and ensure Egyptian control of the Massawa Khartoum route. Muhammad Ratib was summoned back to Cairo. When ţidiw Ismail baša succeeded Muhammad Said in 1863, he reversed the latter’s policy and chose to rely on the old guard of Circassian officers, and on European and American mercenaries.
Muhammad Ratib left to serve in the Ottoman army in Istanbul. He also humiliated Muhammad Ratib personally, to the extent that the latter tried to commit suicide by shooting himself (his face remained disfigured for the rest of his life). However, when Muhammad Said came to power in 1854, he decided to marginalize the Circassian elite and promote a new generation of native Egyptian officers. He was then chosen to pursue further studies in France, where he graduated from the Chasseur Military School. Muhammad Ratib received his early training in a new military school ( Madrasat al mafruza), opened by Muhammad Said baša in 1849.
CAbbas baša, succeeding Muhammad Ali as Egypt’s ruler, strengthened his reliance on that elite group. Muhammad Ratib’s father was a member of the Turco-Circassian elite which had dominated Egyptian society for centuries, and whose descendants went on to serve in the modernized army of Muhammad CAli baša (s. 1920) was the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian army during the battle of GuraC in the Egyptian–Ethiopian war of 1876.
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