At the height of the Syrian war and after capturing Damascus, Ibrahim Pasha issued orders to Brigadier Ahmed Bey Istanbullu to march from Damascus to Tripoli and to stay there until further notice. Ahmed Bey, however, disobeyed orders and initiated a march towards Ibrahim Pasha's camp. When Ibrahim heard about this he ordered a court martial to be convened at once "because we do not have beys or princes [in the army], and whoever has his leg slipping (ayağı kayan) is immediately led to the court for his case to be reviewed there." Ibrahim wrote to Abbas Pasha asking him to convene a court martial immediately, and sure enough his nephew was soon presiding over one that was composed of six brigadiers, four colonels and a lieutenant-colonel. The military tribunal found Ahmed Bey guilty of violating military laws in times of war and sentenced him to five months' imprisonment in the Liman of Alexandria. Because of the army's need for such a senior officer and owing to the "delicacy of the situation," however, Ibrahim Pasha reduced the sentence to only thirty-one days' imprisonment. Furthermore, it soon became clear why the original harsh sentence was passed in the first place: Ahmed Bey had dared to send his daily reports directly to the War Department in Egypt rather than sending them to Ibrahim Pasha first, thus appearing to ignore and circumvent the authority of Ibrahim Pasha. It was this action rather than the alleged disobeying of orders that prompted Ibrahim Pasha to humiliate the officer since he "pretended that I am not Serasker [i.e. Commander-in-Chief]."

DEFINE: Ibrahim's 'slipping leg' metaphor frames procedural bypass through the chain of command as the gravest military offense.

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 929