In the thirty or so years that separate the battles of Imbāba and Acre something dramatic had taken place. The haphazard, instinctive “art” of warfare had given place to the planned, hierarchical “science” of war. The warrior had become an extinct species and was replaced by the disciplined, trained soldier. In less than thirty years, in fact in a little more than ten years, a “modern” army was built in Egypt, an army that was essentially different from that of the Mamluks, different not only in its size or in the method of recruiting its soldiers, but also in the manner in which its soldiers were trained and disciplined.

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 649