and Progress. After graduating, he underwent additional military training in Germany until returning to Istanbul in 1909. From there he was promptly assigned as a military attaché to Cairo, Egypt. In 1914, al-Azma was commander of the Ottoman Army‘s 25th Infantry Division during World War I. Later during the war, he was reassigned as a deputy of War Minister Enver Pasha in Istanbul. Toward the war's end, al-Azma was appointed chief of staff of the Istanbul-based First Ottoman Army according to historian Phillip S. Khoury, or chief of staff of the Ottoman army in the Caucasus according to historian Ruth Roded. According to historian Michael Provence, it is "widely believed" that soon after this post, al-Azma joined the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans launched by Sharif Hussein of Mecca in 1916, "but he actually served as a decorated Ottoman frontline officer until October 1918". That month, Damascus was captured by the Arab Revolt's British-backed Sharifian Army led by Hussein's son Emir Faisal. Al-Azma subsequently returned to Damascus. He joined al-Fatat, an Arab nationalist secret society founded in 1911, though it is not apparent when, and became a personal chamberlain of Emir Faisal. Unlike other ex-Ottoman officers from the empire's Arab lands who had hailed almost exclusively from modest upbringings, al-Azma came from the upper urban class. In January 1919, Faisal appointed al-Azma as Damascus' military delegate to Beirut. Minister of War Appointment In Prime Minister Rida al-Rikabi's government, al-Azma was promoted to minister of war and on 26 January 1920 was also appointed Chief of General Staff by Emir Faisal to replace Yasin al-Hashimi, who had been arrested by British forces and detained in Palestine. Al-Azma's Damascene roots and reputation as a local and decorated Ottoman wartime general made him "an obvious choice for minister of war", according to Provence, despite having fought against the Arab Revolt months prior. During his time in office, al-Azma established the foundations and hierarchy of the modern-day Syrian Army, according to historian Sami Moubayed. He gathered arms and ammunition left behind by the Ottoman Army in Syria, raised funds for new weaponry and by mid-1920, had created a military force of some 10,000 men, primarily consisting of Bedouin volunteers and former Ottoman officers. Opposition to the French Mandate Faisal declared the Arab Kingdom of Syria in March 1920. However, in the secret 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement between the United Kingdom and France, the two powers