Early Life and Ottoman Army Career
Ja’far Pasha al-Askari was born on September 15, 1885 in Baghdad, when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire, the fourth of five brothers with one sister. His father, Mustafa Abdul Rahman Al-Mudarris, was a colonel in the Ottoman Army. Ja’far attended the Military College in Baghdad before transferring to the Military College in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul where he graduated in 1904 as a Second Lieutenant. He was then sent to the Sixth Army stationed in Baghdad. Ja’far then was sent to Berlin, Germany from 1910-1912 to train and study as part of an Ottoman initiative to reform the army through the selection of officers via competition. Al-Askari stayed in this program until ordered back to the Ottoman Empire to fight in the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan States.
After the war with the Balkan states ended in 1913, Ja’far was made an instructor at the Officer Training College in Aleppo, but eight month later passed qualifications for the Staff Officers’ College in Istanbul.
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