He finished his primary education in Baghdad before going on to the Military Academy (Ottoman Turkish: Mekteb-i Harbiye) in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Mahmud Shevket joined the army in 1882 as a lieutenant and rose through the ranks, eventually achieving the rank of Ferik (Lieutenant General) by 1901. He spent some time in France investigating military technology and was briefly stationed in Crete. He then returned to the Military Academy as a faculty member. He worked under Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (Goltz Pasha) for while and traveled to Germany. In 1905 Mahmud Shevket was appointed governor of the Kosovo Vilayet, during the height of the Macedonian Conflict.