Postcards from the Ottoman Empire

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Infantry in parade and new khaki uniform

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As a follow-on to Sean's Ottoman postcards: a sampling of the uniforms worn until the adoption of a universal khaki dress after the Young Turk coup of 1908/1909. Officers however continued to wear the blue uniform on parade as shown in the second of the post cards. By 1914 the trade-mark fez had almost vanished from the Turkish Army - being replaced by the kabalak (a type of peakless solar topee) amongst other ranks and the kalpak (a sheepskin cossack style hat with coloured cloth top) amongst officers.

The schematic figures above are: 1 General of Division; 2 General of Brigade; 3 ADC; 4 staff officer; 6 Zouave of the Imperial Guard; 7 Infantry of the Imperial Guard officer; 8 Ditto private; 9 Line Infantry NCO; 11 Rifles private; 12 Lancers officer; 13 Light Cavalry officer; 14 Light Cavalry trooper.

The presence of zouaves in the Turkish Army is a curious example of military fashion going around in a circle. The French North African regiments of that name adopted a "Moorish" (actually contemporary Turkish) style of uniform on their formation in the early 1830s and fifty years later the Turks returned the favour by readopting the embroidered jacket, baggy trousers, sash etc for several Imperial Guard units.

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And from trimmed edges:

Above: 5. Sultan's Guard; 10. Albanian Infantry; 15. Lancer nco.
Below: 16. Field Artillery officer; 17 Field Artillery gunner; 18 Engineers officer; 19. Engineers sapper; 20. Zouave in cloak; 21 General (WWI); 22 Infantry officer in kabalak (WWI); 23 Officer in peaked cap (post WWI); Reservist (WWI) in fez.

Missing from these particular plates are the pre 1910 cavalry of the line who wore the same uniforms as the light cavalry (figures 13 and 14) but with red facings instead of green. With the introduction of khaki, Albanians wore white fezs until 1912. Arab units wore the kufiya headcloth during World War I and obsolescent white summer uniforms were retained to a suprising degree - even at Gallipoli.


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Nice scans, the Ottoman Empire seems to be another of those periods that lack any good English publications.
Regards
WF

Beautiful postcards. I wonder if the khaki uniform was still in use in the interwar period as a summer uniform. I'm pretty sure the interwar era Turkish Army wool uniform was sort of a grey-green colour close to the German equivalent but I don't know if I've ever seen their summer cotton field uniform before.