Welcome to Ottoman Uniforms. This is a historical interest website looking at Ottoman military uniforms and insignia, from sellected periods, between 1876 till 1923.

Intended for English speaking researchers, interested in military history; collecting; wargaming; modelling; military fashion history; art history; filmmakers; and family histories.

• This is a non-political historical exploration of the various uniforms and insignia that developed over the various periods.
• This study identifies over 1,000 costumes and uniforms and insignia, with a major focus on the Ottoman Army, and Navy.
• Examples are taken from surviving uniforms, period illustrations, written descriptions, and photographs.

Many of the terms, phrases and spellings of ranks are also used, to preserve what may have been original pronunciations.

• For instance, between 1880 and 1916 commonly the Ottoman rank of major, is written in German, and British references as ‘Bimbashi’. Whereas in modern Turkish it is correctly spelled as Binbashi (from the Turkish – a chief of a thousand).
• In this particular case, it is known that ‘Bimbashi’ is actually soldier Arabic, a pidgin of Arabic which developed among the Anglo-Egyptian military (used typically between 1870  and 1920).

Chris Flaherty