Right - 1901 dated 1882 Hamidiye (SultanAbdul Hamid II) cast brass coat of arms badge (7 x 5.8 cm).
Right - The uniforms rank system was based on the 1861 pattern of cuff chevrons. The Hamidiye Corps were under the command of the Asakir-i Hamidiye Komutani, a Divisional General.
Above - Imperial Army illustration from 1908 [1], and an original (Ron's collection) issued to the cavalry and foot soldiers of the Hamidiye Corps, as part of their uniform, the Ottoman Hamidiye (Cavalry) 1890 Kindjal Sword. The dimensions of the Ottoman Hamidiye (Cavalry) 1890 Kindjal Sword, are:
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[1] Askeri Müze ve Kültür Sitesti Komutanligi. (1986) Osmanli askeri teskilat ve kiyafetleri: 1876-1908 [Ottoman military organization and uniforms] Yayinlari.
Right - A senior officer in the Hamidiye Corps, who is from the 'Karapapak Tribe [1] [2].
The table below shows the 65 tribes, numbers and barracks locations, for the 57 Hamidiye corps regiments. As can be seen most of these a half infantry and cavalry. These were likely organised as:
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[1] Askeri Müze ve Kültür Sitesti Komutanligi. (1986) Osmanli askeri teskilat ve kiyafetleri: 1876-1908 [Ottoman military organization and uniforms] Yayinlari.
[2] The 'Karapapak Tribe is listed below in the table of 'Tribes & Barracks', as no.6.
The Hamidiye Regiments wrere organised into 57 Hamidiye Light Cavalry Regiments (Dragoons) [1], and were stationed in the following towns and villages [2]; as can be seen in the table below, there were some 65 different tribes providing soldiers:
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[1] Kodaman, B."The Hamidiye Light Cavalry Regiments: Abdulhamid II and the Eastern Anatolian Tribes"; War and Diplomacy: the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the Treaty of Berlin, Eds. Hakan Yavuz with Peter Sluglett (Salt Lake City: the University of Utah Press, 2011), s. 382-426.
[2] Avyarov.; Muhammed Varlı. Osmanlı-Rus ve İran Savaşlar'ında Kürtler 1801-1900 [The Kurds in the Ottoman-Russian and -Iranian Wars, 1801-1900]. Ankara: SİPAN, 1995.
After the overthrow of Sultan Abdal Hamid II in 1908/1909, the Hamidiya Cavalry was disbanded as an organized force. Select few units were kept in government service however, among the all-Kurdish units were the renamed “Tribal Regiments”, and deployed to Yemen and Albania.