This book looks at the development and organization of Turkish Army, Navy and Police uniforms from 1826 till the early 1850s. In 1826, use of Janissary as the main Soldier-type ended and new Soldiers were uniformed, organized, equipped and trained according to a European Model Army design. In 1826, following crushing of the Janissary Revolt, and their formal disbandment, the new Mansure Army, was formed under Abdul Mahmud II, 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Reforms continued throughout the first half of the 19th Century, till the era of Sultan Abdulmecid I, saw reorganization into the Nizamiye Army. Ongoing reforms substantially changed the Turkish Soldier’s appearance, and their system of rank insignia, and created the modern Turkish Army, familiar to historical enthusiasts in the Crimean, and later wars.

Volume 1: Turkish Army uniforms in the Crimean War Period, and Volume 2, which covers the Turkish Navy, the Contingents, Additional Cavalry Units and the Romanian Army, both acknowledge as its key source of information, the research by Charles A. Norman, a well-known British military artist and researcher. Norman’s work transliterated original observations, illustrations and notes made by two Crimean War Commentators: Joseph-Emile Vanson, and Constantin Guys. Constantin Guys was a reporter, and illustrator for The Illustrated London News, and in 1854 was assigned to the Crimea to produce drawings of wartime scenes which could be turned into engravings for news. Constantin Guys documented various Turkish uniforms, with his description of each scene, written in English on the back of the drawing or below it. The approach taken in this volume has been to overlay Norman’s original interpretations, combining this with other period written descriptions, illustrations, paintings, and photographs taken at the time, hopefully getting a closer interpretation of the Turkish Army uniforms seen in the Crimea. Many of the library and museum collections provide a significant amount of information. However, much of this is not accurately dated. The dating of these often slip by two or three years, and up to a decade earlier or later. The illustrations presented in both volumes are based on this combination of materials.