Several years ago I was at a SYW convention and I was thinking about building some period armies, but I wasn't sure which countries to do. My friends had some massive Prussian and Austrian armies and everyone seemed to have armies representing the Western Theater of the SYW and I didn't want to just add a small contingent to someone else's army. I wanted to do something new, where I could be a major contributor.

Dennis Smail of RSM Ltd. suggested that I investigate the Ottoman Turks. I could build an Ottoman army and they in turn could fight the Austrians and Russians. Several other people in the crowd thought that this would be a good idea as well (easy for them to say!). My initial problem, though, was uniform information. The general consensus was that there was not any formal uniform for the Ottoman army of this period. However, I wasn't ready to accept this answer. I felt that there simply had to be some information out there. It was just a matterof doing some digging and research.

My first course of action was to contact several military book stores and let them know what I was looking for. I also ran an advertisement in MWAN seeking information on the Turks. Perhaps the best move was letting all of my friends know. Quite a few of them were able to find miscellaneous articles or books that greatly assisted my research.

One day Jim Purky suggested that I should call the Turkish Consulate Office in Chicago. The Consul gave me quite a few names of professors in the U.S.A. and at colleges that specialized in Turkish history. Well, in most cases, the professors could only supply general information concerning the military aspect of the Ottoman Empire. I wasted several months pursuing this avenue.

Eventually, I found that my mother had a friend, Aysenil Belger, who was from Turkey. When I contacted her she informed me that her father was the Turkish Ambassador to Yemen, and that several members of her family were officers in the Turkish army. Aysenil said that I could call her father and that he should be able to assist me. She also volunteered to help me out in the future. Mr. Belger informed me that there was a Turkish Military Attache in Washington D.C. and that they would have the exact address for the Turkish equivalent of West Point.

The Military Attache provided me with an address and I sent off a letter requesting information concerning the Ottoman army during the 1700's. I asked for uniform, battle, and order of battle information. I also tossed in about $8.00 worth of IRC's (international Response Coupons--available from any US Post Office) hoping that this might cover some of the cost of postage. After about five months, my wife called me at work and informed me that there was a large package from Turkey.

When I got home, I quickly opened the package and went through its contents. I received a very nice letter from General Huseyin Gorur of the Turkish Army. He had somebody on his staff compile 25 pages of information. Included was information on tactics, uniforms, flags, and command structure. I also received a bunch of color plates and a uniform book on the army in the late 1800's (I wasn't sure why they included this last item, but some of my friends have been able to use it). In addition, I received four more sources for additional information. I am currently in the process of digging into these sources.

I thought about having all of this information translated, but I checked into several services and they all wanted $25.00 per page. I then checked with Aysenil, who was willing to translate everything for me. She told me that in the cover letter to me, the Turkish Military was encouraging me to come to Turkey and research this information firsthand. One problem we ran into in the translation was that some of the words used are no longer in the modern Turkish language. Also, prior to the 1920's the Turkish language was written using the Arabic alphabet. This can create problems in translation.

It has now been about a year and a half since I first started my research. I have presently accumulated about ten books, numerous articles and color plates on the period. I still have a long way to go in my research. Hopefully, I can contribute some more articles to the SYWA Journal in the future as I pick up more information.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cressy, Edward S. "History of the Ottoman Turks" London 1878.
Longworth, Philip "The Art of Victory", London, 1965
Miller, William "The Ottoman Empire & Its Successors," Cambridge, 1927.
Eversely, George J. "The Turkish Empire, Its Growth and Decline", London, 1917.
Sugar, Peter E "Southeastern Europe Under Ottoman Rule 1354-1804" Seattle, 1977.
Shaw, Stanford "History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey" Cambridge, 1976.
Ralston, David B. "Importing the European Army" Chicago, 1990.
Lewis, Bernard and Zygulski, Zdzislaw, "Ottoman Art in the Service of the Empire" New York, 1992.
Horniker, Arthur L. "Gorget & Sash Magazine" Vol. III No. 3 & 4
Gibbons, Herbert A. "The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire" London, 1918.
Kinross, Lord "The Ottoman Centuries, the Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire" New York, 1977.
Fraser, James "The History of Nadir Shah" London, 1742.