About all we know for sure about the calibers of Ottoman guns is that during the Napoleonic Era there was no standardization and that they came in a bizarre and confusing array of sizes.

The best information we have on the size of Ottoman guns comes from the Prussians. When the Prussians became the main military advisers to the Ottomans in the 1830s they attempted to impose some order on the Ottoman artillery.

By studying these reforms we can get some idea of what the Ottomans were using during the Napoleonic Era.

In his unpublished doctoral dissertation, "The Military Policy of Sultan Mahmud II," (1968, Harvard University), Avigdor Levy says the Prussians reduced both the number and types of guns in the Ottoman army and began to replace them with contemporary French designs.

The sizes of field guns of medium range were reduced to only threeÄ1.5, 3 and 5 caps. The howitzers, known as Abus, were limited to four calibers of 3, 5, 7 and 9 caps, and the long-range heavy guns were limited to 22 and 40 caps.

The term "Cap" indicated the weight of the projectile fired by the gun in Oklces, an Ottoman unit of measure equal to 2.83 pounds. Thus a gun of 1.5 cap was capable of firing a projectile weighing 1.5 Okkes, or about 4.25 pounds. This would make the standard Ottoman artillery equivalent to European guns of:

Field Guns: 4-, 8- and 14-pounders
Howitzers: 8-, 10-, 20- and 25-pounders
Heavy guns - 62- and 113-pounders

At least in the area of field guns, these sizes fit in well with the standard European guns of the Napoleonic Era which tended to come in 4-, 6- or 8-, and 12- or 16-pound field guns.

More Big Guns

The Sultan's Big Guns
Organization of an Ottoman Artillery battery of 10 Cannon
The Pasha's Big Guns