The Hamidiye regiments were well-armed, irregular, mainly Sunni Kurdish but also Turkish, Circassian, Turkmen, Yörük, and Arab cavalry formations that operated in the south eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Established by and named after Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1891, they were intended to be modeled after the Cossacks and were supposedly tasked to patrol the Russo-Ottoman frontier. However, the Hamidiye were more often used by the Ottoman authorities to harass and assault Armenians living in Eastern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
Officers of the Karapapakh Hamidiyeh cavalry
Abdulhamid or Abdul Hamid II was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a period of decline with rebellions, and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire (1877–78), the loss of Egypt and Cyprus from Ottoman control, followed by a successful war against the Kingdom of Greece in 1897, though Ottoman gains were tempered by subsequent Western European intervention.
Prince Abdul Hamid at Balmoral Castle in 1867, accompanying his uncle Sultan Abdulaziz during his visit to Western Europe between 21 June 1867 – 7 August 1867.
Ottoman troops under Romanian attack at the Siege of Plevna (1877) in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78)
Şehzade (Prince) Abdul Hamid in 1868.
An example of what once hung on the Door of Repentance of the Ka'ba in 1897 until 1898. It was made in Egypt under Abdul Hamid II's ruling of the Ottoman Empire. His name is stitched into the fifth line following a verse from the Qur'an.
