The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-07-26 00:00:00

MILITARY RESOURCES OF TURKEY.

The Turkish army, as at present organized and equip-
ped, has never yet been brought face to face with a Euro-
pean force. Tn the last Russian war the Nizam, or regu-
lars, were a few raw, ill-organized conscripts, and the
greater part of the army was composed of a hasty levy of
irregulars. At present the regular force that Turkey can
bring into the field consists of seven ordous, or camps,
each of 35,000 men, and each of them has a redif, or re-
serve force, of those who, having served five years in the
regular army, have still seven years to serve as militia on
extraordinary occasions. Besides the regular army, Tur-
key contains a vast irregular force of great variety, which
might be made most useful during a campaign. In Eu-
ropean Turkey the Bosnians are a warlike race, and under
their feudal system—which was crushed though not est
tinguished by Omer Pasha—could furnish a large popula-
tion of fighting men, both foot end cavalry. The horses-
are small and thickset, but active beasts, and well adapted
for their mountainous country ; their riders are armed
with a long gun, gaily ornamented with mother-of-pearl
and silken tassels, besides a yatagan, or long knife, and
pistols. The foot are armed in the same manner. This
race of Slavonians are remarkable for their large robust
frame and warlike spirit. They were bound under the
ancient feudal system to furnish a large force of arras'.
men for the service of the empire, and in the late war with
Russia this force marched towards the Balkan, but were
not permitted to pass through Serbia, since Milosh, the
Serbian Prince, was in the interest of Russia and checked
them with the Serbian troops. The Bosnians are the
most fanatical Mussulmans, and are distinguished f,re7
their fellow- Christians by wearing the turban ; the fens
of their costume is like that of almost all the Sloven
of Asia Minor. The Albanians, a kilted people,
costuroet
who re-
semble the ancient Scottish Highlanders even in,
are entirely composed of foot, and are as hardy, dirty, and
savage as any mountain warriors in the world. They are
excellent riflemen, and are Mussulmans or Christians,
much as their interest suits them. They are employed in
garrison work in every remote corner of the empire, and
are everywhere the terror of the peasant. The Grand
Vizier is an Albanian ; indeed, they have furnished many
remarkable men. In Asia Minor, the stronghold of the
Turks and the citadel of Islam, the whole Mussulman po-
pulation would, in case of war, rise almost to a man. The
Osmanlis compose the agricultural and town populations,
and the use of arms is very common among them, though
they cannot be called an armed race, since the towns ge-
nerally contain garrisons of regular soldiers, so that the
merely dons his arms when undertaking a journae-
The nearest Mussulman neighbours to Russia are the
Lagi, a small but savage people, inhabiting the ancient
Colchis, and, until lately, serving feudally under Dere
beys ; which custom still maintains to a certain extent,.
but nothing like what it was formerly, when a small arm"'
could be raised in a few days under the heads of then'
chiefs ready for active service. These Lagi have a distinct
language of the Indo-Germanic family, and are a bard),
aboriginal race of red-bearded mountaineers, quite dis-
tinct from the Turks but joined by the powerful sympathy
of religion. They are all footmen, and are armed will
a short heavy rifle, a calm 6 or large broad dagger, Mau
pistols. About thirty years ago an army of 500 of them
besieged Trebizond, but were negotiated with and induced
to retire. They are agriculturists and fishermen, and in-
habit villages which are thinly scattered in the dense pine
forests covering that mountainous tract lying south of the'
river Phisis. From the coast of the Black Sea to the
Taurus chain of mountains a great part of the population
is nomad, and, besides the Turks or Osmanlis (and the
Armenian and Greek Christians, who are non-combatants),
consists of two distinct races—the Turcomans. who pos-
sessed themselves of the land before the advent of the
Osmanlis, and who wander with their black tents up to
the shores of the Bosphorus •, and the Kurds on the east,
the ancient Carduchi, who harassed the 10,000 Greekee
and who, in the middle ages, gave the great Saladin for
the defence of Islam. These letter people are partly no-
mad, most of them leaving their huts in the mountains to
wander with their tents and flocks in the rich valley's
during the summer months. These people are found from
Ararat to the sonthsrn mountains of Persia, and conse-
quently dwell in every variety of climate, and lead from
childhood a sort of military life. The northern Kurclg
about Ararat are still the very models of medireval Eastern
warriors, such as Saladin led against the Western Knights
of Christendom. The adventurous tourist may at the
present day, while traversing some broad valley in these
regions, suddenly come upon a troop of these Kurds,
mounted on active, spare, and high-bred looking horses,
and clothed head and trunk with chain mail armour,
and armed with the long tapering lance, the mace, the
scimitar, or battle-axe, their chiefs being distinguished
by the richness of their arms, their superior horses, and
the white plume of the egret in front of the polished
casque. In the highest mountains the Carduchi are
still found among the crags of Bohtan and Julamerk,
but are not horsemen. Their arms are the rifle and.
dagger, both of home manufacture. Their enormous and
,ny.coloured and their brilliant costume give
- remarkable apl,,,arance, and their fierce melancholy
-c is but an index of that stern fanaticism which
--ht years ago sacrificed many thousands of
'sties' mountaineers. Further south we
eople, with the same habits, but first-
eo have within the last thirty or forty
years substituted guns for bows and arrows, and who.sio.
combat, quickly wheeling round their horses and fbot
charging their guns while fleeing, are, like the au,Vuers,
Scythia.ns, more terrible in retreat than onset. The are
comans, who are spread over the whole of Asia Miner'
also a most warlike people. Clans numbering many thou-
sands acknowledee the Sultan as the representative of the
i
Caliphs and the Sovereign Lord of Islam, from whom alb
the Frank Kings receive their crowns ; but they are Prac-
tically independent of him, and pay no taxes but to their
own chiefs. In the neighbourhood of Cmsarea, Kasen
ognion, a Tureoman chief, numbers 20,000 armed horse-
men, rules despotically over a largo district, and has often
successfully resisted the Sultan's arms. These people
lead a nomad life, are always engaged in petty warfare,
are well mounted, and armed with pistol, scimitar, spear'
or gun, and would always be useful as irregular troops.
South of the Taurus we still find numerous Kurds and
Turcomans, but the Arab element begins and prevails, as
we travel southward, to the exclusion of every other. The
citizens and villagers of Arabistan are not unaccustomed
to the call to arms, but the Bedouins, as is well known,
are incomparable in all that relates to long marches, sod's
s
den onslaughts, plundering convoys, and the harassing ofretreating armies. These swarthy savages—poor, z
Al-
armed, and almost naked—are yet far better mounted
than any other nomads, and, for anything but actual
fighting, would be superior to either Kurd or Turconesue
The Arab is essentially brave, and battle is the breath of
his nostrils ; but as he loves his mare better than hit:Tose'',
he dislikes too close combat lest his four-footed fried"
and companion should be injured. The Bedouin is seldom
armed with any other weapon than a long lance and'
rude sabre, though the Arabs about Syria have frequently
guns. Many great Sheikhs could, on an extraordinary
occasion, bring 20,000 or 30,000 men into the fie
lee
mounted on animals incomparable for speed and endu-
rance, whose riders are endowed with extraordinary ill
stincts for living in and ranging wildernesses, where 02:
other creature would die of hunger and thirst. Add reS
these the Druses of the Lebanon, the Yezidees, and mho:
armed non-Mussulmans, who would probably fight whete
most plunder was to be gained, and we have a rude sketch
of the irregulars of Turkey.

,torian Chri

AN ESTABLISHMENT FOE GENTLEWOMEN during ill'
ness has for some time existed in London, though hitherto
but little known, and restricted in utility' by the narrow
limits of a small house and insufficient income. Effolt'
have, however, been made to extend the sphere of 219
operations ; and on Wednesday a meeting of the patron!
and supporters of the establishment was held in a ne_
house in llarley-street, where the society have take'.
larger premises, and hope to render their exertions bene,
ficial among a wide circle of recipients. The Bishop. 01
London presided at the meeting, and resolutions declartp!
the usefulness and advocating the cause of the establish
went were unanimously adopted.