Hamidiye Alayları

Hamidiye Alayları (Hamidiye Light Cavalry Regiments) are cavalry units predominantly formed from Kurdish tribes during the reign of II. Abdülhamid. Under the influence of various pressures and deficiencies, they were only put into practice in 1895 after a long preparation process (Volume 3, p. 78).

Establishment and Tribes

The establishment of the Regiments is closely linked to the central administration's policies towards tribes at the time. In a report penned in 1896 by the Yaver-i Ekrem of the period, Kurds were classified into two main categories under the names "Mil" and "Zil"; this classification method remained decisive in subsequent years and was also used by Ziya Gökalp (Volume 3, pp. 77-78). According to documents written in the same period, most of some tribes under Iranian suzerainty —for example, a part of the Celali tribe and the Caf tribe— were included in the Hamidiye Light Cavalry Regiments thanks to the Sultan (Volume 3, p. 77).

Not only Kurdish tribes but also tribes such as Arab, Turkmen, and Karapapak were included in the Regiments. Despite this, during this period, Kurds, in the person of the Hamidiye Alayları, became the vanguard of the Sultan's local power. So much so that, according to some accounts, it is even claimed that Sultan Abdülhamid was conceptualized among Kurds at that time as "Bavê Kurdan," meaning "Father/Ancestor of the Kurds" (Volume 3, p. 78). The establishment of the Regiments also affected the position of sheikhs, as well as ağas and ayans or beys who had lost their former power, in the transformation of social order (Volume 3, p. 78).

Armenian Question and Archival Traces

The Hamidiye Alayları, as a subject intertwined with the Armenian Question, largely reflected in Ottoman archives as part of public order incidents; in this context, Kurdish-Armenian relations also constitute an independent field of study (Volume 3, p. 78). Views penned by the Müddei-i Umumi, that is, the prosecutors of the period, which include the advantage to be provided by the settlement of Arab and Kurdish tribes and the establishment of the Hamidiye Alayları, are also among the archival documents (Volume 3, p. 96).

Tribal chiefs included in the Regiments were occasionally hosted in İstanbul. For example, correspondence regarding the provision of morning and evening meals to Hacı Mahmud Efendi, one of the chiefs of the Milli Aşireti within Diyarbekir province, and his companions in 1900, is found in the archive (Volume 3, p. 86). In the photographic collections of the archive, there are records belonging to commanders such as the Miran Aşireti, who participated in the Hamidiye Alayları in front of the Diyarbekir Government House, and Cavalry Mirlivası Erzincanlı Mustafa Paşa (Volume 3, p. 93).

Detailed documents regarding the administrative and military structure of the Regiments are located in the İrade Harbiye (İ.HB) fund. This fund contains documents concerning the command levels in the Hamidiye Alayları, individuals serving in the regiments, the administrative structure of the regiments, and appointments within the regiments (Volume 3, p. 112).

Historical Importance

When considered as a whole, the Hamidiye Alayları hold a significant place in terms of Kurdish history studies of the II. Abdülhamid period, and the events that developed around these regiments are a research topic in themselves (Volume 3, p. 78). The subject is frequently mentioned in the Ottoman archive under headings such as the control and settlement of tribes, and Kurdish-Armenian-Nestorian relations (Volume 3, pp. 101, 107).