The Duties of Ottoman Infantry Officers on the Field and on the Front, during the Reign of Abdul Hamid II

This study, based on military publications of the time, deals with the peacetime and wartime duties of the infantry officers on the field and on the frontline. These officers were regarded as the fundamental corps in the late period Ottoman army in quantitative and qualitative terms, and they were generally promoted to high ranks in the command and conduct of the army. Even though the late period Ottoman infantry officers experienced all the tragedies of the tumultuous, unstable and unsettling late 19th century, they occasionally played active roles in the administration of the transition from an empire to a nation-state; it is clear that the subsidiary sources regarding their duties and responsibilities are quite limited and insufficient. That’s why, the archival documents, field manuals and regulations about the Ottoman infantry corps constitute the main sources for this study. This aims to contribute to the comprehension of the military rules influencing the duties, responsibilities, professional development and profiles of the late period Ottoman infantry officers. As the official/institutional military publications referred to in this study mostly describe the ideal picture, it has become necessary to introduce the real conditions by disclosing the memories of the late period Ottoman infantry officers. To this end, we have analyzed the memories of some officers and senior officers, who studied at military schools in that period and fought against Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek gangs particularly within the scope of the Macedonian Question. They also took part in the important battles during the subsequent total war period (1911-1922). The data obtained has been analysed and used to shed light on the differences between the existing and the ideal situations