Hamidiye (cavalry)

The Hamidiye regiments (literally meaning "belonging to Hamid", full official name Hamidiye Hafif Süvari Alayları, Hamidiye Light Cavalry 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 in 1891 by Sultan Abdul Hamid II and named after him, the regiments were intended to be modeled after the Cossacks and were supposedly tasked with patrolling the Russo-Ottoman frontier. However, the Hamidiye regiments were frequently used by the Ottoman authorities to harass and assault Armenians living in Eastern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire (Western Armenia in some sources).

A major role in the Hamidian massacres of 1894-96 had been often ascribed to the Hamidiye regiments, particularly during the bloody suppression of the revolt of the Armenians of Sasun (1894).

After Sultan Abdul Hamid II's reign, the cavalry was not dissolved but given a new name, the Tribal Light Cavalry Regiments.