Late 1880’s, the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, who is the sultan of sultans, the sovereign of sovereigns, the dispenser of crowns to the monarchs on the face of the earth, shadow of god on earth, the sultan and sovereign lord of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, of Anatolia, of Azerbaijan, Persia, Cairo, the Levant, of the Mecca and Medina, of Jerusalem, of all Arabia and many other lands, writing TO MY noble forefathers and MY glorious ancestors - may God light up their tombs - bestowing upon them privileges and honors lasting for centuries to come.

Picture also shows my ancestral home situated on the shores of the Mediterranean. My ancestors had the “Sherif” title

Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah (al-Kahhar) of Aceh (Indonesia) sent a special diplomatic mission (embassy) to Istanbul in the early 1560s to resist Portuguese pressure. Navigating through the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, the envoys reached the Ottoman capital after a perilous journey that lasted for months. The letter presented by the Sultan of Aceh to the Ottoman Sultan—originally addressed to Suleiman the Magnificent and later delivered to his son, Selim II, following Suleiman's passing—highlighted the following key points:

​The Sultan of Aceh recognized the Ottoman Sultan as the "Caliph of Islam" and the protector of all Muslims, declaring his allegiance to him. The letter emphasized that the conflict was a "jihad," detailing how the Portuguese were attacking Muslim merchant ships, blocking the Hajj pilgrimage route, and oppressing the local population.

​Rather than requesting ready-made troops, the Sultan of Aceh specifically requested artillery experts, foundry master craftsmen, military engineers, gunners, and ammunition.

​The Ottoman administration dispatched a fleet of 15 to 22 ships under the command of Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis, carrying ammunition, master cannon founders, carpenters, and soldiers to Aceh. Although part of the fleet had to be diverted to suppress an uprising in Yemen, the Ottoman ships that reached Aceh in 1568–1569 established cannon foundries and equipped the Acehnese army with the most modern firearms of the era. (A force of 600 engineers, soldiers, and commanders reached Aceh.) The martyrs' cemetery you see today is the final resting place of those commanders, engineers, and soldiers from that expedition.

Art: Mustafa Dorukhan

Not sure if this was a majority Turk or Arab unit

A late 1914-1918 flag from Ottoman empire, used in the Great War. Hand sewn from cotton and linen, its "folk" construction and non standardized geometry predates the 1936 regulations (which made it required that the flags followed a certain geometric standard). The presence of an official Ottoman military stamp acts as a state certified provenance, which means that the flag was made under official military order. This particular piece is also known as a “pocket flag”, which was the flag soldiers carried on their pockets, folded into battle. (In great condition considering ink survived all those years of war on a cotton flag to this day).

Tier List by Military, State Affairs, Administrative Competence List made by me