3 pics from the Balkans;

a militia ( Serdars) with Austrian K.u.K. army officersin Hercegovina 1905
police in the town of Trebinje 1907
a Royal Guard from Gorazde around the 20ies or perhaps a little later

Mongolian warrior in battle dress, Mongolia, circa 1900.

Americans.

Usually family members in this sort of photo, and I would guess Confederate recruits, 1860.

Its not a souvenir picture, they really were just that heavily armed in everyday life. It was really not uncommon at all for many of the peoples of Anatolia and the Balkans.

"In front of and behind the mules or at their sides, walked robust young men; they had light and narrow clogs at their feet; woolen breeches wrapped around their legs; a reddish belt tightened their waist, contained first pistols and carried the leather powder magazines; from the belt hung the half-meter long sabers, next to small powder boxes and bags which contained bullets: their busts were covered with jackets of variegated wool, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows; and the very long sleeves of their shirts, tied at their ends, passed behind their necks; at their backs, on the right side, stood the rifles, having barrels a meter long, and flat triangular stocks; they wore the Tunisian fez, wrapped in large red silk kefié, rolled up several times, giving a terrible appearance to their faces; They were all tall with blond moustaches curled up on their alert and young faces : they were the brave men of Zeïtoun." -Zeïtoun: Depuis les origines jusqu'à l'insurrection de 1895

Your original photo that you posted was so far back in the thread that i am reposting it so that your response here can make more sense. ;)

Indeed, hereby a few more pics from several peoples on the Balkans.
Don’t forget, those times where dangerous with bandits, brigands, local militia, unpaid soldiers from armies wandering around at the border of great empires…it was not that safe and one had to protect oneself….

I never forget the first time I arrived in Sarajevo and Kotor on motorbike in 1985, I was asked where I came from. On my reply “ Maastricht”, they asked where that was. When I said “Limburg” a big long laughter followed.
Asking what was so funny, they told me that Limburg was synonym for BS, nonsense, nothing….
Root cause was simple :
since Medieval times when all were part of the Holy Roman Empire ( Emperor Sygismund) and also later when the Ottoman and Habsburg successors took over, if a guy would travel from Sarajevo to Cologne , Maastricht (Limburg)or Brussels, chances he arrived or worse returned were a minimum . Also found in Crnojanski’ semi historical book “ the Pandurs” AKA “ migration”. Hence Limburg became quite understandable a “ funny ” laughable name, implying either a suicidal mission or one of no return caused by danger on the road….so not to be compaied with Jack Kerouac’s “ on the road”….
Just a simple indication or justification one had to arm himself very well. A matter which continued through the Balkan wars of the 1912ies to the tragic events in the former Yu during the 1990ies

Made sense to me and if you look which borders one had to cross from the Balkans and which dangers to face, one had to be carefully and good armed as there was no 2nd amendment on the Bill of Rights in the Balkans…:-)

Hi GP,

Thank you for posting the nice photos.
Greetings from another resident of (south) Limburg

Nubians. Sudan, second half of the 19th century

Armenian from Moks region

Bit hard to see, but he has a Khanjar dagger and a curved saber. From what I have been able to tell the swords used in the very easternmost part of the Ottoman Empire by Armenians and Kurds were more similar to Persian Shamshirs or Transcaucasian/Georgian Khmali sabers than to the classic Turkish Kilic. The Yatagan was also not widely used there.

as in a yataghan topic, the Balkan Wars was mentioned, enclosed a few pics from the men involved...

Albanian, Greek, Montenegrin, Bulgarian, Serbian