Turkish generals' service dress cap (kabalak)

Turkish Army general officer's dark olive green fine woollen cap (kabalak). A wide hat band of self fabric has been sewn around the bottom half of this simple hat. The ends of the hat band are rounded and one end overlaps the other at the back of the hat. The hat band has a 6mm wide strip of khaki cotton trim along its top and bottom edge, and the bottom edge of the cap is trimmed in the same manner. The crown is lined with dark green polished cotton, above a brown leather head band. A maker's label is printed in black on the lining on the left side. It is not readable but it features crossed flags below a crescent. Two of the Australian War Memorial's early type of cloth paper accession labels are tied to the head band.

This hat was taken from the commander of the Ottoman 53rd Division after he was overtaken and captured, with his staff on the road from Deir Sineid to Gaza, where he was to have taken command of the garrison, by a troop of the 7th Light Horse during the first battle of Gaza on 26 March 1917. He was captured by 2487 Trooper Harold Douglas Price of 'D' Troop, 'A' Squadron, 7 Light Horse Regiment, AIF, who was accompanied by Trooper Burchell and Trooper Lancelot George Bosanquet. See Official History pp.268-9