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Ruler:
‘Abd al-Majid (1823-61)
(Struck in the rule of)
State:
Ottoman Empire
The city of Kars, in north-eastern Turkey, was a possession of the Ottoman Empire between 1378 and 1877, but over the course of the nineteenth century an exposed and strategic position made it a frequent target of Russian attacks. Defended successfully in 1821, it fell in 1828, but was recovered in time to be a target anew in the Crimean War.
The Russians, who were in a dangerous position at the siege of Sebastopol, decided as almost the last gasp of the war to open a new front directly attacking the Ottoman Empire. Kars stood in their path, and withstood a five-month siege. Turkish reinforcements were sent but were used to skirmish with the Russian forces; facing winter without resupply, and with snowfall preventing their relief, the garrison surrendered on 26 November 1855. In the negotiations that ended the Crimean War Kars was transferred to Russia, although it would be recovered for good in 1918.
No dishonour was attached to the 1855 surrender by Sultan Abdúlmecid, and those who had assisted in the city's defence were awarded this commemorative medal. As the garrison had been under British command, and had numbered a few British troops, not all the recipients were Ottoman soldiers, but the great majority were; nearly twenty thousand were issued to Turkish forces and the issues to Turks and non-Turks are not distinct in any way.
It cannot therefore be told to whom this example of the medal was awarded and in what force he served. Although this medal has become part of the Watson Collection, moreover, it is not in Lester Watson's own lists and there is no information about how he may have acquired it.
History note: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; no provenance.
Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009
Diameter: 36.7 mm
Weight: 24.6 g
Method of acquisition: Given (2009) by Watson, Lester
Production date: AD 1855
Accession number: CM.1457-2009
Primary reference Number: 141551
Ordering: M-0340
Previous object number: LW.0340
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Coins and Medals
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Medal for the Defence of Kars" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/141551 Accessed: 2024-12-22 15:13:26
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/141551
|title=Medal for the Defence of Kars
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 15:13:26|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-141551
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm15/LW_0340_281_29.jpg"
alt="Medal for the Defence of Kars"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Medal for the Defence of Kars</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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