ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Ascari (Arabic: عسلري, It was therefore also used to designate soldiers recruited from other African Italian colonies, among Somalis, Ethiopians and Berbers.

History
The military corps came from a large group of mercenaries, the Hassan Army, better known as Basci Buzuk ("mad heads"). This armed band was founded in Eritrea by Sangiak Hassan, an Albanian adventurer who intended to serve the local squire.

In 1885, Colonel Tancredi Saletta, head of the first Italian expeditionary force in East Africa, bought Basci Buzuk, including arms, women and children. On 30 April 1885, Albanian Osman, commander of Basci Buzuk, was responsible for recruiting 100 irregulars to serve in the special corps for Africa.

They were then recruited as regulars in 1887 by General Antonio Baldissera, employed by the Colonial Ministry. The natives are the only weak force, the executives are Italians. In 1889, with the creation of the first four Eritrean battalions, the Basci-buzuk were renamed "ascari".

Ascaris were originally recruited in Eritrea and South Arabia. They were then recruited from all the Italian African colonies, among Somalis, Ethiopians and Berbers. To be recruited, they had to pass a walking test of about 60 km. Their discipline was very strict, especially when taught by their own graduates, known as Sciumbasci, who made liberal use of "curbasc", a hippopotamus skin whip used for corporal punishment. Although they were regular troops, they could traditionally take with them their families, who lived with the troops in the camps.

They were organized into "indigenous battalions", initially composed of four companies; each company was divided into two half-companies (each under the orders of a Shiumbasci; the half company could count from one to four bulucs (under the orders of a bulucbasci). When the settlement of Italian Somalia was officially established with its own RCTC in 1908, to distinguish the " indigenous battalions " from the two bodies, they took the names, respectively, of " Eritrean Indigenous Battalion " (or " Eritrean Battalion " ) and " Arab-Somalia Battalion " . When finally, after the conquest of Ethiopia, the Empire was proclaimed, all the battalions took the name "colonial battalion". In Libya, from 1937, the year of annexation of the colony to the Italian metropolitan territory and the corresponding extension of citizenship to all Libyans, the designation