The Circassian cavalry (Groupement d' Escadrons Tcherkess) originated with Muslim refugees from the northern Caucasus region, who fled Tsarist Russian expansion during the nineteenth century. An estimated 850,000 sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire, of whom 30,000 were settled in Syria where they were employed in frontier regions as mounted tribal irregulars. From this role they passed into French service after 1920.[2]