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Bashi-bazouk
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<h2 id="origin-and-history">Origin and history</h2> <p>Although the Ottoman armies always contained irregular troops such as mercenaries as well as regular soldiers, the strain on the <a href="/facts/Government_of_the_classical_Ottoman_Empire/vJwUbq2X">Ottoman feudal system</a>, caused mainly by <a href="/facts/Classical_Age_of_the_Ottoman_Empire/RmPWLjNh">the Empire's wide expanse</a>, required a heavier reliance on irregular soldiers. They were armed and maintained by the government, but did not receive pay and did not wear uniforms or distinctive badges. They were motivated to fight mostly by expectations of <a href="/facts/Plunder/7utcsI9z">plunder</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Though the majority of troops fought on foot, some troops (called <i><a href="/facts/Akinji/hx9XUzYD">aḳıncı</a></i>) rode on horseback. Because of their lack of discipline, they were not capable of undertaking major military operations, but were useful for other tasks such as reconnaissance and outpost duty. However, their uncertain temper occasionally made it necessary for the Ottoman regular troops to disarm them by force.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p><p>The Ottoman army consisted of the following: </p> <ul><li>The Sultan's household troops, called <i><a href="/facts/Kapikulu/SWjg0RSI">Kapıkulu</a></i>, which were salaried, most notable being <a href="/facts/Janissary/oAgdrtpw">Janissary</a> corps.</li> <li>Provincial soldiers, which were fiefed (Turkish <i><a href="/facts/Timariot/1o9RLyHS">Tımarlı</a></i>), the most important being <i>Timarli <a href="/facts/Sipahi/lLb9eMrU">Sipahi</a></i> (lit. "fiefed cavalry") and their retainers (called <i>cebelu</i> lit. armed, man-at-arms), but other kinds were also present</li> <li>Soldiers of subject, protectorate, or allied states (the most important being the <a href="/facts/Crimean_Peninsula/GkM1qNVC">Crimean</a> Khans)</li> <li>Bashi-bazouks, who usually did not receive regular salaries and lived off loot</li></ul> <p>Many <a href="/facts/Afro-Turks/XRY3SuD0">Afro-Turks</a>, <a href="/facts/Albanians/wc6Mj4KA">Albanians</a>, <a href="/facts/Crimean_Tatars/UjAfC7Yl">Crimean Tatars</a>, <a href="/facts/Muslim_Roma/EgkYX7UQ">Muslim Roma</a>, and <a href="/facts/Pomaks/AABAewCA">Pomaks</a> were bashi-bazouks in <a href="/facts/Rumelia/Y0GBIVMz">Rumelia</a>. </p><p>An attempt by <a href="/facts/Koca_H%25C3%25BCsrev_Mehmed_Pasha/wIwl5mCz">Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha</a> to disband his <a href="/facts/Albanians/wc6Mj4KA">Albanian</a> bashi-bazouks in favor of his regular forces began <a href="/facts/Muhammad_Ali%2527s_seizure_of_power/6ta0JdfC">the rioting</a> which led to the establishment of <a href="/facts/Muhammad_Ali_of_Egypt/ka5Kv2HE">Muhammad Ali</a>'s <a href="/facts/Khedivate_of_Egypt/nrRH0px9">Khedivate of Egypt</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> The use of bashi-bazouks was abandoned by the end of the 19th century. However, self-organized bashi-bazouk troops still appeared later. </p><p>The term "bashibozouk" has also been used for a mounted force, existing in peacetime in various provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which performed the duties of <a href="/facts/Gendarmerie/IU7lsrLc">gendarmerie</a>. </p> <h2 id="reputation-and-atrocities">Reputation and atrocities</h2> <p>The bashi-bazouks were notorious for being violently brutal and undisciplined,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> thus giving the term its second, colloquial meaning of "undisciplined bandit" in many languages. The term was popularised in the 20th century by the comic series <i><a href="/facts/The_Adventures_of_Tintin/tUyWnLfH">The Adventures of Tintin</a></i>, where the word is frequently used as an insult by <a href="/facts/Captain_Haddock/ecB02x6S">Captain Haddock</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p><p>The <a href="/facts/Batak_massacre/6PjsCpQE">Batak massacre</a> (1876) was carried out by thousands of bashi-bazouks sent to quell a local <a href="/facts/April_Uprising_of_1876/ADMl6A3T">rebellion</a>. Likewise, bashi-bazouks perpetrated the massacres of <a href="/facts/Candia_massacre/UYPasRt5">Candia</a> in 1898 and <a href="/facts/Massacre_of_Phocaea/FaFqaRNt">Phocaea</a> in 1914. During the 1903 <a href="/facts/Ilinden%25E2%2580%2593Preobrazhenie_Uprising/k4GTKdKb">Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising</a> in Ottoman Macedonia, these troops burned 119 villages and destroyed 8400 houses, and over 50,000 Bulgarian refugees had to flee into the mountains.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="depictions-in-art">Depictions in art</h2> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Mercenary/uQSfwcDR">Mercenary</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Pindari/tjAoyknr">Pindari</a>, irregular horsemen in <a href="/facts/History_of_India/ntYkAYDQ">18th-century India</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Military_of_the_Ottoman_Empire/M1aX9Q3a">Military of the Ottoman Empire</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Military_history_of_Turkey/kYmFIV2Y">Military history of Turkey</a></li></ul> <h2 id="sources">Sources</h2> Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bashi-bazouk. <ul><li>Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor, ed. (1993). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC"><i>E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936</i></a>. BRILL. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-90-04-08265-6.</li> <li>Vizetelly, Edward (1897). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bkY4AQAAMAAJ"><i>The Remininiscences of a Bashi-bazouk</i></a>. J.W. Arrowsmith.</li> <li><i>Ottoman warfare</i>, 1500–1700 by Rhoads Murphey. London : UCL Press, 1999.</li> <li><a href="/facts/%25C3%2596zhan_%25C3%2596zt%25C3%25BCrk/tFQ4TPXI">Özhan Öztürk</a> (2005). <i>Karadeniz</i> (<a href="/facts/Black_Sea/M0rLKvge">Black Sea</a>): Ansiklopedik Sözlük. 2 Cilt. Heyamola Yayıncılık. İstanbul. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 975-6121-00-9.</li> <li>Montgomery, Viscount Bernard (1968). <i>A History of Warfare</i>, The World Publishing Company. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-688-01645-6.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Houtsma 1993, p. 670. - Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor, ed. (1993). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-08265-6. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Vizetelly 1897, p. 83. - Vizetelly, Edward (1897). The Remininiscences of a Bashi-bazouk. J.W. Arrowsmith. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bkY4AQAAMAAJ" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=bkY4AQAAMAAJ</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Houtsma 1993, p. 670. - Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor, ed. (1993). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-08265-6. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bashi-Bazouk" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/Hugh_Chisholm" target="_blank">/wiki/Hugh_Chisholm</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Montgomery 1968, p. 246 <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bashi-Bazouk" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/Hugh_Chisholm" target="_blank">/wiki/Hugh_Chisholm</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Inalcık, Halil (1979). "Khosrew Pasha". The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. V, fascicules 79–80. Translated by Gibb, H. A. R. (new ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 35ff. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Fermor, Patrick Leigh (2013). The Broken Road. John Murray. p. 21. ISBN 9781590177549. [T]he faintest stirrings would unloose a whirling of janissaries and spahis and later on, and perhaps the worst, bashi-bazouks. They adorned the towns with avenues of gibbets, the burnt villages with pyramids of heads and the roadsides with impaled corpses. <a href="9781590177549" target="_blank">9781590177549</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Horatio Clare (11 March 2008). Running for the Hills: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster. pp. 168–. ISBN 978-0-7432-7428-9. <a href="978-0-7432-7428-9" target="_blank">978-0-7432-7428-9</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Glenny, Misha (2012). The Balkans. USA: Penguin Books. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-14-242256-4. <a href="978-0-14-242256-4" target="_blank">978-0-14-242256-4</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>