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Bashi-bazouk
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<p>A bashi-bazouk was an <a href="/facts/Irregular_military/8goYhQkn">irregular</a> soldier of the <a href="/facts/Ottoman_army/M1aX9Q3a">Ottoman army</a>, raised in times of war. The army primarily enlisted <a href="/facts/Albanians/wc6Mj4KA">Albanians</a> and sometimes <a href="/facts/Circassians/fTWD67Tg">Circassians</a> as bashi-bazouks, but recruits came from all ethnic groups of the <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Empire/6QvfTRsg">Ottoman Empire</a>, including slaves from Europe or Africa. Bashi-bazouks had a reputation for being undisciplined and brutal, notorious for looting and preying on civilians as a result of a lack of regulation and of the expectation that they would support themselves off the land. </p>