A bashi-bazouk ( , , , roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army primarily enlisted Albanians and sometimes Circassians as bashi-bazouks, but recruits came from all ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire, 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.[
]
Origin and history
Although the Ottoman armies always contained irregular troops such as mercenaries as well as regular soldiers, the strain on the Ottoman feudal system, caused mainly by the Empire's wide expanse, 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
plunder.
[Montgomery 1968, p. 246] Though the majority of troops fought on foot, some troops (called
akinji) 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.
The Ottoman army consisted of the following:
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The Sultan's household troops, called Kapikulu, which were salaried, most notable being Janissary corps.
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Provincial soldiers, which were fiefed (Turkish Timariot), the most important being Timarli Sipahi (lit. "fiefed cavalry") and their retainers (called cebelu lit. armed, man-at-arms), but other kinds were also present
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Soldiers of subject, protectorate, or allied states (the most important being the Crimean Khans)
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Bashi-bazouks, who usually did not receive regular salaries and lived off loot
Many
Afro-Turks,
Albanians,
Crimean Tatars,
Muslim Roma, and
Pomaks were bashi-bazouks in
Rumelia.
An attempt by Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha to disband his Albanians bashi-bazouks in favor of his regular forces began the rioting which led to the establishment of Muhammad Ali's Khedivate of Egypt.
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 gendarmerie.
Reputation and atrocities
The bashi-bazouks were notorious for being violently brutal and undisciplined,
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
The Adventures of Tintin, where the word is frequently used as an insult by
Captain Haddock.
The Batak massacre (1876) was carried out by thousands of bashi-bazouks sent to quell a local rebellion. Likewise, bashi-bazouks perpetrated the massacres of Candia massacre in 1898 and Phocaea in 1914. During the 1903 Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising in Ottoman Macedonia, these troops burned 119 villages and destroyed 8400 houses, and over 50,000 Bulgarian refugees had to flee into the mountains.
. Antoni Piotrowski, (1889).]]
. Unknown author, (1877).]]
of two Bulgarian women in a church by one African-looking and two Turkish-looking bashi-bazouks, during the
April Uprising.
]]
Depictions in art
File:Chef arnaute by Jean-Léon Gérôme.jpg|An Albanian bashi-bazouk in Egypt. Painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1870.
File:A Bashi-Bazouk, drawn by Francis Davis Millet.jpg|Drawing of a bashi-bazouk by Francis Davis Millet, 1889.
File:Jean-Léon Gérôme – Bachi-bouzouk Arnaoute.jpg|An Albanian bashi-bazouk painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme in the 1860s.
File:Vernet-Lecomte 7.jpg|A bashi-bazouk contemplating his loot. Painting by Émile Vernet-Lecomte, 1862.
File:Jean-Léon Gérôme - A Bashi-Bazouk.jpg|An African bashi-bazouk, painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1860s.
File:Два ястреба (Башибузуки).jpg|Two captured bashi-bazouks, painted by Vasily Vereshchagin, 1878.
See also
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Mercenary
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Pindari, irregular horsemen in 18th-century India
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Military of the Ottoman Empire
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Military history of Turkey
Sources
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Ottoman warfare, 1500–1700 by Rhoads Murphey. London : UCL Press, 1999.
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Özhan Öztürk (2005). Karadeniz (Black Sea): Ansiklopedik Sözlük. 2 Cilt. Heyamola Yayıncılık. İstanbul. .
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Montgomery, Viscount Bernard (1968). A History of Warfare, The World Publishing Company. .
