Godfrey Goodwin - The Janissaries

Godfrey Goodwin

THE JANISSARIES

The rebuilding of the fortress at Kars by Lala Mustafa Pasha, 1570 (British Library)

To Gillian

Jacques de Hay: janissary (Maggs)

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

I have to thank my family and friends for putting up with the janissaries for so long and for their encouragement. I have also to thank Dr Richard Luckett, librarian of the Pepys Library, Professor John Carswell of Sothebys, Hugh Bett of Maggs and Graeme Gardiner for their help with the illustrations. Once again, Jana Gough has been an indomitable editor and Andr Gaspard continues to be the most equitable of publishers. I must also thank the janissaries themselves, a million or two of them, without whom the great architecture of the Ottomans would never have been accomplished. The mosque of Sleyman the Magnificent is their enduring memorial.

Genealogy of the Sultans of the House of Osman

A Note on Pronunciation

The spelling adopted here is based on modern Turkish but I have even taken liberties with that.

While the pronunciation list may be of some help, the glossary will only please the benign: it would need an extra chapter to cover all the changing nuances of the meaning of words and the nature of various office-holders duties over 500 years.

All Turkish letters are pronounced as in English except for the following:

c pronounced j as in jam

pronounced ch as in child

not pronounced; lengthens the preceding vowel

akin to the pronunciation of u in radium

pronounced as in the German Knig

akin to the sh in shark

pronounced u as in the French tu

Glossary

abd : slave of Allah

acemiolan : janissary recruit; cadet

agha : general; senior post-holder

ahi : (akhi) member of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century guilds of young lite

ake : silver coin long used in the Ottoman Empire

aknc : light cavalry; scout; light horse

alaybey : senior officer of the sipahis

Albigensians: heretical sect in the Middle Ages

Alevi: Shiite sectarian

acba : senior Royal Cook

askeri : military; infantry; auxiliaries

atecba : Chief Cook

ayan (pl.): local chieftains

azap : infantry (later gunners); could also serve at sea

baba : head of dervish sect

bailo : Venetian ambassador to the sultan

bayram : Muslim religious holiday

bey : (originally) ruler, chieftain; (then) man of rank; (now) any man

beylerbey : lord of lords; viceroy

Bogomil: Balkan follower of Albigensian heresy

blk : 61 out of the 196 companies of the janissary corps

blkba : captain; sergeant

bostanc : gardener; division of janissaries

bostancba : pasha of the bostancs

boza : drink of fermented barley

caliph: successor to the Prophet

ardak orba : commandant of the Customs House

avu equerry; gate-keeper; usher

cebeci : armourer

celal : rebels made up of dervishes, disbanded soldiers, students and the dispossessed

celeb : sheep-driver

elebi : title of member of lite class; baba or master of a Bektai tekke

cemaat : 101 out of the 196 companies of the janissary corps

orba : janissary colonel

defterdar : Keeper of the Account Books; Minister of Finance

deli: maniac (hence shock trooper)

derbent (pl.): guardians of the passes; local recruits

dervish: member of a mystical sect

devirme : Christian levy

divan : general council

Divan: Grand Council of State

dizdar : commandant of a fortress

Enderun Kolej: (College Within), Palace School

esnaf (pl.): guildsmen; traders

fetva (pl. fetvalar) : legal ruling with the force of an edict

firman : edict; order-in-council; command

gazi : warrior fighting for Islam/for the Faith

ghulam : royal cadet; slave held by title deed

gzde : chosen girl

greba : foreign division

hadith : sayings of the Prophet, remembered by his followers after his death and seen as the ordinances of Allah

hajj : pilgrimage to Mecca

hamam : Turkish bath

han : inn

hass : royal estate

hoca : teacher; tutor and chaplain

horsetails: symbols of high-ranking commanders

iolan : page studying at Enderun Kolej

imam : prayer leader

irade : imperial rescript, decree

jerid : sport of mounted dart-throwing

jihad : Holy War

kad : judge

kadasker : military chief justice of Europe or Asia

kahya : steward

kalafat : crested headdress

kanun : code of civil law

Kanun-i-Terifat: Law of Ceremonies

Kanunname: volume of laws and decrees

kapkul (pl.): members of the imperial household

kapudan paa : Grand Admiral

kervansaray : Turkish spelling of caravanserai

kilim: tapestry-weave rug

Kzlba: Red Heads; Shiites

konak : villa; mansion

ks (pl.): great drums

kul : slave

kul kahya : steward of the imperial household; adjutant of the janissaries, etc.

lala : tutor

medrese : religious college

mescit : small (Ottoman) mosque without a mimber

meydan : square; open space

millet : non-Muslim citizens; their quarter

mimber : pulpit

molla : professor; senior religious and legal dignitary

mderris : rector; professor

muezzin : crier of the Muslim call to prayer

msellem (pl.): settled nomads performing military service in return for smallholding

mteferrika : lite company of royal guard of feudal origin

naghile : hubble-bubble pipe

Nizam i-Cedit: New Army

ocak : barracks; hearth

oda (pl. odalar) : room; barracks; dormitory

odaba : lieutenant

ordu : army; camp

orta : janissary company

otak : imperial tent (lit: high dome)

padiah : sultan

pencik : title-deed, especially to a slave; slave

peyk : foot guardsman

piyade : Anatolian foot soldier

reis efendi : foreign minister

ribat : monastery (often fortified)

alvar (pl.): pantaloons

sancak : flag; division of a province

sancak bey : Lord of the Standard; governor of a small province