Military of the Ottoman Empire
The Military of the Ottoman Empire was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922.
Army
The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years between 1300 and 1453, the classical period covers the years between 1451 and 1606, the reformation period covers the years between 1606 and 1826, the modernisation period covers the years between 1826 and 1858 and decline period covers the years between 1861 and 1918. The Ottoman army is the forerunner of the Turkish Armed Forces.Foundation period (1300–1453)
The earliest form of the Ottoman military was a steppe-nomadic cavalry force. This was centralized by Osman I from Turkoman tribesmen inhabiting western Anatolia in the late 13th century.These horsemen became an irregular force of raiders used as shock troops, armed with weapons like bows and spears. They were given fiefs called timars in the conquered lands and were later called timariots. In addition, they acquired wealth during campaigns.
Orhan organized a standing army paid by salary rather than looting or fiefs. The infantry were called yayas and the cavalry was known as müsellems. The force was made up of foreign mercenaries for the most part, and only a few Turks were content to accept salaries in place of timars. Foreign mercenaries were not required to convert to Islam as long as they obeyed their Ottoman commanders.
The Ottomans began using guns in the late 14th century. Following that, other troop types began to appear, such as the regular musketeers ; regular cavalry armed with firearms, similar to the later European reiter or carabinier; and bombardiers, consisting of grenadiers who threw explosives called khımbara and the soldiers who served the artillery with maintenance and powder supplies.
The Ottoman Empire was the first of the three Islamic Gunpowder Empires, followed by Safavid Persia and Mughal India. By the 14th century, the Ottomans had adopted gunpowder artillery. The adoption of the gunpowder weapons by the Ottomans was so rapid that they "preceded both their European and Middle Eastern adversaries in establishing centralized and permanent troops specialized in the manufacturing and handling of firearms." But it was their use of artillery that shocked their adversaries and impelled the other two Islamic Gunpowder Empires to accelerate their weapons program. The Ottomans had artillery at least by the reign of Bayezid I and used them in the sieges of Constantinople in 1399 and 1402. They finally proved their worth as siege engines in the successful siege of Salonica in 1430.
The Ottoman military's regularized use of firearms proceeded ahead of the pace of their European counterparts. The Janissaries had initially been an infantry bodyguard using bows and arrows. By the time of Sultan Mehmed II, they had been drilled with firearms and became "perhaps the first standing infantry force equipped with firearms in the world." The Janissaries are thus considered the first modern standing armies. The combination of artillery and Janissary firepower proved decisive at Varna in 1444 against a force of Crusaders, and later Başkent and Chaldoran against the Aq Qoyunlu and Safavids.
Classical Army (1451–1606)
was the military structure and the founding and main army established by Mehmed II, during his reorganization of the state and the military efforts. This is the major reorganization following Orhan I which organized a standing army paid by salary rather than booty or fiefs. This army was the force during the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The organization was twofold, central and peripheral. The classical Ottoman army was the most disciplined and feared military force of its time, mainly due to its high level of organization, logistical capabilities and elite troops. Following a century-long reform efforts, this Army was forced to disband by Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826 in what is known as the Auspicious Incident. By the reign of Mahmud the Second, the elite janissaries had become corrupt and always stood in the way of modernization efforts meaning they were more of a liability than an asset.By the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans had large enough cannons to batter the walls of the city, to the surprise of the defenders. The Dardanelles Gun was designed and cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali. The Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 340 years later in 1807, when a Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, and then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 casualties from this bombardment.
The musket first appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. Damascus steel was later used in the production of firearms such as the musket from the 16th century. At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Janissaries equipped with 2000 muskets "formed 8 consecutive rows and they fired their weapons row by row," in a "kneeling or standing position without the need for additional support or rest." The Chinese attempted to adopt the Ottoman kneeling position for firing. In 1598, Chinese writer Zhao Shizhen described Turkish muskets as being superior to European muskets.
The marching band and military band both have their origins in the Ottoman military band, performed by the Janissary since the 16th century.
Reform on Classical Army (1606–1826)
The main theme of this period is reforming the Janissaries. The Janissary Corps was originally made up of enslaved young Christian boys, generally from the western Balkans, who were forced to convert to Islam and were educated in military matters under the Ottoman Empire. During the 15th and 16th Centuries, they became known as the most efficient and effective military unit in Europe. By 1570 born Muslims were accepted into the Janissaries Corps and by the 17th century most would be born Muslims. According to Jason Goodwin in the 17th and 18th centuries, most Janissaries were Muslim Albanians.Aside from the Janissary infantry, there was also the Sipahi Cavalry. They were, however, different from the Janissaries in that they had both military and administrative duties. The Janissaries were tied strictly to being able to perform military duties at any time, however, the Sipahi were treated differently primarily in that they got their income from the land that was given to them by the Sultan under the timariot system. Within these agricultural lands, the Sipahi were in charge of collecting the taxes that would serve as their salary. At the same time, they were responsible for maintaining peace and order there. They were also expected to be able to serve in the military whenever the Sultan deemed their service necessary.
In 1621, the Chinese Wu Pei Chih described Ottoman muskets that used a rack-and-pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in any European or Chinese firearms at the time.
The Ottoman Empire made numerous efforts to recruit French experts for its modernization. The French officer and adventurer Claude-Alexandre de Bonneval went in the service of Sultan Mahmud I, converted to Islam, and endeavoured to modernize the Ottoman army, creating cannon foundries, powder and musket factories and a military engineering school. Another officer François Baron de Tott was involved in the reform efforts for the Ottoman military. He succeeded in having a new foundry built to make howitzers and was instrumental in the creation of mobile artillery units. He built fortifications on the Bosphorus and started a naval science course that laid the foundation stone for the later Turkish Naval Academy.
He could only achieve limited success, however. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible for him to divert soldiers from the regular army into the new units. The new ships and guns that made it into service were too few to have much of an influence on the Ottoman army and de Tott returned home.
When they had requested French help in 1795, young Napoleon Bonaparte was scheduled to be sent to Constantinople to help organize Ottoman artillery. He did not go, for just days before he was to embark for the Near East he proved himself useful to the Directory by putting down a Parisian mob at 13 Vendémiaire and was kept in France.
The supply of Ottoman forces operating in Moldavia and Wallachia was a major challenge that required well-organized logistics. An army of 60,000 soldiers and 40,000 horses required a half-million kilograms of food per day. The Ottoman forces fared better than the Russians, but the expenses crippled both national treasuries. Supplies on both sides came using fixed prices, taxes, and confiscation.
Sultan Selim III from 1789 to 1807 set up the "Nizam-i Cedid" army to replace the inefficient and outmoded imperial army. The old system depended on Janissaries, who had largely lost their military effectiveness. Selim closely followed Western military forms. It would be expensive for a new army, so a new treasury was established. The result was the Porte now had an efficient, European-trained army equipped with modern weapons. However, it had fewer than 10,000 soldiers in an era when Western armies were ten to fifty times larger. Furthermore, the Sultan was upsetting the well-established traditional political powers. As a result, it was rarely used, apart from its use against Napoleon's expeditionary force at Gaza and Rosetta. The new army was dissolved by reactionary elements with the overthrow of Selim in 1807, but it became the model of the new Ottoman Army created later in the 19th century.
Efforts for a new system (1826–1858)
The main theme of this period was disbanding the Janissary, which happened in 1826, and changing the military culture. The major event is "italic=no" translated as Auspicious Incident. The military units formed were used in the Crimean War, the Russo-Turkish War, and the Greco-Turkish War.The failed efforts of a new system date before 1826. Sultan Selim III formed the Nizam-ı Cedid army in the late 18th century and early 19th century. This was the first serious attempt to transform the Ottoman military forces into a modern army. However, the Nizam-ı Cedid was short-lived, dissolving after the abdication of Selim III in 1807.
Sultan Mahmud II, Selim III's successor and nephew, who was a great reformer, disbanded the Janissaries in 1826 with so-called known as "italic=no".
The Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye was established, as a contemporary modern army.
Egypt, as part of the empire, also underwent drastic military changes during Muhammad Ali Pasha's reign. The two largest military reforms were the effective practices of indoctrination and surveillance, which dramatically changed the way the military was both conducted by the leadership and also perceived by the rest of society. New military law codes resulted in isolation, extreme surveillance, and severe punishments to enforce obedience. The Pasha's goal was to create a high regard for the law and strict obedience stemming from sincere want. This shift from direct control by bodily punishment to indirect control through strict law enforcement aimed to make the soldiers' lives predictable, thus creating a more manageable military for the Pasha.