| Yaya | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1325—? |
| Country | Ottoman Empire |
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Engagements | Battle of Marica [1] Battle of Kosovo [2] Battle of Nicopolis [1] |
| Military of the Ottoman Empire |
|---|
 |
Yaya or Piyade [3] were infantry military units of the Ottoman Empire and some other medieval Anatolian beyliks. Many of them were of Christian origin. [4]
Yaya means "pedestrian" in Ottoman Turkish. It is of Turkic origin word. [5] An alternative name, piyade, is derived from a Persian word with the same meaning. [6] This latter name was also used in the series of dynasties that ruled the neighboring Persian state. [7]
The early Ottoman military forces consisted of irregular nomadic cavalry and volunteer light infantry. [7] These units were efficient against local Byzantine feudal lords but were unable to capture fortified castles by direct assault. [7] This was the reason for Alaeddin Pasha including the establishment of this unit in his proposal for reorganization the military of the Ottoman Empire made in the mid 1320s. [8] [9] His brother, sultan Orhan, accepted his proposal and established yaya. [10]
Yaya were precursors of the Janissary corps of the Ottoman military, which would become one of the most influential and increasingly political forces in the Ottoman state until the 19th century. [11] Janissary Corps would be made of converted Christians from Balkans up to 1500(most of them Albanians, Bosnians and Eastern Romans). However, by 1550s when the Devshirme was abolished " de facto" , the Janissary Corps would be dominated by Muslim born Ottomans, majority of them being Muslim Albanians.
The commander of the Yaya unit was referred to as Yayabashi. [12] Members of this units were both Christian and Muslim citizens of the Ottoman Empire who were sometimes granted land estates in the Balkans in exchange for military service. [13] They were most irregular infantry Ottoman units because they usually served as armed laborers whose military skills were limited. [1] Still, before Janissary units were established and expanded in 1380s and afterwards, yaya peasant infantry had important military function. [14] By giving regular salary to yaya Ottomans acquired a standing army. [15]
Among notable engagements of yaya military units are battles of Marica (1371) and Nicopolis (1396) where Ottoman infantry units, including yaya, were used to bait enemy heavy cavalry into an ambush between two flanks of more maneuverable light Ottoman cavalry. [1]
A janissary was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms; adopted during the reign of Murad II. The corps was established either under Sultans Orhan or Murad I, and dismantled by Mahmud II in 1826.
Sipahi were professional cavalrymen deployed by the Seljuks, and later by the Ottoman Empire. Sipahi units included the land grant-holding (timar) provincial timarli sipahi, which constituted most of the army, and the salaried regular kapikulu sipahi, or palace troops. However, the irregular light cavalry akıncı ("raiders") were not considered to be sipahi. The sipahi formed their own distinctive social classes and were rivals to the janissaries, the elite infantry corps of the sultans.
Devshirme was the Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of Islam. Those coming from the Balkans came primarily from noble Balkan families and rayah (poor) classes. It is first mentioned in written records in 1438, but probably started earlier. It created a faction of soldiers and officials loyal to the Sultan. It counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan. The system produced a considerable number of grand viziers from the 1400s to the 1600s. This was the second most powerful position in the Ottoman Empire, after the sultan. Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin, but after there were troubles between Sultan Mehmed II and the Turkish grand vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger, who was the first grand vizier to be executed, there was a rise of slave administrators (devshirme). They were much easier for the sultans to control, compared to free administrators of Turkish aristocratic extraction. The devshirme also produced many of the Ottoman Empire's provincial governors, military commanders, and divans during the 1400s–1600s period. Sometimes, the devshirme recruits were castrated and became eunuchs. Although often destined for the harem, many eunuchs of devshirme origin went on to hold important positions in the military and the government, such as grand viziers Hadım Ali Pasha, Sinan Borovinić, and Hadım Hasan Pasha.
The Military of the Ottoman Empire was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
The Six Divisions of Cavalry, also known as the Kapıkulu Süvarileri, was a corps of elite cavalry soldiers in the army of the Ottoman Empire (Sipahi). There were not really six, but four, divisions in the corps. Two of the six were sub-divisions. The divisions were:
The Second Battle of Kosovo was a land battle between a Hungarian-led Crusader army and the Ottoman Empire at Kosovo field that took place from 17–20 October 1448. It was the culmination of a Hungarian offensive to avenge the defeat at Varna four years earlier. In the three-day battle the Ottoman army under the command of Sultan Murad II defeated the Crusader army of regent John Hunyadi.
Levend or levendi was a name for irregular soldiers. The term originated with the Ottoman Navy, but eventually spread to encompass most irregular troops.
The Ottoman-Mamluk war took place from 1485 to 1491, when the Ottoman Empire invaded the Mamluk Sultanate territories of Anatolia and Syria. This war was an essential event in the Ottoman struggle for the domination of the Middle-East. After multiple encounters, the war ended in a stalemate and a peace treaty was signed in 1491, restoring the status quo ante bellum. It lasted until the Ottomans and the Mamluks again went to war in 1516–17; in that war the Ottomans defeated and conquered the Mamluks.
The III Corps of the Ottoman Empire was one of the corps of the Ottoman Army. It was formed in the early 20th century during Ottoman military reforms.
Mehmet Esat Bülkat was an Ottoman Army officer who fought during the First Balkan War, where he led the Yanya Corps, and in World War I, where he served as a senior commander in the Gallipoli campaign. Prior to the 1934 Surname Law, he was known as Mehmed Esad Pasha.
Voynuks were members of the privileged Ottoman military social class established in the 1370s or the 1380s. Voynuks were tax-exempt non-Muslim, usually Slavic, and also non-Slavic Vlach Ottoman subjects from the Balkans, particularly from the regions of southern Serbia, Macedonia, Thessaly, Bulgaria and Albania and much less in Bosnia and around the Danube–Sava region. Voynuks belonged to the Sanjak of Voynuk which was not a territorial unit like other sanjaks but a separate organisational unit of the Ottoman Empire.
The Battle of Kozludzha, fought on 20 June 1774 near the village of Kozludzha, was one of the final and decisive battles of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). The Russians managed to rout the Ottoman army, scoring a major victory. This battle, alongside several others in this campaign, established the reputation of the Russian general Alexander Suvorov as one of the brilliant commanders of his time.
The Agha of the Janissaries or Janissary Agha was a top Ottoman military official and courtier, and the commander of the Janissary corps. Apart from the commander-general of the entire corps, the title of "Agha of the Janissaries" was also borne by the commander of a provincial garrison of Janissaries.
Derbendcis or Derbentler were the most important and largest Ottoman military auxiliary constabulary units usually responsible for guarding important roads, bridges, fords or mountain passes. Usually, the population of an entire village near some important pass would be assigned with derbendci status in exchange for tax exemptions.
The Ottoman army was the military structure established by Mehmed II, during his reorganization of the state and the military. This was the major reorganization following Orhan's standing army of janissaries that were 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 (Kapıkulu) and peripheral (Eyalet). This army was forced to disband by Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826 in what is known as Auspicious Incident, which followed a century-long reform effort.
The Sekban-i Djedid Army was a brief and unsuccessful attempt by Bayraktar Mustafa Pasha to revive the Nizam-i Djedid Army, based on European models. The attempt failed as the Janissaries revolted and killed Alemdar Mustafa Pasha. The Sekban-i Djedid was abolished and all the privileges of the traditional Kapıkulu corps, to which the Janissaries belonged, were renewed.
The martolos was an internal security force of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans (Rumelia), mostly active between the 15th to 17th centuries. It initially constituted out of the local mostly Christian populations, but over time members converted into Islam. For their military service, they were given privileged status, in relation to the Rayah. Their commanders were predominantly Muslim.
A Deli was a member of a light cavalry unit within the Ottoman Empire. Their main role was to act as front-line shock troops, also acting as personal guards for high-level Ottoman officials in the Rumeli during peacetime.
Kapıkulu was the collective name for the household division of the Ottoman Sultans. They included the Janissary infantry corps as well as the Six Divisions of Cavalry. Unlike provincial levies such as the timariots and irregular forces (levend), the kapıkulu were professional, standing troops, mostly drawn through the devshirme system. They formed the backbone of the military of the Ottoman Empire during its "classical period", from the 15th century until the Auspicious Incident of 15 June 1826 that lead to the abolition of the kapıkulu during the Tanzimat.
The Yaya corps with light armor and problematic combat value was no match against heavily armored Balkan infantry in
Ottoman-Balkan Yaya, early 15th century: Many Ottoman infantrymen were of Christian origin and this seems to have been reflected in their equipment.[ permanent dead link ]
Ala-ed-deen first embodied a corps called Yaya, or Piade. They were all infantry, and were raised and recruited from the body of the Ottoman population.
yayabashi (T. yayaba§i): commanders of foot soldiers.
Since the infantrymen (yaya or piyade) received regular pay, the Ottoman state may be said to have acquired a standing army at this early date.
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