Subject: sekban infantry arquebusier
Culture: Crimean Tatar
Setting: Krim khanate, Ottoman empire, eastern Europe 1501-1699
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Hildinger 1997 p204
"Tatar armies, like those of their steppe predecessors, were made up of cavalry -- with a concession to progress: arquebusiers were incorporated in small numbers. The khan had six hundred of them divided into twenty companies and he would raise that many again when he went on campaign. Though these men fought on foot they must have travelled on horseback for they could not otherwise have kept up with a mounted army."
* Nicolle/Hook 1995 p49
"The Crimean Tatars ... fielded a small musket-armed infantry force. Some were tribesmen too poor to own a horse; others formed an elite of 20 companies of mounted infantry Sekbans recruited from villagers in the Crimean peninsula."
* Khodarkovsky 2002 p17
"Armed mostly with sabers, spears, and bows and arrows, the nomadic armies were a self-equipped militia. For instance, in preparation for his campaign against Kiev in 1501, the Crimean khan, Mengli Giray, ordered every man over the age of fifteen to show up with three horses for each person and one cart for every five people. If they lacked horses or weapons, they could lease them from others and repay the debt at the end of the campaign. High speed and mobility were always great advantages. Carrying few supplies, the nomadic cavalry depended solely on the availability of fodder in the steppe, so its range and effectiveness were severely limited by seasonal and weather conditions. Winter campaigns took place occasionally, but only when the horses were well enough fed to endure a short campaign."
Costume
* Hildinger 1997 p206
"[M]ost Tatar soldiers wore sheepskin jackets and caps, turning the fleece of both outward in warm or rainy weather and inward in cold weather. Because of this, Beauplan writes:
The commoners have on their shoulders only a sheepskin jacket, and put the wool outwards in times of heat or rain, and when seen so dressed when one encounters them in the country unexpectedly they give a fright because one takes them for white bears mounted on horses, but when it is cold and in winter they reverse their jacket and put the wool inside and do the same with their hat which is made of the same material: they are armed with a saber, a bow and their quiver is furnished with eighteen or twenty arrows, a knife [is] at their belt."
Guns
* Gorelik 1995 p37
"Later times saw the production of fine Crimean handguns which were exported abroad."
