Subject: yeniceri yamakdahi leader of Janissary auxiliaries

Culture: Ottoman Turkish

Setting: Ottoman empire, Balkans/Anatolia 18thc

Event Photos

* Nicolle/Hook 1995 p18-19

"The ordinary Nefer or Yoldaş soldier was placed in one of three grades according to seniority, starting with the Eşkinci or 'campaigner' at the bottom and going to the Amelimanda or 'veteran' selected for their proven valour, and to the Oturak ('sitter') or pensioner, who was not normally required to go on campaign. This highest grade was also permitted to enter a trade.

"By the 17th century ... most [provincial garrisons] were under the command of 32 Serhad Ağası frontier Ağas, though the large Janissary garrisons in North Africa formed a virtually independent Ocak, that in Algiers even having its own Divan Council. Elsewhere provincial structures became increasingly autonomous in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Damascus, for example, there were soon two distinct forms of Janissary troops: the governor's own 'private army' of largely assmilated kapı halkı, and two Ortas of new 'imperial' Janissaries sent to take control of the vital Citadel and city gates."

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