The Ottoman Army
The multiethnic mosaic comprising the Ottoman army included soldiers "from Egypt, Beirut, Aleppo, Anatolia, Marrakech and Karaman". [Evlia Çelebi, Travelogue (1668-1671), Ekati 2005, p. 192 - in Greek]. Their ranks were swelled by thousands of Janissaries, Islamicised Christians mainly from European provinces in the Ottoman Empire. Algerian warships made a major contribution at sea, while Armenians were famed as sappers. Furthermore, the Ottomans conscripted locals in their thousands as ancillaries:
"And since he (Grand Vizier Fazil Ahmed Kiopruli) learnt that the number of soldiers in the engineers was lower than that required...by means of wages, promises and force he used the peasants of the Kingdom. It has been written that in the course of the offensive he used ten thousand peasants".
(Excerpt from Provveditor General Antonio Barbaro's report in 1667, Stergios G. Spanakis, Monuments of Cretan History, vol. IV, Heraklion 1958, p. 99 - in Greek)
Turkish officers and soldiers, 1581 (A. Bruizn)
An irregular in the light corps of the Ottoman army holding a star mace (Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma)
Ottoman irregulars on horseback (Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma)
1645
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