A bashi-bazouk was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army chiefly recruited Albanians and Circassians as bashi-bazouks, but recruits came from all ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire. They had a reputation for bravery, but also as an undisciplined group, notorious for looting and preying on civilians as a result of a lack of regulation.
Origin and history
Although the Ottoman armies always contained mercenaries as well as regular soldiers, the strain on the Ottoman feudal system caused mainly by the Empire's wide expanse required heavier reliance on irregular soldiers. They were armed and maintained by the government, but did not receive pay and did not wear uniforms or distinctive badges. They were motivated to fight mostly by expectations of plunder. Though the majority of troops fought on foot, some troops rode on horseback. Because of their lack of discipline, they were incapable of undertaking major military operations, but were useful for other tasks such as reconnaissance and outpost duty. However, their uncertain temper occasionally made it necessary for the Ottoman regular troops to disarm them by force. The Ottoman army consisted of the following:
Provincial soldiers, which were fiefed, the most important being Timarli Sipahi and their retainers, but other kinds were also present.
Soldiers of subject, protectorate, or allied states
Bashi-bazouk usually did not receive regular salaries and lived off loot.
An attempt by Husrev Pasha to disband his Albanian bashi-bazouks in favor of his regular forces began the rioting which led to the establishment of Muhammad Ali's Khedivate of Egypt. Their use was abandoned by the end of the 19th century. However, self-organized bashi-bazouk troops still appeared later. The term "bashibozouk" has also been used for a mounted force, existing in peacetime in various provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which performed the duties of gendarmerie.
Reputation and atrocities
The bashi-bazouk were notorious for being violently brutal and undisciplined, thus giving the term its second, colloquial meaning of "undisciplined bandit" in many languages. A notable example of this use is in the comic seriesThe Adventures of Tintin, where the word is often used as an expletive by Captain Haddock. The Batak massacre was carried out by thousands of bashi-bazouks sent to quell a local rebellion. Likewise, the bashi-bazouks perpetrated the massacre of Phocaea in 1914. During the 1903 Ilinden Uprising in Ottoman Macedonia, these troops burnt 119 villages and destroyed 8400 houses, and over 50,000 Macedonian refugees fled into the mountains. :File:Konstantin Makovsky - The Bulgarian martyresses.jpg|The Bulgarian martyresses by Konstantin Makovsky is a painting depicting the rape of two Bulgarian women in a church by one African-looking and two Turkish-looking bashi-bazouks, during the April Uprising.
