Bashi-bazouk

Bashi-bazouks
Albanian Bashi-Bazouk Chieftain by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1881.
Founded17th century
Named afterTurkish word for crazy-head
Founding locationIstanbul, Ottoman Empire
Years activeUnknown
TerritoryBalkans, Eastern Europe
Allies
Rivals
A group of bashi-bazouks, Ottoman postcard
An African bashi-bazouk by Jean-Léon Gérôme

A bashi-bazouk (Ottoman Turkish: باشی بوزوق başıbozuk, IPA: [baʃɯboˈzuk], lit.'one whose head is turned, damaged head, crazy-head', roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army chiefly enlisted Albanians and Circassians as bashi-bazouks,[1] but recruits came from all ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire, including slaves from Europe or Africa.[2] Bashi-bazouks had a reputation for being undisciplined and brutal, notorious for looting and preying on civilians as a result of a lack of regulation and of the expectation that they would support themselves off the land.[1][3]

  1. ^ a b Houtsma 1993, p. 670.
  2. ^ Vizetelly 1897, p. 83.
  3. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bashi-Bazouk" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.