Kirdzhalis

The Kirdzhalis, a modern reconstruction. Kirdzhalis are provincial Balkan free warriors, something like a militia. A kind of late Ottoman analogue of the Cossacks.

The Kirdzhalis have been a social phenomenon in the European possessions of the Ottoman Empire since the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Although they are often artistically depicted as brigands[1][2] or bandits in the field, from the literal meaning in Ottoman Turkish, they are well-armed and organized gangs at the disposal and submission of the local Ottoman Ayans.

  1. ^ Davidova, Evguenia (2016-01-20). Wealth in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Balkans: A Socio-Economic History. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85772-605-6.
  2. ^ Jelavich, Barbara (1983). History of the Balkans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-521-25249-0. OCLC 9043005.