Yamaks

This article is about auxiliary Ottoman troops. For one of the tribe, see Yemek.
Yamaks
Active1768–1804
AllegianceOttoman Empire
TypeAuxiliary force, made up of local Balkan Muslims
RoleGarrison guard
Part of a series on the
Military of the
Ottoman Empire
Coat of Arms of the Ottoman Empire
Classical army (1451–1826)
Reform period
Modern army (1861–1922)
Navy
Aviation
Conflicts

Yamaks (Turkish: yamaklar) were auxiliary troops of the army of the Ottoman Empire[1] raised from the local Muslim population. Initially they were non-military members of Ottoman forces[2] who in later periods of the empire evolved into newly recruited janissary troops and eventually became ill-trained and ill-paid garrison guards.[3][4]

The Turkish word yamak means "assistant" or "friend".[5] This word is also used to denote a paid assistant of the craftsman.[6] The Bosniak surname Jamaković is derived from the Ottoman term for "janissary recruit".[7]

Initially, Yamaks were civilians who were mobilized for different tasks during wars or as volunteers who wanted to be recruited as janissaries. The Ottoman Empire had the practice to assign janissary forces to garrisons in borderland fortresses. Local craftsmen who associated with the janissaries were referred to as yamaks because they assisted janissaries.[6] Eventually they became poorly paid and trained Muslim garrison guards, in particular at the garrisons at Bosphorus, Black Sea and Danube.[8] That is why in some sources they are referred to as janissary border guards.[9] In 1768, during mobilisation of troops for struggle against Russia, 1,000 yamaks were recruited in Sarajevo and dispatched against Montenegro, a Russian ally.[10]

At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century they became a source of unrest and resistance to reforms.[8] There was a pattern which was repeated in the provincial garrisons. The number of yamaks who assisted the few active janissaries was growing because of the business opportunities this position provided. Soon their number would become too big for the garrison to support them, so many of them would move to the countryside to cause misery to peasants and landlords by instituting a reign of terror. Such yamaks followed their leaders called dahis and disobeyed the orders of state officials and even those of the sultan.[11] This was basically the situation in Serbia at the beginning of the 19th century that led to the First Serbian Uprising (1804–13). The Sanjak of Smederevo (in modern-day Serbia) was governed by four Yamak commanders (the Dahije).[12]

  1. ^ Shaw, Stanford J.; Shaw, Ezel Kural (27 May 1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 2, Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey 1808-1975. Cambridge University Press. p. 517. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8. yamak: auxiliary soldier
  2. ^ Inalcik, Halil; Quataert, Donald (1 May 1997). An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-521-57456-3.
  3. ^ Greene, Molly (2000). A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean. Princeton University Press. p. 90. ISBN 0-691-00898-1. yamak ( literally, recruit )
  4. ^ Palmer, Alan (19 May 2011). The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire. Faber & Faber. p. 1960. ISBN 978-0-571-27908-1. yamak: Young janissary mercenaries
  5. ^ "Yamak".
  6. ^ a b Wilkins, Charles L. (2010). Forging Urban Solidarities: Ottoman Aleppo 1640-1700. BRILL. p. 271. ISBN 978-90-04-16907-4.
  7. ^ Berkes, Niyazi; Little, Donald Presgrave (1976). Essays on Islamic Civilization: Presented to Niyazi Berkes. Brill Archive. p. 254. ISBN 90-04-04464-7. Jamakovi6 ( < Osm. yamak : janissary recruit)
  8. ^ a b Aksan, Virginia (14 January 2014). Ottoman Wars: An Empire Besieged. Routledge. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-317-88403-3.
  9. ^ Karpat, Kemal H. (January 2002). Studies on Ottoman Social and Political History: Selected Articles and Essays. BRILL. p. 427. ISBN 90-04-12101-3. He became a yamak (janissary border guard) and gained popularity among the troops at Vidin. Eventually the Belgrade yamaks forced out of that city joined Pasvanoglu too. Even the janissary corps in Istanbul was friendly to him.
  10. ^ Skarić, Vladislav; Ekmečić, Milorad (1985). Izabrana djela. Veselin Masleša. p. 169. Када се скупљала војска против Руса отишло је 1768. из Сарајева 1000 јамака на руску савезницу Црну Гору.
  11. ^ Sugar, Peter F. (1977). Southeastern Europe Under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804. University of Washington Press. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-295-96033-3.
  12. ^ Király, Béla K.; Rothenberg, Gunther Erich (1982). War and Society in East Central Europe: The first Serbian uprising 1804-1813. Brooklyn College Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-930888-15-2. The yamaks ruled Serbia much as the Ottoman military had ruled in Algiers almost two centuries