Bashi-bazouk

Although the Ottoman armies always contained irregular troops such as mercenaries as well as regular soldiers, the strain on the Ottoman feudal system, caused mainly by the Empire's wide expanse, required a 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 (called aḳıncı) rode on horseback. Because of their lack of discipline, they were not capable 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 use of bashi-bazouks 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-bazouks were notorious for being violently brutal and undisciplined, thus giving the term its second, colloquial meaning of "undisciplined bandit" in many languages. The term was popularised in the 20th century by the comic series The Adventures of Tintin, where the word is frequently used as an insult by Captain Haddock. The Batak massacre (1876) was carried out by thousands of bashi-bazouks sent to quell a local rebellion. Likewise, bashi-bazouks perpetrated the massacres of Candia in 1898 and Phocaea in 1914. During the 1903 Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising in Ottoman Macedonia, these troops burned 119 villages and destroyed 8400 houses, and over 50,000 Bulgarian refugees had to flee into the mountains. File:Пиотровский. батакская резня. 1889 год.jpeg|Bashi-bazouks carrying out the Batak massacre. Antoni Piotrowski, (1889). File:Basibozuk-1877.jpg|Bashi-bazouks' atrocities in Ottoman Bulgaria. Unknown author, (1877). File:Konstantin Makovsky - The Bulgarian martyresses.jpg|The Bulgarian Martyresses (1877), painting by Konstantin Makovsky depicting the rape of two Bulgarian women in a church by one African-looking and two Turkish-looking bashi-bazouks, during the April Uprising. File:Gérôme-Black Bashi-Bazouk-c. 1869.jpg|An African bashi-bazouk, painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1869). ==Depictions in art==

File:Chef arnaute by Jean-Léon Gérôme.jpg|An Albanian bashi-bazouk in Egypt. Painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1870. File:A Bashi-Bazouk, drawn by Francis Davis Millet.jpg|Drawing of a bashi-bazouk by Francis Davis Millet, 1889. File:Jean-Léon Gérôme – Bachi-bouzouk Arnaoute.jpg|An Albanian bashi-bazouk painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme in the 1860s. File:Vernet-Lecomte 7.jpg|A bashi-bazouk contemplating his loot. Painting by Émile Vernet-Lecomte, 1862. File:Jean-Léon Gérôme - A Bashi-Bazouk.jpg|An African bashi-bazouk, painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1860s. File:Два ястреба (Башибузуки).jpg|Two captured bashi-bazouks, painted by Vasily Vereshchagin, 1878. ==See also==