Knowra Ottoman military Ottoman military The armed forces of the Ottoman Empire comprised a central army, a navy, and provincial troops. Their organization changed substantially from the empire’s medieval expansion through its final decades.
Janissaries : Infantry soldiers of the Ottoman sultan’s household, organized into a powerful standing corps. They formed the best-known infantry corps of the central army.
Devshirme : A levy that recruited Christian boys from Ottoman territories for conversion, training, and state service. It supplied recruits for the sultan’s household troops and administrative elite.
Ottoman Empire : A state founded in Anatolia around the turn of the fourteenth century that expanded across southeastern Europe, western Asia, and North Africa. Its territorial growth created the changing military demands and institutions of the armed forces.
Battle of Mohács : The 1526 battle in which Ottoman forces defeated the Kingdom of Hungary. It illustrates the effectiveness of the empire’s field army during its central European expansion.
Abolition of the Janissaries : The 1826 destruction of the Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II’s government. It marked a decisive break with a military institution that had resisted reform.
Sipahi : A cavalryman who held a fief in return for military service in the Ottoman Empire. Their provincial cavalry service linked land revenue to military obligation.
Ottoman military recruitment : The systems through which the Ottoman state enlisted, trained, and assigned soldiers. Different recruitment channels fed central corps, provincial forces, and wartime auxiliaries.
Osman I : The ruler traditionally regarded as founder of the Ottoman dynasty and early Ottoman polity. The military tradition began in the frontier polity associated with his rule.
Siege of Vienna : The Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529, which ended without the city’s capture. It reveals the limits of campaigning far from Ottoman supply bases.
Nizam-i Cedid : A reform program under Selim III that created a new, European-style Ottoman army in the late eighteenth century. It was an early attempt to build forces beyond the older corps system.
Show all 26