Janissaries, navies & sieges
Military
The war machine that built the empire — the Janissary corps, the sipahi cavalry, the imperial fleet, and the great gunpowder sieges.
Ottoman Military and WarfareOverview
Ottoman military history from the akıncı raiders of Söğüt to the 1915 Gallipoli defence: sipahi cavalry, Janissaries, gunpowder siege warfare, the imperial navy, and 19th-century reform.
Ottoman Gunpowder Siege Warfare
Cannon, bombards, mining, and the great Ottoman sieges from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 to the second siege of Vienna in 1683, the topçu ocak, and the trace italienne.
The Janissary Corps
The Ottoman Janissary corps: Christian boys recruited through the devshirme, trained as elite infantry from c. 1363, abolished in the Auspicious Incident of 17 June 1826.
The Ottoman Navy
The Ottoman imperial navy from its origins under Orhan, the Golden Horn arsenal, the era of Hayreddin Barbarossa, Lepanto in 1571, Çeşme in 1770, and the long 19th-century decline.
Hayreddin Barbarossa
Hayreddin Barbarossa: the corsair of Midilli, the capture of Algiers, his service as Ottoman Kapudan Pasha 1533-1546, the battle of Preveza, and his legacy in the western Mediterranean.
The Battle of Gallipoli
The 1915-16 Gallipoli campaign of the First World War: the Ottoman defence of the Dardanelles against the Anglo-French expedition, the mines of the Nusret, the August Offensive, and the rise of Mustafa Kemal.
The Devshirme System
The Ottoman devshirme or 'blood-tax': Christian boys from the Balkans collected for service as Janissaries and in the Enderun palace school, from the late 14th to the 17th century.
The Great Siege of Malta
The 1565 siege of Malta by the Ottoman army of Suleiman the Magnificent: the heroic defence of the Knights of St John under Jean de Valette, Turgut Reis, and the failure of the Ottoman expedition.
The Provincial Sipahi Cavalry
The Ottoman sipahi cavalry: the timariot horsemen of Rumelia and Anatolia, the timar prebendal fief system, the sipahis at Mohács and Vienna, and the long seventeenth-century decline.
The Siege of Vienna
The 1529 and 1683 Ottoman sieges of Vienna: Suleiman's first siege, the high-water mark of Ottoman expansion, and the second siege broken by Sobieski's charge and the Treaty of Karlowitz.