Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/257

COMPOSITION OF THE TUEKISH AEMY 223 eighty thousand effective fighting men, excluding in this estimate apparently the Bashi-Bazouks. 1 Barbaro's estimate of one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men is substantially confirmed by Tetaldi, who states that there were two hundred thousand men under Mahomet, of whom a hundred and forty thousand were effective soldiers including thirty thousand to forty thousand cavalry, the rest 4 being thieves, plunderers, hawkers, and others following the siege for gain and booty.' 2 Taking the estimate of Cheirullah and Tetaldi, we may perhaps safely say that in the army of one hundred and fifty thousand men there were at least twenty thousand cavalry. In this great army the Janissaries played the most important part and formed beyond all doubt the most efficient division. These were at least twelve thousand in number. 3 The name Janissaries signifies 1 New Troops,' and was given by a famous dervish and saint, Hadji Bektash, when they were formed, in 1326, into a new infantry by Sultan Orchan. From their institution they constituted a fraternity governed in religious matters by the rules of Hadji Bektash. 4 Under the care of the first Murad, the son of Orchan, their organisation had been developed, and by the time of Mahomet the Second they had already acquired high repute for discipline and daring. The part they played in the capture of the city and their 1 The elder Mordtmann makes the suggestion that the Bashi-Bazouks are in this estimate excluded, and I agree with him. The same remark applies also to Philelphus who gives 60,000 foot and 20,000 horse. Other writers include all those who were present with Mahomet and thus make the number of the besiegers very much higher. Ducas's estimate is 250,000 ; Montaldo's, 240,000 (of whom 30,000 were cavalry, ch. xxvii.). Phrantzes states that 258,000 were present; Leonard the archbishop, with whom Critobulus and Thysellius agree, gives 300,000 men, while Chalcondylas increases this to 400,000. 2 Tetaldi's Information de la prinse de Constantinoble, p. 21. 3 Leonard and others say 15,000, but the smaller estimate is in accord with many Turkish statements that the number of Janissaries was, until the time of Suliman, limited to 12,000. 4 The connection between the Dervish order of Bektashis and the Janissaries endured as long as the Janissaries themselves, and when the latter were massacred, in June 1826, with the cry of ' Hadji Bektash ' on their lips, the order of Bektashis was also suppressed. Etat militaire Ottoman, par Djavid Bey (Constantinople, 1881), and Walsh's Two Years in Constantinople (1828).