İlk Mehmetçikler Kimlerdi?: Osmanlı Ordusunun Neferleri, 1826-1853
Journal: Osmanlı Araştırmaları
Year: 2014

In 1826, the Ottoman central authority, which had destroyed the Janissary Corps and had been facing an array of political and military challenges from both inside and outside for years, decided to create a European-style army manned by long-term conscripts. To meet the mounting manpower needs, the Ottoman state forcibly drafted Muslim peasants and the urban poor for its newly formed regiments. This essay focuses on these men, the rank and file of the Ottoman army in the second quarter of the 19t