My father told me - and I believe my father:
The end must match the end.
Let there be grapes from a single vine!
Let there be all vegetables from related ridges!
Live like this, children, on a sinful earth, As long as there is bread and wine on the table!
("Outsider" by Rudyard Kipling)
However, on the very armor and weapons of the Turkish knights, all these events, very remote from the Ottoman Empire, practically did not affect. The backbone of the Turkish cavalry, both in the 16th and 17th centuries, continued to be made up of chaebels (ie, "shells"), armed with sabers, maces, conchars, and light spears. Sipahs and Timariots (holders of land holdings granted for military service), as before, went to battle, being chained in chain mail and bakhters. From offensive weapons, they still used bow and arrows. A mirror was more and more often worn over chain mail (armor with one-piece forged plates on the chest and on the back, polished to a mirror shine), which is why it was called that in Russia. The Turkish helmet kulakh gradually transformed into the Russian shishak, which almost all the peoples of Eastern Europe gradually began to use. The metal bracers of the elwana for the right hand turned out to be very convenient, which completely covered the entire right forearm (the left and hand were protected by a shield). Horses were armored for a very long time and in this form were used in war even at the beginning of the 18th century. The latter is not surprising, since horse armor in the East, including Turkey, has always been much lighter than in the West. The rider sitting on an armored horse, of course, had to have protection for his own legs, so armor boots made of steel plates, connected by chain mail, complemented his weapons. They were also used in Russia, where they were called buturlyks.
Sword and saber of the Prophet Muhammad. Topkapi Museum, Istanbul.
The lighter and more courageous horsemen of the Delhi (translated from Turkish "possessed") were usually recruited in Asia. Delhi were the easiest to arm themselves, however, they also wore yushman's plate-chain armor, light Misyurk helmets, as well as elbow pads with shields. The Delhi cavalry used not only cold weapons, but also firearms, and the Europeans liked it very much.
In Western Europe, the more noble the ruler was, the more he had a flag, the longer the pennant of his knightly spear and … the train of his lady's dress. In the Ottoman Empire, we see almost everything the same, and there also existed a clear hierarchy of banners and insignia. The symbol of the commander was alem, popularly nicknamed the "bloody banner", which looked like an embroidered cloth of bright red color, 4-5 m long and 3 m wide, tapering downward. Sanjak, the flag of the governor of the province, was somewhat smaller in size and not so richly decorated. Bayrak is the banner of the light cavalry of Delhi. Most often it was triangular and was made of red or yellow canvas; the letters of the inscriptions were carved from red or white felt and sewn onto the cloth, like Ali's vengeance hand and the Zulfiqar sword.
Turkish signs …
Tug (or bunchuk) was the name of a horse's tail, fixed on a cylindrical, hollow inside and therefore an unusually light shaft made of soft wood; the staff was decorated with oriental ornaments. The upper end of the shaft most often ended with a metal ball, and sometimes with a crescent. Below was attached a simple or braided ponytail, painted in blue, red and black. At the point of attachment of the tail, the shaft was covered with a cloth made of horse and camel hair. The hair was also dyed in various colors, sometimes in a very beautiful pattern.
Mamluk sabers XIV - XVI centuries Topkapi Museum, Istanbul.
The number of ponytails on the bunchuk was just a sign of the rank. Three ponytails had pashas in the rank of vizier, two tails - governors, one - had a sanjakbeg (i.e., the governor of a sanjak). Bunchuks were worn by silikhdars (squires), which in this case were called tugji.
Sabli-kilich from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul.
The blades of Turkish sabers were at first slightly curved (XI century), but then they acquired curvature, often excessive. In the 16th century, the Turkish saber had a smooth handle without a pommel, which in the 17th century acquired the shape of a shell curl, which is so well known today.
In addition to the Turkish sabers in the East, sabers from Persia were very popular - they were lighter and strongly curved in the last third of the blade. Usually they were already Turkish, but shorter. Apparently, the Turkish saber still could not pierce the heavy plates on the mirrors and yushmans, but a light Persian saber could inflict a very strong securing blow on the enemy, which could well achieve its goal in a duel with a weakly armed rider.
Scimitars from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul.
In the 16th century, the scimitar spreads in the Turkish-Arab lands - a relatively short blade, often with a reverse curvature of the blade and without a crosshair, but with two characteristic protrusions ("ears") in the back of the handle. The Turks called weakly curved blades a safe, and strongly curved blades - kilich. The Turks, like other eastern peoples, greatly appreciated the lightness of the spear, so they made shafts from bamboo or drilled them from the inside. The spear award was a sign of the Sultan's special favor and was regarded as a precious gift. Noble Turks and Arabs decorated spears with golden cords and tassels, and even carried a case on their spears that could hold a miniature Koran.
Cavalry of the Egyptian Mamluks 1300-1350 Rice. Angus McBride.
Enemies are hated and … more often than not they are imitated by them - this is a psychological phenomenon that Western Europe did not escape during the wars against the Turks. For the second time since the Crusades, she paid tribute to the higher military organization of her eastern opponents. The fashion for everything Turkish at the end of the 16th century reached the point that in Germany, for example, in imitation of the Turkish custom, they began to paint the tails of horses in red and almost everywhere borrowed Turkish saddles.
Sword (below), saber (left) and konchar (right) of Sultan Mehmed the Second Conqueror. Topkapi Museum, Istanbul.
By the way, their peculiarity, in addition to the device itself, was that they had an attachment on the left for the scabbard of the konchar sword, which thus did not refer to the rider's armament, but to the horse's equipment! The Turkish stirrups also seemed very unusual to the Europeans. The fact is that neither Arabs nor Turks, as a rule, did not wear spurs, but instead used massive wide stirrups, the inner corners of which they pressed on the sides of the horse.
Turkish warriors of the 17th century. In the background is a Tatar light horse rider. Rice. Angus McBride
Despite advanced advances in military equipment, the Ottoman Empire was in decline.
Turkish flintlocks of the 18th - 19th centuries Topkapi Museum, Istanbul.
The decline of feudal-land relations and the ruin of the peasants, just like in Europe, led to a reduction in the number and a drop in the fighting efficiency of the knightly cavalry of the Sipahi. In turn, this forced more and more to increase the number of regular troops and especially the janissary corps. In 1595, 26 thousand were recorded in the registers of the janissaries, after only three years - 35 thousand people, and in the first half of the 17th century there were already 50 thousand! The government was constantly short of money to pay for the maintenance of such a huge number of soldiers, and the Janissaries turned to side earnings - craft and trade. Under any pretexts, they tried to avoid participation in the campaigns, but very strongly opposed any attempts by the authorities to at least somehow limit their privileged position. Only in 1617-1623, due to the Janissary riots, four sultans were replaced on the throne.
Saber of Sultan Mehmed the Second Conqueror. Topkapi Museum, Istanbul.
Such events gave rise to contemporaries to write about the Janissaries, that "they are as dangerous in peacetime as weak in war." The defeat of the Turks near the walls of Vienna in 1683 clearly showed that the fall of the military might of the Ottoman Empire could no longer be stopped by either the Sipahian plate cavalry or the Janissary corps * with firearms. This required something more, namely, the abandonment of the old economic system and the transition to large-scale market production. In the West, such a transition has taken place. The Knights of the West, having achieved maximum severity and security in weapons, by the 17th century abandoned lat. But in the East, where the armor itself was much lighter, this process stretched out for centuries! On this path, East and West parted not only in the field of weapons …
In 1958, the Georgia-Film studio shot a feature film Mamluk about the fate of two Georgian boys who were kidnapped by slave traders and who died in a duel with each other. Large-scale battle scenes, of course, were staged "so-so" (although the guns roll back after the shots!), But the costumes are simply magnificent, the helmets are wrapped in cloth, and even the aventails are made of rings! Otar Koberidze as Mamluk Mahmud.
* The history of the Janissaries ended in 1826, when on the night of June 15, they rebelled once again, trying to protest against the intention of Sultan Mahmud II to create a new permanent army. In response to the calls of the heralds - to speak out in defense of the faith and the Sultan against the rioters-janissaries - the majority of the inhabitants of the capital spoke out. The mufti (chief priest) declared the extermination of the janissaries a godly deed, and death in battle with them - a feat for the faith. Cannons hit the barracks of the Janissaries, after which the troops loyal to the Sultan and the city militias began to exterminate the rebels. The Janissaries who survived in this massacre were immediately condemned, after which they were all strangled, and their bodies were thrown into the Sea of Marmara. The janissaries' cauldrons, which terrified Christians and reverence for the faithful, were popularly soiled with mud, the banners were torn apart and trampled into dust. Not only the barracks were destroyed, but even the janissaries' mosque, the coffee houses they usually visited. Even marble tombstones were broken, mistaken for janissaries because of the felt hat depicted on them, similar to the wide sleeve of the robe of dervish Bektash. The Sultan even forbade to pronounce the very word "janissary" out loud, so great was his hatred for this former "new army".
