When I deal with mine
His soul is often by no means white.
But if he's lying, I'm not at all embarrassed:
I am cunning in the same manner as he.
We make sales and purchases, grumbling, But all the same, we do not need to look for an interpreter!
("Outsider" by Rudyard Kipling)
The campaigns of the Turks against Byzantium and the Balkan states were also successful at first. In 1389, Serb troops were defeated in the Kosovo field. In 1396, in the battle of Nikopol, Turkish troops were able to defeat the combined troops of the Hungarians, Vlachs, Bulgarians and Western European knights, numbering 60,000 people. However, the further advance of the Turks in Europe was stopped by Timur's invasion of Asia Minor, where in the battle of Angora (Ankara) on July 20, 1402, the Turkish army of Sultan Bayezid I, nicknamed "Lightning", was completely defeated by the "Iron Lame".
Arab helmet 1734 Weight 442.3 (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
As usual, the light cavalry began the battle, after which Timur, with successive attacks of heavy cavalry, upset the ranks of the Turkish troops and outflanked them. This was facilitated by the transition of the ta-tar mercenaries to the side of Timur and the betrayal of the Anatolian beys, although the Serb squads retained their loyalty to the Sultan and continued to desperately resist. However, this resistance did not play a special role, since Timur put into action a powerful reserve, which managed to push back the Serb troops and completed the encirclement and defeat of the Janissaries, who stood in the center of the Turkish battle formation. Bayazid himself was captured by Timur, trying to break out of the encirclement.
Interestingly, Bayezid was crooked in one eye. He was very offended by Timur when he began to laugh when he saw his crowned captive. “Do not laugh at my misfortune, Timur,” Bayazid told him, “know that the distribution of luck and failure depends on God and that what happened to me today can happen to you tomorrow”. “I know without you,” answered the winner, “that God is giving out crowns. I do not laugh at your misfortune, God bless me, but when I looked at you, the thought came to me that all these crowns and sceptres of ours are inexpensive for God, if he distributes them to people like you and me - crooked, like you, but a lame man like me."
The outcome of the battle once again demonstrated the power of the heavily armed cavalry, especially when it was subject to strict discipline. Fortunately for the Turks, Timur soon died, and their state was able not only to recover from the defeat inflicted on him, but also to start new territorial conquests. Now the main goal of Turkish expansion was Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, which had greatly diminished in size.
Misyurk helmet, 17th - 18th century. Turkey. Weight 1530 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
The thought of conquering Constantinople constantly haunted Sultan Mehmed II (1432-1481). He, according to contemporaries, even at night summoned people familiar with the fortifications of the city and drew plans for Constantinople and its environs with them in order to best prepare for the siege.
By this time, the development of firearms had already led to the appearance of metal cannons. For example, in China, one of the cast bronze bombards was dated 1332. In the XIII-XIV centuries, firearms appeared among the Arabs and in Europe, but until the middle of the XIV century they were used very rarely. For the first time, guns in field combat took part in the Battle of Crécy in 1346 in France, where the British used three primitive bombards, interrupting the legs of French horses and firing stone cannonballs. In 1382, cannons and mattresses (from Türkic tyu-feng - gun) were used by the inhabitants of Moscow in the defense against the troops of Tokhtamysh, and in 1410 - by the Teutonic Order crusaders in the Battle of Grunwald.
A diorama dedicated to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. It was from these bombards that the Turks fired at its walls. (War Museum, Istanbul)
Mehmed II needed to take a well-fortified city, and therefore the sultan did not spare either time or money to create first-class artillery at that time. He was helped in this by a skilled Hungarian engineer named Urban, who cast a monstrous cannon about 12 m long and weighing 33 tons for the siege of Constantinople. km. It took 60 oxen and 200 gun servants to transport her to the city! A total of 69 guns were installed around the city, united in 15 batteries, continuously firing at the city fortifications during the first two weeks of the siege, both at night and during the day.
And although for a long time the Turkish artillerymen did not succeed in making holes in the walls, the Turkish sultans understood the meaning of firearms very well for themselves.
After the capture of Constantinople (1453), Turkish troops moved further into Europe, and it was here that the role of the well-trained, disciplined infantry, without whose help the European fortresses could not be taken, became even more noticeable. Naturally, the desire of the sultans to equip it with the most effective weapon, which at that time was a firearm, capable of piercing knightly armor and crushing any fortifications.
The artillery of the Ottoman Empire was heavier and more powerful than the Western artillery, and the gigantic guns in their army became the rule rather than the exception. Turkish gunpowder was also better in quality than European and gave white smoke when fired, not black.
The author is at the cores from the museum exposition in the Kazan Kremlin.
After the fall of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II created a special corps of artillerymen and artillery servants, who, in addition to guns, also had subversive charges for taking fortresses and bombs made of bronze, iron and … glass! The appearance of shooters armed with carbines (from Turkish carabuli - shooter) - long-barreled match rifles, which, however, unlike cannons, were much lighter than European ones, also belongs to the same time. As early as 1500, Asian peoples (including the Turks) began to use the Arabian flintlock - a very perfect flint-box with a leaf spring, which became the basis for the development of similar mechanisms in the West. Long-barreled wick and flint carbines in the Turkish army were primarily received by the janissaries, while the armament of the Turkish cavalry of the Sipahi remained purely knightly for a long time.
Thus, in the East, the same thing happened that took place in the West at about the same time. The well-armed infantry began to defeat the knights, and they everywhere began to improve their armor, hoping that they would protect them from the new weapons of the infantry. On this path, gunsmiths from both Europe and Asia managed to achieve almost complete impenetrability of protective armor by the 16th century. But in the East, the armor tried to lighten everything else, since here the famous oriental bow continued to remain in service with the heavily armed cavalry, from which it was impossible to shoot in armor of the European type.
Under Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent (1520-1566), so named for its power and splendor of the court, the Turkish army became one of the strongest armies of its time, which included an army (they were called "slaves of the court") and a provincial militia.
This is how Sultan Suleiman I went to war in 1543. The Sultan's convoy consisted of 1000 karabuli riflemen, 500 minelayers, 800 artillerymen, 400 convoy soldiers with their commanders, assistants and clerks. All the main court ranks followed in the Sultan's retinue, including 300 chamberlains. There were 6,000 horse bodyguards (3,000 on the right and on the left). Together with the Sultan, the viziers moved along with their officials, messengers and slaves, the Sultan's hunting service (falconers, hounds, messengers, etc.). Horses of various breeds moved under the supervision of the chief grooms: Arabian, Persian, Kurdish, Anatolian, Greek. The person of the Sultan was accompanied by 12,000 janissaries with sabers, pikes and arquebus. In front of the Sultan, they carried 7 bunchuk, 7 gilded bronze standards, and 100 trumpeters and 100 drummers filled the air with a frantic roar and roar. Directly behind the Sultan were 400 of his personal bodyguards, dressed in luxurious suits, and 150 mounted warriors, dressed no less luxuriously. And finally, at the end of this procession, the Sultan's wagon train was moving: 900 pack horses, 2100 pack mules, 5400 camels, which were loaded with supplies and equipment for bivouacs.
Straight Turkish sword of the 17th century. Length 84 cm. Weight 548 g. It is interesting that in his scabbard there was a container for a dart. It could be unexpectedly removed and thrown at the enemy.
Among the units that were supported by the government, the janissary corps, to which gunners were attached, stood out. In addition to the janissary infantry, the sultan also had his own horse guard, which guarded the person of the sultan on campaigns, and covered the flanks of the janissaries in battle. The losses among the janissaries were quite large, but their number was constantly increasing (for example, under Sultan Suleiman, their corps already numbered 12,000 people) and their ranks had to be replenished by all available means. Therefore, the raids of the allies of the Turkish sultan - the Crimean and Kazan Tatars - on the Russian lands did not stop, as well as the retaliatory campaigns of the Moscow sovereigns against the Golden Horde, which disintegrated into separate khanates. After all, it was from the regions of the Volga region, as well as Transcaucasia and North Africa that the "manpower" so necessary to replenish the corps of the Janissaries was supplied, in exchange for which Turkish weapons were sent there.
Warriors of the Kazan Khanate of the beginning of the 15th century: 1 - khan, 2 - palace guardsman of the end of the 15th century, 3 - horseman of the Siberian khanate, ally of the Kazan people, 15th - 16th centuries. (Fig. Harry and Sam Embleton)
It should be noted that the warriors of these khanates, primarily the warriors of the Kazan Khanate, were practically in no way inferior to the Turkish cavalry of the Sipakhi and in the 15th-16th centuries they had very similar weapons. The main type of edged weapons at this time, since the XIII century, was a saber, which had a blade about 1 m long with an oval notch - dol. The blade ended with a double-edged extension - yelman, which increased the power of the chopping blow.
Unlike earlier designs, sabers of the 15th-16th centuries often had a wider blade and a wider curvature. They made it possible to deliver a powerful chopping blow, as well as stabbing. Sabers were usually worn in a leather sheath with metal fittings. Wealthy warriors could afford scabbards with silver and gold overlays and pommels studded with precious stones. In general, sabers have traditionally been a weapon of the nobility, a sign of the knightly dignity of the eastern batyr. Wearing and using them was filled with a special meaning. For example, in the event of a quarrel, the batyr should not have exposed the blade by more than a third, since after that he could put it back, only “washing” it in the offender's blood. To lose or give up a saber meant to lose honor. It is not surprising that sabers and their parts are very rare archaeological finds.
"Fall of Kazan in 1552": 1 - dismounted "officer", 2 - Nogai infantryman, 3 - commander of Kazan allies - soldiers of the Siberian khanates. (Fig. Harry and Sam Embleton)
Universal combat knives were indispensable in the campaign and in everyday life, and at the decisive moment they became the last hope of a warrior, so it is no coincidence that in many drawings the Tatars are depicted with knives.
Spears were very diverse in shape and scope. So, heavily armed riders preferred spears with narrow, elongated, often tetrahedral tips, mounted on long (up to 3-4 m) shafts. A detachment of horsemen with such spears at the ready, on the move, in a deployed formation (lava), crashed into the enemy's ranks, trying to pierce the armor of enemy soldiers, knock them off their horses and, if possible, put them to flight. The infantrymen had other spears - with wide blades on 2-3-meter shafts. They were indispensable in operations against mounted warriors, as well as in the defense of fortifications. Throwing spears - jerids (in Russian - sulitsy) were also occasionally used.
The Tatars were armed with various types of battle axes, and some of them - wide-blade axes on long axes - undoubtedly an infantry weapon. Noble warriors used expensive hatchets with a protruding butt and a narrow blade (chisels). Some of them were covered with intricate floral designs.
Weapons of Kazan citizens from the museum on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin.
Maces made of iron and bronze and battle picks with a narrow wedge-shaped striker also served as additional weapons for the eastern knight. They were indispensable in close combat and swift equestrian skirmishes, when it was required to deliver a strong and unexpected blow that could pierce armor or stun the enemy. Decorated with gold, silver and precious stones, maces also served as signs of military power.
