Deli (soldier)

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Deli Sinan (left) fighting a Hungarian knight in 1526.
Detail of a miniature from Süleymanname

Deli ( Ottoman دلیalso Delü  /دلو / 'Brave, heroic, daring, reckless, insane, crazy') or Deliler (plural, in German delis or deli ) was the name of a single rider or a mounted association of the Ottoman provincial troops in the Ottoman Empire who dared to fight the enemy went off. Most of the deli are said to have been intoxicated with opium. These deli were a mixed group of people from Balkan peoples and Turks.

Parallel to the term deli - probably even earlier - the term delil (plural deliller ) was also used for the same people and associations. It comes from Arabic and means in Ottoman in connection with the wars of conquest in Europe leader in the sense of scouts.

Military and representative functions

Boy Scouts and Frontline Fighters

Deli with fur hat and eagle's wings, mortifying himself, detail of a miniature from Surname-i Hümayun (1582–1587)

The name form Delil accurately captures the earliest function. As scouts and scouts familiar with the place and the population of the Balkans, the Delil , who mostly originally came from the Balkans, helped the Ottoman vanguard and the entire Ottoman army since the 14th century in exploring the terrain and thus in planning and carrying out military campaigns.

When the Delil themselves under the leadership of a Delilerağası (Ağa of the Reckless ) - similar to the Akıncı - took over the military tasks of advance squads and proved to be particularly daring , the admiration expressing name Deli, possibly corrupted from Delil , prevailed.

In a kind of self - styling, the Delil, called deli , showed themselves to be pain-defying daredevils in the army and in public. Some took over the practices of dervishes by exhibiting the maltreatment of their bodies to the point of self-mutilation, for example in the elevations on the occasion of the circumcision festival of Şehzade Mehmed, the son of Sultan Murat III.

Being a successful frontline fighter as a deli was the foundation for promotions and rewards. The severed heads of the defeated opponents could serve as proof of success, as reported by the preacher of the imperial embassy in Istanbul in 1575:

" [...] Deli Pervāna beheaded Mr. Auersberg / and carried his head / Zaim and his salary has been improved to him by two hundred and fifty thalers / can become Alai or Sansagbeg [...] ."

The deli developed their greatest military effectiveness in the 16th and 17th centuries. They continued to be used as cavalry troops at least until the 18th century, as two descriptions of the preparations for war in 1713 and 1736 show:

" The Sultan set out for Adrianople [...] Immediately after his arrival in Adrianople, the Beglerbeg of Anatoli and his troops raised a stately, ahead of the courageous and daring (Gönüllü and Deli) [...] "

" [...] eighty Bosnian deli, that is, reckless, panted, the first dressed with large eagle wings, forty red, forty dressed in yellow [...] "

Bodyguard

Deli also functioned as a special guard of Ottoman dignitaries until the end of the 17th century . The grand viziers usually commanded 400 to 500 deli. Köprülü Mehmed Pascha , Köprülü Fâzıl Ahmed Pascha and Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pascha are said to have had 2,000 such deli as bodyguards, who were mounted in the field but marched on foot in front of the Grand Vizier when he went to the divan in Constantinople. Their commander was called Delibaşı (leader of the deli ).

The Ottoman ambassador Kara Mehmed Pascha , for example, appeared in Vienna in 1665:

" Then came the Pasha's Deli and Gönüllü, all in elegant costume and well-armed ."

On the morning of July 14, 1683, at the beginning of the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna , the Delibaşı of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pascha , Ahmed Ağa, brought the Viennese, as negotiator, a letter calling for them to surrender and surrender the city.

Armament and clothing

Deli in parade uniform, print from 1688 after Melchior Lorichs (* 1526/27; † 1583)
Deli in typical clothing and armament, from Codex Vindobonensis 8626 (around 1590), by Heinrich Hendrowski (?)

Most of the pictorial representations of the deli date from the 16th century. You can find them on Ottoman miniatures and on Western drawings and prints. Always - even in combat - the pictures show the rather representative furnishings of the deli , so they are typified and only partially realistic representations.

Typical for the traditional image of the mounted deli of the 16th century are fur hats with bird of prey wings or individual feathers and clothing or throws made from the fur of leopard, wolf, bear, lion or hyena. The deli are armed with a lance and sword, sometimes with a club, and do not wear the Turkish round shield, but the shield of the Christian Balkan peoples, which is rectangular in the lower part and sloping and pointed in the upper part. In contrast to the Akıncı , they lack the reflex arc.

This appearance is also drawn in travel reports of western visitors to the Ottoman Empire, for example in Nicolas de Nicolay (journey from 1551, book: Lyon 1567 and others) and Luigi Bassano (1545). Both report that these deli came from the Balkans and called themselves zataznicis (plural) or sataznich (singular) in their own language , which after Nicolas de Nicolay means “defieurs d'hommes” (in the sense of “challenger”), which means what is meant is that they would have to challenge ten men alone before they could acquire the name and status of a deli or a zataznici .

Decline of the deli

Towards the end of the 18th century it happened more and more frequently that deli associations were dismissed and no longer found use. Their armament and fighting style no longer corresponded to the newer Ottoman military strategies. Under a Delibaschi or in smaller troops, they then sought to secure their livelihood through robbery and looting. This happened, for example, under the Delibaschi Koca, who commanded a large deli troop and terrorized the villages in the Kütahya area . Delibaschi İsmail similarly unsettled the Konya region around 1801 and in 1803 participated with his deli in an uprising against the reorganization of the army, through which the deli should no longer find official use. But it was not until after the Russo-Ottoman War of 1828–1829 , in which Deli had still participated, that Sultan Mahmud II succeeded in putting an end to the gang system. Many deli fled and sought salvation in Egypt and Syria . Some deli were pacified and settled in Anatolia . Esad Pascha, the Vali of Karaman, destroyed the last remains of predatory deli .

Honorary title and nickname

Delü Rādīğ , name from the campaign
diary of Sultan Suleyman I.

A distinction must be made between the actual deli and people who were referred to in old sources with the deli as part of their name , but who did not have the military and representative functions. One such deli was Deli Hasan Pascha , who led an uprising against the Ottoman Empire towards the end of the 16th century and defeated the Ottoman army at Tokat.

Even particularly daring, non-Muslim opponents were sometimes recognized by the Ottomans as deli . A Delü Rādīğ is mentioned in Suleyman's First War Diary .

See also

Sources, references and comments

  1. ^ Daniel Goffman: The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe . Cambridge 2004. p. 1.
  2. a b c İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı: Deli. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition . Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, CE Bosworth, E. van Donzel and WP Heinrichs. Brill, 2009. Brill Online.
  3. Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 4. Altenburg 1858, p. 817, online at zeno.org
  4. Esin Atıl: Süleymanname . Washington et al. 1986, p. 265.
  5. Definition of terms from Gerd Frank: The rulers of the Ottomans . Vienna et al. 1977, Glossarium
  6. David Nicolle : Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774 . Osprey Publishing, London 1983, ISBN 0-85045-511-1 , p. 14.
  7. Klaus Schwarz: Ottoman Sultan certificates . Investigations into the recruitment and remuneration of Ottoman soldiers in the time of Murād III. From the estate, ed. by Claudia Römer, Freiburger Islamstudien Volume XVII, Stuttgart 1997, p. 26.
  8. Zaim (Arabic زعي) = colonel, see Zeamet ; Alaibeg = Beg of a platoon (regiment); Sansagbeg = Sançakbeg
  9. Joseph Hammer-Purgstall: History of the Ottoman Empire . Volume 7, Pest 1831, p. 198.
  10. Joseph Hammer-Purgstall: History of the Ottoman Empire . Volume 7, Pest 1831, p. 456.
  11. Joseph Hammer-Purgstall: History of the Ottoman Empire . Volume 7, Pest 1831, p. 248.
  12. ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon 6th edition. 1905–1909, keyword deli
  13. Joseph Hammer-Purgstall: History of the Ottoman Empire . Volume 10, Pest 1835, p. 434 (main index with additional page numbers)
  14. In the realm of the golden apple . The Turkish globetrotter Evliya Çelebi made a memorable trip to the Giaurenland and the city and fortress of Vienna in 1665. Translated, introduced and explained by Richard F. Kreutel. Ottoman historians Vol. 2. Graz, Vienna, Cologne 1963 (2nd edition), pp. 68ff
  15. Gönüllü = osman.-turk. the hearted
  16. ^ From: Kara Mustafa before Vienna. The diary of the siege of Vienna in 1683, written by the master of ceremonies of the Sublime Porte . Translated by Richard F. Kreutel, in Stefan Schreiner (Ed.): The Ottomans in Europe. Memories and reports by Turkish historians . Graz et al. 1985, p. 206.
  17. ^ The Turks before Vienna. Europe and the decision on the Danube in 1683. 82nd special exhibition of the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna. May 5 to October 30, 1983. Vienna 1983, p. 115f, cat.nr. 12/37 (ill. P. 117)
  18. ^ Nicolas de Nicolay: Dans l'empire de Soliman le Magnifique . Edited by Marie-Christine Gomez-Géraud u. Stéphane Yérasimos, Paris 1989, pp. 227f
  19. Luigi Bassano: Costumi et i modi particolari della vita de 'Turchi , edited by Franz Babinger, Munich 1963, sheets 43v and 44r
  20. Nicolas de Nicolay: Les quatre premiers livres des navigation et peregrinations Orientales ... Lyon 1568, p. 143. Accessed February 15, 2018.
  21. AH de Groot: ESʿAD PASHA. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, CE Bosworth, E. van Donzel and WP Heinrichs. Brill, 2009. Brill Online
  22. ^ Karen Barkey: Bandits and bureaucrats: the Ottoman route to state centralization. Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca et al. 1994, pp. 206f.
  23. ^ Austrian National Library, Hs. HO50, ruz-name