Benno's Figures Forum

Posted by **krugi3** on 23 Dec 2015, 16:03

Hello!

Simple question (or maybe not):

Do all men of a janissary orta have the same uniform?

Sources available to me suggests rather NO.

Any help is welcome!

Greetings from Austria

Posted by **Peter** on 23 Dec 2015, 20:14

Hey Thomas,

wiki says "unique uniforms".

Look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissaries

Posted by **krugi3** on 23 Dec 2015, 20:31

Unique is definitely correct, but I guess this means rather the distinctive shape of the uniform but is perhaps not an evidence for identical colours

Posted by **Peter** on 23 Dec 2015, 21:19

I think you are right Thomas, looking at the pictures. Looks like you can do with the colors whatever you want! ;-)

Posted by **Cryns** on 24 Dec 2015, 10:22

Good question, I broke my head on that topic for many years.
The answer is: we don't know.

In their 70's book Fred and Lilliane Funcken show them all in Turkish Blue (Turquoise) which is a very simplistic conclusion. Its because the name of the color. So not reliable.

More reliable sources like different Osprey books on this subject show different colors, but dark green, dark blue and brownish red in particular. Natural colors of those days and also practical: dark colors will show less dirt and less blood.

But a 16th century eyewitness of the storming of the St. Elmo fortress at Malta wrote about the Janissaries wearing white coats.

Ottoman miniatures show them in all kinds of very bright colors. But remember they copied this colorful painting style from the Persians: so its more like a painting tradition then a representation of the fashion. Also remember the Ottoman miniature painters used the most beautiful colors available: if you look at the miniatures well, you can see a constant repetition of only a few bright colors.

Most realistic will be: the later in history, the bigger the chance some units had uniformed colors. So medieval Janissaries did very probably have not and Napoleontic Janissaries might have worn standardized and uniform colors.
Your subject is in between those periods. My advice: every man a different color.

An other option is color-accent to a unit: Like more blue's in one unit, more greens in another.

Posted by **Emperor** on 24 Dec 2015, 12:02

@Krugi3 the Jannisaries or ,,the brotherhood of spoon'' were one of the first uniformed and well organized army units after the fall of Roman Empire...At beginning they were simply a bow man using bow and arrows, but soon they started using rifles...As concerning Janissaries uniforms that period of 1683 was the grand period of Janissaries...They usually wore the red suit of clothing...Most notable distinction of Janissaries is their bork hat...Janissaries were collected from Christian children at age of 7 or less...That was know as bloody tax(not sure if the name is translated that way in English)...Anyway soon in XVIII century Janissarie started to decline with their discipline...They were no more a fighting elite, rather they did other jobs like merchants, but still were soldiers...They started to get marry, which was not practiced earlier...
Now as concerning uniform, I think you don't need to follow any specific rules...Most of Janissaries had red uniform, with white bork hat...Some of them had red bork hat, others had black uniforme...
I think this site can help http://www.ottoman-uniforms.com/1600-ti ... nk-system/
It covers almost entire military history of Ottoman empire...
The Janissaires were part of Ottoman army until 1826 and the attack on Janissarie barracks...
Still Janissaries were only elite...The largest part of Ottoman army were ordinary soldiers known as Askers and Azaps and others...Millitary system of Ottoman empire had many different units, similar as Napoleon had different units...
As concerning ranks there were Vazir the rank of Marshal, Pashas the rank of General, the Agas wich were Corbaci- he had the rank of Collonel amongs Janissarie and ordinary troops...
Bınbaşı,-Bim-thousand- a man that lead a thousand soldiers...
Buluk or bulubasa-the captain
and Delibasa-leader or irregulars-Deli mean mad in Turkish...
The ordinary soldiers beside Janissaries were Azaps, Askers and Tufekci...

Posted by **Emperor** on 24 Dec 2015, 15:05

1683 is period of Enlighment and a period when Ottoman Empire has grown into a great power, controlling vast areas of land...In Ottoman ruling system their empire was divide into Rumelia and Anatolia...Rumelia are the parts of Ottoman empire in Europe...The Anatoila are parts of Asia(I am not sure did North of Africa is considered Anatoli)...Janissaries of that time was of much better quality than Napoleonic Janissaries, since empire has declined slowly in period of XVIII and XIX century... I think Napoleonic Janissaries had turbans instead of distinctive bork hat or at least they had some sort of hats...One thing about the Janissaries of that time is that they didn't grow beard and mustache...They shaved... I also think that if anybody has any doubts about colors, they can look on Zvezda's boxart of painted figures on back of the box...