Employment of Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Army in the Case of the Crimean War


Çetin M., Kok R.

BILIG, sa.85, ss.23-54, 2018 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: Sayı: 85
  • Basım Tarihi: 2018
  • Dergi Adı: BILIG
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.23-54
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: The Crimean War, Non-muslims, Recruitment, Employment, Warfare
  • Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Recruitment is one of the most important component of the warfare. Recruitment reflects the economic capacity as it reflects the military capacity of the state. Employment of foreign soldiers and foreign military experts in the army usually find place in the recruitment process to increase the number of combatant forces, to transfer the developed military technology and to increase the value of human capital in the army. The principal source of foreign military elements in Ottoman warfare in Classical Era were technology transfer and migration from the west. Ottoman Empire benefited from foreign soldiers and military experts through the alliance networks during the Crimean War. In this study, recruitment of non-muslims who demanded to be employed in Ottoman Army during the Crimean War is examined. In this concept the aim of the study is to detail the procedures and the processes related with the recruitment of the non-muslims, to emphasize the blockage points of the system that tried to be evolved through a national army during the war and to explain the functioning of it in the warfare in the case of the Crimean War. The contribution of this study to the literature will be in this direction. Findings point out that employment of foreign soldiers in Ottoman Army developed according to the political conjuncture of the period and the aim of creating a citizen army has not been achieved with in the context of employment of Ottoman non-muslims in army in the case of Crimean War.