December i8, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER 
THE TURK AS A FIGHTING MAN. 
By Sir Edwin Pears. 
THE Turks from the time of their entry into 
Asia Minor have always been fighting men. 
In a certain sense they have never formed 
a nation. From the first tliey were an armed 
camp of military intruders, and have never altogether lost 
this character. Nomads in origin, each household, if the 
term may be applied to people who rarely possessed a 
house, lived in its own tent of strong felt, and was pre- 
pared to strike its tent whenever pasturage failed. They 
lived together , in groups of families where every man 
was a fighter, bound to follow the leadership of the head 
of the group. Entering Asia Minor at its North East 
corner, their numbers constantly increased. They found 
themselves in the midst of races, all more highly civilized 
than themselves, who resisted the invaders, attacked 
them and defeated them again and again during the tenth 
and eleventh centuries. How then did they ultimately 
succeed ? The answer is : that the stream of emigrants 
from South Central Asia never failed. At certain times 
it was much fuller in volume than at others, but at no 
period down to the middle of the nineteenth century did 
the stream cease to run. The diminution of its volume 
occasionally occurred — partly owing to physical causes 
and partly to internal movements — until the recent rule 
of Russia in Georgia and Circassia dammed it. 
Ad Unproliflc Race. 
Let me say in passing that the Turks have never been 
a prolific race, and that polygamy has in this respect not 
come to their aid. Whenever indeed the Turks have 
abandoned their nomadic habit they have not only 
weakened but diminished in numbers. The first import- 
ant group of them which settled in Asia Minor were the 
Seljuks, whose capital was at Konia, the Iconium of the 
New Testament. They settled on the lands of the people 
of the then flourishing cities and, retaining much of their 
original vigour, pushed steadily forward on their con- 
quering career. Before the end of the 1 1 th century they were 
almost within sight of Constantinople. They had indeed 
taken possession of Nicaea, the famous " City of the 
Creed," and when the first great army of the Crusaders 
under Godfrey de Bouillon arrived before its walls in 
1097 were able to oppose so terrible a resistance to the 
western host that they might have succeeded if the Greek 
Emperor of Constantinople had not gone to their aid. 
But the Seljuks became settlers, and were rapidly losing 
their nomad habits. The many Seljukian ruins in Konia » 
and its neighbourhood show that they had successful 
aspirations after civilisation. 
Meantime other great groups of Turks had entered or 
were entering the country, of which only one concerns us 
here,that led by Ertogrul, whose name is almost forgotten in 
presence of his distinguished successor Osman or Othman 
who is rightly regarded as the founder of the Ottoman 
nation. He became Sultan in 1298, and had succeeded 
in defeating the Seljuks and annexing most of other 
groups of Turks. He and his successors were the leaders 
of hosts of fighting Turks. At an early date the great 
reputation of New Rome caused this horde of warriors to 
direct all its efforts towards the acquisition of the Great 
City: Every man was a soldier. 
Recruiting Christians. 
Half a century after Osman became Sultan, his 
successor Orchan took the important step of utilizing for 
his army the Christian populations of the country whom 
they had conquered. The year generally assigned for the 
formation of the New Troops, or in Turkish, Janissaries, is 
1255. Christian regiments however, had been formed 
before that time by the conquerors and had fought as 
volunteers with the Turks ; but the new institution was a 
great advance and is an epoch marking event in the pro- 
gress of the Ottomans. Every year saw the Turks in 
possession of more territory. Within a few years registers 
were opened in every town and village in their territory 
in order to take a census of the Christian male population. 
The priests were compelled under pain of death to keep a 
register of the birth of every male child. Inspectors went 
round annually to see that this task was carefully done. The 
Turks claimed that by Moslem law the Sultan had a right 
to one-fifth of the property of the vanquished, including 
children in the term. At an early age, usually about 
eight, two and in many cases three sons were taken from 
each houshold, were forcibly converted to Mahometanism, 
and were separated from their parents whom they rarely 
saw again. Their instruction in the practice of Islam 
was not less thorough than in that of warfare. They 
were taught to be expert with the bow and the spear, to 
ride well and to endure hardship. During their eight 
or ten years of probation they were trained strictly in 
the arts of war. Their promotion and their prospects 
in life depended entirely upon their progress in their 
regiment. They practised a discipline which was then 
unknown in every other European country and had 
never been equalled since the time of the Roman Pre- 
torian Guard. From an early period in the history of 
the Janissaries they constituted far and away the most 
important division of the Turkish army. 
In war every male Turk capable of fighting was 
liable to serve and did serve. But the Janissaries formed 
a standing army of warriors from their youth and were 
the model for the rest of the army. Little more than a 
century after the institution of their order they carried 
triumphantly the crescent, the ancient symbol of Con- 
stantinople which the Turks had adopted, in many epoch- 
making battles. Their valour was shown in the great 
battle of Kossovo-pol which annihilated the West Serbians. 
At Varna where young Mahomet II, then a boy under 
fourteen, commanded the Turks, including of course the 
Janissaries, the leader had sadly blundered but he had 
done so relying upon a treaty which had been recently 
signed between him and Ladislaw the King of Hungary. 
He believed, indeed, that there was no danger of being 
attacked. Nevertheless, the Magyars, under the dis- 
tinguished leadership of Hunyadis, in flagrant violation of 
the treaty, attacked him. The battle is an interesting 
one but the only feature that need be mentioned here is 
that by the direction of Mahomet the "Scrap of Paper," 
otherwise the treaty, was stuck on the end of a lance and 
carried before the Janissaries. The Turks were far out- 
numbered by their enemies and had been driven into a 
dangerous position. The day was gained by the Janis- 
saries, who changed disaster into victory 
Siege of Constantinople. 
In T/.53 when Mahomet laid siege to Constantinople two 
of his attacks on the fatal 29th May failed before the 
stubborn resistance of Constantine and John Justiniani, 
and the besieged believed that once more the city had been 
saved. Then in the language of Gibbon "at that fatal 
moment up rose the Janissaries, fresh, vigorous and 
invincible." 
It seemed indeed as if nothing could stop the steady 
progress of Ottoman arms. The Janissaries and the 
great conscript army of the whole Ottoman nation within 
the two centuries after 1453 annexed every inch of the 
Balkan peninsula, conquered what is now Rumania, 
annexed South Russia and half Hungary and laid siege 
to Vienna in 1683. When in that year the Polish king, 
John Sobieski, forced the Turks to raise the siege, the 
Ottoman Empire had reached its zenith. Since then its 
history has been one of decadance. Every generation has 
seen its territory diminished and, with comparatively 
insignificant exceptions, no territory once lost has ever 
been recovered. The wonderful period of conquest was 
due to the perfection of discipline and esprit de corps 
possessed by the Janissaries and to the organisation of all 
the remaining Moslem population. 
All armies are necessarily under absolute Government 
and from the earliest times the Turks have recognised 
such rule' as necessary. Obedience to the military ruler 
is rarely questioned. The Sultan is absolute and his 
representatives in the army have like power deputed to 
them. 
Absolutism plus Janissaries, plus a nation where every 
man is born to be a fighter made the Turks for awhile the 
greatest lighting nation in Europe and its greatest terror. 
But its very success brought about its own ruin and that 
IS 
