JANISSARY SQUADS
Janissary army was established during the reign of Sultan Murad I and it was expanded as the imperial army troops after the conquest of Istanbul. Janissary army used to have 196 divisions and squads ; 101 of them were the divisions ruled by high ranking commanders grown in Janissary troops so they were known as “ Cemaat divisions “, 61 of them were the special squads ruled by “ Aga commanders “ so they were known as “ Aga squads “ and 35 of them were the “Sekbans” responsible for both Sultans hunting parties with the trained dogs & wild birds as Sekban squads. All Janissary troops used to have a special banners and standard-bearers. Janissaries had two big army barrack complexes in Istanbul ; one in Aksaray dsitrict called “ Et meydanı-Meat Square “, the other in very close to the Topkapı palace called “ Şehzade Square-Prince Square. “ Janissary flag was the only one and it was taken by Janissary deputy of chief staff in the ceremonies & celebrations and it was put on the top of chief of staff’s tent in the war. During the peace time the army flag was put in front of his kisosk in Aksaray complex in the middle of the army barracks. Each division and squad had also its own standard-bearers in front of their barracks and Janissary soldiers had to carry his own division’s or squad’s banner on his arms & legs representing his army unit that we call tattoo today. When the Janissary passed away in battlefields, he was buried there at once but if he died in Istanbul in peace time he was buried in a special parts of the graveyards reserved for only Janissary troops by the government called as “ Janissary sofas “ as to seperate easily. If the Janissary was a famous hero, Janissary chief of staff had to make his tomsbtone and his grave by spending the money for burial expenses from army’s budget and his division’s or his squads’s headgear & his tattoo with division’s or squad’s number had to be processed on his tomsbtone by carving & written. We can identify the Janissary troops by looking & reading the ephitaps which unit he used to belong today. It is really hard to find the symbols, signs, tattoos and headgears of the Janissary troops on their tombstones 400-500 years later. Beacuse of the natural conditions, ignorance, the destruction of modern life, ignorant people crush the graves & tombstones and many other reasons, the endengared Janissary tombstones have been disappeared and damaged in the past so we have only a dozens of best examples today respresenting Janissary banners & signs today in the museums as the witnesses of the magnificent Ottoman army troops. The readers can see only eight info cards showing four divisions’ & four squads ‘ badges & numbers in this section and as soon as we can find more tombstones with the badges & headgears, it will be added as well. Anyone can understand the Janissary divisons & squads by looking at the tombstones & reading the numbers on. If there is Arabic letter on the tombstone that means The Janissary used to belong a division and the number & badge shows his division. If there is Arabic letterthat means the Janissary in called " Cim " tomb used to belong to a squad. In this section the Janissary divisions & squads are ; Azeps, Kayıkçılar, Deveciler, Kalyoncular, Solaklar, Kalafatçılar, Karakullukçular ve Başçavuşlar.