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.