Part 222

The bolykys consist of 61 companies; the commanding officers are obliged to wear red half boots, which is to shew, that they are not permitted to go through their duty on horseback.

The selmanys amount to 34 companies. The officers belonging to them are subject to the same regulations by which the bolykys are governed. They must march by their general in red half boots on foot, with this exception, that 30 supernumerary young men, who are seconded, and in expectation of commissions through the influence of their parents, are allowed to ride until they get companies.

A select body of men is indiscriminately chosen out of these three sorts of janizaries; this chosen body is called corigys, and amounts to 930 men. Their particular duty is to protect the three imperial mansions of Constantinople, Adrianople, and Bursa.

Every janizary is obliged to give one and a half per cent. of all the money he receives in time of peace to the treasurer of his room, or to the treasurer general of the corps, and seven per cent. in time of war. In consideration of this sum he is allowed a space of ground, six feet in length and three in breadth to spread his mattrass; and he is moreover entitled to have every day at dinner and supper one plate of rice, a piece of mutton, and bread and water; so that a janizary may easily save the greatest part of his pay.

The uniform or clothing of a janizary is a dolimaun, or long robe with short sleeves. It is tied round the middle with a striped girdle of different colors, fringed at the ends with gold or silver. They wear over the dolimaun, a saphi, or blue surtout, in the same loose manner that Europeans wear great coats or cloaks.

Instead of a turban the janizaries have their heads covered with a zarcola, or cap made of felt, from which hangs a long hood of the same stuff, that reaches to their shoulders, and is worn on parade days. The zarcola is decorated with a quantity of long feathers, that are fixed in a small tube, and stand in the front of the cap. The janizaries in Constantinople usually carry a long stick or Indian cane, without any other arms or weapons; but when they are equipped for the field against any European power, they have a sabre and fusil or musquet. They likewise carry a powder horn, which hangs on the left side suspended from a leathern string that is thrown across the body.

In Asia, the janizaries always go armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows. They are thus equipped on account of the scarcity of gunpowder.--They have besides a sort of poniard or large knife, which they draw against every person from whom they wish to extort any thing. The bows and arrows are regularly delivered out to the janizaries by the alkitef-ter-dars or vice treasurers general.

The janizaries seldom marry, or if they do it is at an advanced age; for the Turks as well as other countries imagine that a married man cannot be so determined and careless of danger, as he must be who has no concerns to attend to besides his own. Matrimony, however, is not forbidden amongst them. On the contrary, when the ceremony is performed with the consent of their officers, they are permitted to take private lodgings, and are only required to appear every Friday at their rooms, and to parade before the Wekilbarg, or treasurer to the chamber, under pain of forfeiting their subsistence. When they get children, their pay is increased some aspres per day, by order of the grand Signor.

The body of janizaries is by no means, however, so considerable as it formerly was. In 1648, they were so formidable, that they assumed a dangerous influence over the government of the Empire. They even went so far as to dethrone the sultan Ibrahim, and afterwards to strangle him in the castle called the Seven Towers. Since that period the grand viziers have made a point to lower the pride and arrogance of the janizaries, in order to preserve the authority of their sovereigns, and to maintain their own: on this account they adopted the barbarous policy of sending the bravest on a forlorne hope at the siege of Candia; and they permitted the rest to marry, and to embrace various trades, contrary to the established rules of the corps, for the sole purpose of enervating the individuals belonging to it. By degrees persons without experience and addicted to the loosest effeminacy, were entrusted with commands; so that the janizaries soon came not to possess either the character or the bravery of their predecessors.

The remedy has been as fatal as the disease; they have had a profligate rabble in place of their hardy and enterprizing corps; and in the year 1808, deposed and put to death the grand Signor, for a bribe from a foreign ambassador.

The janizaries consist chiefly of Christian children that have been taken in war, or of debauched Turks who are ignorant of their birth or connexion. Whenever any one dies, he leaves what little property or clothing, &c. he possesses to his messmen; even the Turks, from a species of social piety, always bequeath something to their particular oda, or chamber. The consequence of which is, that the chambers become extremely rich, and their wealth is frequently put out to interest at 25 per cent. Add to this, that the grand Signor directs that every thing which is supplied to the janizaries should be rated lower than to the rest of his subjects, which circumstance easily explains why the janizaries can live cheaper than other people in Turkey.

JANIZAR AGASI, a name or military title which is attached to the person who has the chief command of the janizaries. It corresponds, in some degree, with the rank of colonel general of infantry in old France, when that body was under the command of the duke of Epernon, and afterwards under the duke of Orleans in 1720. This Aga takes precedence of all the infantry officers belonging to the Ottoman empire. The name is derived from Aga, which, in the Turkish language, signifies a staff, or baton. On public occasions the Aga always bears a staff in his hand; so indeed do all the janizaries when they appear in any large town or place, as an emblem of service.

This general was originally promoted to the rank of Aga out of the corps of janizaries. But as this was the occasion of much jealousy, and gave rise to various cabals, which frequently rendered the Aga contemptible in the eyes of his followers, the grand Signor at present appoints him from the Ichnoglans belonging to the seraglio.

The daily pay of the Aga amounts to one hundred aspres, which are equal to 20 ecus, or French half-crowns, making 55 cents of our money; independent of which he receives from 7 to 10 thousand French ecus or English half-crowns, on account of the Timars who are attached to his appointment. He moreover gets constant presents from the Sultan, especially when the janizaries have conducted themselves to his satisfaction on any critical emergency. The douceurs which are lavished upon the Aga, whenever he has the good fortune to stand well with the grand Signor, are innumerable; for it is through him, that every application is made for places of emolument. It is customary, however, in Turkey to bestow rank and advantageous posts not according to merit, but in proportion to the number of purses, (in which manner all large sums are counted) that are produced by the several candidates. A purse in Turkey contains about 250 crowns, or 300 of our dollars.

The Aga seldom appears in the streets of Constantinople without being followed by a large body of janizaries, most especially when any convulsion or disastrous event has happened in the empire. In these moments of public disturbance and consternation, the janizaries take occasion to demand an increase of pay threatening, in case of refusal, to pillage the town; which threat they have often put in execution. Whenever these mutinous proceedings take place, the Aga marches at the head of 30 or 40 mungis or provost-marshals belonging to the janizaries, together with 5 or 600 of this militia, in order to seize the mutineers, and to have them safely conveyed to some prison. He has the power of life and death over every individual of the corps; but he never gives directions to have a janizary executed in open day, lest the sight of their suffering comrade should create a disturbance among the rest. Small crimes and misdemeanors among the janizaries are punished by the bastinado, which is exercised by striking repeated blows upon the sole of the foot; but when the guilt is capital, the Aga orders the culprit either to be strangled, or to be sewed up in a sack and thrown into a pond or river.

When the Janizar-Agasi dies, from disease or by violence, the whole of his property devolves to the treasury belonging to the corps of janizaries; nor can the grand Signor appropriate one aspre to his own use.

JAVELIN, a sort of spear 5¹⁄₂ feet long, the shaft of which was of wood with a steel point. Every soldier in the Roman armies had seven of these, which were very light and slender.

The Velites or light armed troops among the Romans were armed with javelins. They were two cubits long and one inch thick.

There were several sorts of javelins or darts used among the ancients; some of which were projected by the help of a short strap girt round their middle.

There was likewise another species of javelin, the bottom of which was ornamented with three feathers, in the same manner that arrows and darts are. These javelins have been used by the Poles and other nations, but principally by the Moors, who call them zogaies. In the early days of France, the javelin was likewise adopted in imitation of the Gauls; but it disappeared, with many other missile weapons, on the invention of fire-arms.

JAVELINE, Fr. See JAVELIN.

JEVELOT, Fr. Javelin. A term used among the ancients to express every thing that was missile; it is derived from the Latin, jacutum à jaculando.

JAZERAN, Fr. an obsolete term which was formerly applied to an able veteran.

ICH DIEN, I serve. A motto belonging to the badge of the arms of the British prince of Wales, which was first assumed by Edward surnamed the Black Prince, after the battle of Cressy in 1346. Dieu et Mon Droit, in the badge of the British king’s arms, was used by Richard I. on a victory over the French in 1194.

ICHNOGLANS. It has been a singular maxim of policy among the Turks to prefer Christian slaves, as confidential servants, to their own countrymen. Their motive originates in an idea, that the former having lost all recollection of their native spot, and of the tenderness which is innate between child and parent, would have no other interest at heart but that of their employers; whereas freemen in general measure their attachment to their masters by the rule of self accommodation and personal emolument. From these principles the grand Signor has established a body of Ichnoglans, in order that they may be devoted to his service; and as a security for their affection he frequently raises individuals amongst them to the highest posts of trust and dignity in the empire. The rank of Sepaler Agasi, or general of cavalry, has been conferred upon them; which appointment, next to that of grand vizir, of Mufti or of Bostangi, is the most considerable belonging to the Ottoman empire.

ICHNOGRAPHIE, Fr. Ichnography.

ICHNOGRAPHY, in fortification, denotes the plan or representation of the length and breadth of a fortification; the distinct parts of which are marked out either on the ground itself, or on paper. By this we are at once acquainted with the value of the different lines and angles which determine the exact breadth of fossés, the depth of ramparts, and of parapets. So that, in fact, a plan, upon the correct principles of ichnography, represents a work as it would appear if it were levelled to its foundations, and shewed only the expanse of ground upon which it had been erected. But the science of ichnography does not represent either the elevation or the depth of the different parts belonging to a fortification. This properly comes under profile, which does not, however, include length. See PLAN.

JEE, Ind. a title of respect which is used in India, and signifies sir, master, worship.