The First “Little Mehmeds”: Conscripts for the Ottoman Army, 1826-53

Abstract

In 1826, the Ottoman central authority, which had destroyed the Janissary Corps and had been facing an array of political and military challenges from both inside and outside for years, decided to create a European-style army manned by long-term conscripts. To meet the mounting manpower needs, the Ottoman state forcibly drafted Muslim peasants and the urban poor for its newly formed regiments. This essay focuses on these men, the rank and file of the Ottoman army in the sec- ond quarter of the 19th century, a social group that scholars often disregard as a topic of historical investigation. The article examines the conscripts’ social background, as well as the responses of both the general public and the serving soldiers to military service. The essay will also analyze how religion, ethno-cultural identity, social status, and the actual experience of military service shaped the state’s recruitment policies and the subjects’ attitudes toward conscription in an era before modern sentiments of nationhood took root among the Muslim peoples of the empire.