Page 285 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

I

<
Journal of (he American Oriental Society, !)()..! (1070)
5h)

bv I57l.;0° Thou, in 1 .">7*1. us part of the Troop discipline, morale., anti the payroll .
plans for the Bahrein campaign intended for The Ottoman troops in Lab*& seem to have
lfi7.V01 an officer from the Gunners Corps in been generally well disciplined. There did occur
Istanbul was sent to Basra to take charge of cast- occasionally serious barracks rebellions; two in
ing the weapons there.*01 Diyarbekir was ordered particular which took place in 157S and 1590 !
to send 500 kan(dr of iron to Basra for the task. stand out in the documents. The wonder is that s
At the same time Lahsa was ordered to send to more than these few were not recorded.10*
i
Basra all out of commission ( amel-mdndc sakaQ Several matters are mentioned as contributing 1
cannon for recasting; they would be returned unrejJt; knowledge of the geographical situation I
when done. Shot for the new guns was ordered Qf area and a little imagination could adduce ;j
sent from Diyarbekir.*01 The Basra foundry was another several. It was in the first place a difficult *j
only temporary', however; Bagdad in the years and dangerous area to reach. In 156S, for example, 3
following continued to supply Lahstf with much of governor general of LahsA wrote directly to.
her armament.104 Bagd:vd (kendi 'arfile) and requested a transfer to •
Guns and powder represent only a part of the Lahsa of four hundred janissaries from that city;
materials supplied to Lafrsft by the Ottoman
and §ehrizol, along with fifty gunners. Instead of it
logistics system; one encounters in the documents complying, the governor general of Bagdad wrote \
such items as ten ha(mdn of creosote (for siege?) a letter of protest to Istanbul. In the report he!
20,000 arrows,201 5,000 sets of armor, crowbars, said that these janissaries and gunners were con-;
maces, halberds, spades (or oars: hii),104 woolen tinually engaged in work and badly needed in;
goods, sail cloth,*07 timber for the fortress,*0* and Bagdad and §ehrizol. In any case, his report runs;
many other items. The orders were sometimes only on^ «« [f they were to be sent on this mission,;
partially filled, but rarely not at all. It was m0st of them would be lost and the rest would!
an extraordinarily viable system, functioning suffer great misfortune. Those sent last year with';
smoothly even through the war with the Safavids the Bey of W&sifc and their aga were thus lost andj
into the seventeenth century, funneling goods and injured. »mo
men from Anatolia, Aleppo, Mar’a$, Diyarbekir Desert warfare also may not have been appeal­
and Amid down the Euphrates and Tigris to the ing to soldiers accustomed to the carefully mar-'
Gulf. It kept Lahsa alive as an Ottoman province. shaded large-scale battles of the European and_
Iranian fronts; at least one officer complained'
*•' M 16:207, ZK 979/16 February 1572.
1,1 See above,-p. 493 f. For the increasing pressure felt that it was demeaning (hakir'dlmak) for the im-
on the Iranian frontier during these years, perhaps perial army (kul (d'ifesi) to be used for bedouin;
another reason for the foundry, see Ktitukofclu, Osmanli- raiding (’a'rab 'ilga.rla.ri).lli Nor must the barracks
Iran Siyaji Munasebtileri, pp. 9-13. have been pleasant living, although admittedly ■:
1,1 Bagdad seems to have initiated this, reporting a there is no information available regarding them-
lack of cannon for the fleet; M 27:453, 14 $evval 983/
16 January 1576. But the most common source of irritation seenut
M 27:516, 26 $evval 983/28 January 1576; M 27:201,
9 $&'bin 983/13 November 1575; M 27:513, 26 $ewal ,#' There must have been other disciplinary trouble*
983/28 January 1576; M 27:466, 17 $ewal 983/19 January which less seriously threatened the security of tbi
1576. Campaign plans include in the arms list two province and were subdued quietly by the govemoi
cannon, “brought by Plrl KapQdAn • » (M 27:206 , 9 general. Open mutiny meant that the governor genera
$a bin 983/13 November 1575). lacked ability or authority, and the admission of this U
1,4 From Bagdad, twelve zarbzen with carriages Istanbul would haved led to his transfer, demotion Q
(M 47:474, 20 CA 990/12 July 15S2). summary retirement.
1,1 Ibid. *l# M 7:1773, 26 Muharrem 976/21 July 1568. ’!
From Diyarbekir (M 16:21, 10 CE 979/30 Septem­ ,u The officer involved was offering excuses in thi
ber 1571). document for being absent from his post oa several occa
*" Fro“ Aleppo (M 27:465, 17 $ewal 9S3/19 January sions, so may or may not have been expressing a feelin,
shared by his colleagues (M Zeyli 3: p. 170, 29 Said
104 From Mer'a* (M 16:207, ZK 979/February 1572). 983/9 June 1575).

. • •:
•Is