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Provisioning the army

In document Ottoman Warfare 1500 - 1700 (Page 108-128)

We have already dealt in some detail in the preceding chapter with those aspects of food provision connected with the calculation and delivery of the troops’ and animals’ daily grain rations while on campaign. In this chapter we focus on the scale and quality of provisions for the soldiers’ consumption, and give some examples of the burdens and benefits associated with army supply. From the standpoint of his basic daily diet the Ottoman soldier, especially if he was a member of one of the elite regiments such as the Janissaries, was the envy of his European contemporaries. Before setting out for the front, members of the sultan’s standing regiments received generous supplementary allowances to complete their outfitting for campaign. In addition to their regular salaries, the Janissaries were also provided a yearly clothing allowance.1 A special cash fund (vakf -i nukud) was set up to subsidize the Janissary companies’ purchases of staple commodities under the names zarar -i nan (price supports for bread) and zarar -i lahm (price supports for meat).2 Even though everyday needs were provided for,3 in campaign years exceptional allowances were handed out to the troops to defray their additional equipment expenses.4 The individual Janissary companies also themselves took up special collections to use as a reserve fund for the communal mess during campaign. Each member contributed two gold pieces to the common provisions fund (kumanya).5 These allowances and cash bonuses distributed to Janissaries and others as they set out on campaign also served to cushion the effect of price surges, especially for basic foodstuffs, that unavoidably took effect in the last weeks of the season’s campaigning when supplies dwindled to dangerously low levels. Because they were foreseeable such endemic shortages could usually be compensated for, but in years of extraordinary crop shortages price fluctuations for basic army supplies reached unmanageable proportions. During the famine of 1625, which coincided with a nine-month siege of Baghdad by the Grand

Vezier Hafiz Ahmed Pasha in 1625–6, Ottoman military reports testify to the seriousness of the problem, noting the rise of the price of dry biscuit to 5 gurush (500 akçes) per okka, and of barley to 10 gold pieces (1,200 akçes) per kile.6 Local sources from Baghdad indicate that the situation for the civilian population of the besieged city was, if anything, worse. One observer recorded that the price of a ratl (approximately a third of an okka) of wheat rose to seven silver dirhems.7 While the examples given here may be extreme, they accurately reflect a phenomenon that itself was all too common. While price rises were clearly connected with the presence of the army and increased demand on local grain supplies, the underlying problem of crop shortages was a cyclically repeating phenomenon which sometimes coincided with war, but was not demonstrably causally connected with it.

Army victualling was carefully organized by the Ottomans with the clear objective of preventing all avoidable disruptions to normal civilian and agrarian life. The Ottoman army brought with it what it could (see Chapter 4 above), and what it was unable to bring with it or have brought to it from the empire’s extensive hinterlands it acquired from local suppliers, not by forced requisitions or by authorizing soldiers to raid civilian sources of grain, but through orderly purchases which were often prearranged with the residents of provinces closest to the prospective war zone. In a published example relating to Murad IV’s preparations for the siege of Baghdad in 1638 it has been estimated that 67 per cent of the barley, 27 per cent of the wheat for bread, and 22 per cent of the flour consumed during the campaign were acquired by means of cash purchases (ishtira) made on the spot. It is significant that the army relied most heavily on local sources, not for the supply of the men’s provisions (wheat and flour), but for the replenishment of the transport animals’ rations (barley). Further amounts of grain that were categorized as contributions in kind to be levied on the provinces (sürsat) were also paid for with treasury funds, with the difference that responsibility for the transport of the grain to the army was assigned to the provincial taxpayers who supplied it.8 An order from Sultan Murad to the grand vezier during the winter of 1637 praised him for his just treatment of the provincial populace (reaya), by having provided for the Janissaries’ grain supplies out of treasury (miri) funds without having resort to any forced contributions.9 The army’s large-scale purchases of grain and other military supplies were a boon to regional economies in Anatolia, as long as harvests were abundant enough to satisfy both local demand and the needs of the army.

By comparison with European foot soldiers of the day, the Ottoman Janissaries were regarded as being singularly well-provided for in all respects.10 The remarks of the

French traveller Jean de Thévenot are indicative of the positive impression formed by contemporary European observers concerning the Ottomans’ organization of their commissary service. Thévenot observed:

Their armies never perish with hunger, victuals being brought them in sufficient quantity from all lands, for seeing they punctually pay for what they have, commit no disorder, – all things are brought to the camp, as to a common market.11 Since the Ottomans were exceptional in the precision and care which they lavished on the planning of army provisioning, it is perhaps appropriate that we focus here on the organizational aspects of the task. Much of the rest of Ottoman military enterprise, from the weather to the attitude of the soldiers and even the reliability of the arms and equipment issued to them, was subject to chance, subjective mood or, especially in the case of technical performance, somehow managing to beat the odds. Because of these general uncertainties, the Ottomans showed themselves the more determined to ensure that in the administrative realm where they could exercise some control nothing was left to chance. Evidence of the Ottomans’ bureaucratic sophistication and how it was marshalled to ensure the adequacy of food supply during military campaigns is found in a range of documentary and narrative sources.

In the European theatre the Ottomans were favoured by geography, since it was possible to make grain deliveries via the Danube waterway to within a few days’ march of any prospective front.12 Each area of the empire presented its own environmentally-specific challenges. Writing to the grand vezier during the winter of 1637 on the subject of troop rations, the sultan reckoned a quantity of 80,000 kantars of hardtack was required to sustain an army in the field for a period of 80 days.13 We know from contemporary documentary evidence that a quantity of nearly 83,000 kantars of hardtack was, in fact, deposited in a series of fortified places and major river crossings along the army’s route of march to the proposed front in Iraq. The contribution from each location was predetermined on the basis of a careful calculation of its ability, not just to supply, but also to store the quantities requested adequately. By careful allocation of a supply quota to regional collection points near the front, Diyarbekir for southern districts and Erzurum for the north (each supplying approximately 15 per cent of the total needed), and a larger quantity (approximately 25 per cent of the total) to the river port of Birecik from where it could be moved with relative speed and ease to the locations nearest to the points where the heaviest troop concentrations were anticipated, the Ottomans were able to maximize efficiency, while at the same time ensuring fairness.

By organizing the troops’ food supply in this fashion less than half (more precisely 45

per cent) of the total quantity needed was left to be requisitioned locally from places in the immediate hinterland of the front. The filling of this residual quota was, in turn, shared between eight different locations scattered around the military perimeter close to the active front. A part of the quota (10,300 kantars or 12 per cent of the total amount needed) came from stores held over in Mardin from a previous season’s campaigning. These surplus stocks were retained in anticipation of the surge in local demand that would result from the imminent arrival of the army.14 Such evidence, pointing to the availability of substantial unused surpluses from previous campaigns, demonstrates the Ottomans’ effective use of advance planning to avert local supply shortages. Such measures neutralized at least one element of uncertainty among the complex set of variables that affected the outcome of campaigns. At the same time, such foresight went a long way towards cushioning local markets from the major disruptive effects of last-minute supply requests on a massive scale. The method used by the Ottomans for disposing of grain surpluses remaining at the conclusion of major campaigns also shows how they fostered a willingness among taxpayers to co-operate with the supply demands. One gesture of goodwill that was frequently employed was the recycling of grain to those who had first supplied it, not at speculative, shortage-driven or extra-market winter prices, but at the same state-controlled, fixed prices that had applied when it was first requisitioned.15 The Ottomans seemingly put equal care into the administrative detail of organizing pre-campaign supply requests and making suitable arrangements for disposing of surpluses after campaigns.

The Ottomans fully appreciated that at an operational level ensuring the soldiers’

minimal daily dietary and nutritional needs had a direct bearing on troop discipline and morale. If a soldier’s basic diet had consisted solely of a daily ration of 1,200 grams (2.6 pounds) of bread, its caloric value would suffice to sustain a fairly brisk pace of physical activity. By applying the modern equivalent (based on the vitamin-rich bread of the present day) of 270 calories for each 100 grams of bread,16 the relevant energy transfer would amount to 3,240 calories. According to modern scientific calculations the average energy needs of healthy males aged between 17 and 22 amount to 2,900 calories.17 However, during periods of exceptional physical activity their daily (24-hour) energy requirement can easily rise to levels between 3,100 and 4,000 calories.18 From a varety of different sources it appears that the Ottomans were successful, not just in meeting such basic dietary requirements, but also in providing their soldiers with a more varied, protein-rich diet. They enjoyed the best diet when under controlled conditions resting in barracks, but even on campaign the army was accompanied by

flocks of sheep which acted as a kind of travelling larder and an important supplementary source to their regular diet which was composed of the daily bread ration. Marsigli, a close observer of Ottoman military affairs in the seventeenth century, gave a detailed account of the daily allotment assigned to Ottoman soldiers during periods of rest in barracks.19 The diet he described would have provided each man with roughly 3,000 calories, calculated as follows:

Description of ration Gram equivalent Caloric value

100 dirhems of bread 320

50 dirhems of hardtack 160

50 dirhems of rice 160

Cereals Total20 640 1,72821

60 dirhems of mutton 192 683

25 dirhems of clarified butter 80 571

Total Caloric Value 2,98222

The Janissaries were also protected from the worst effects of speculative prices for foodstuffs during campaigns both by subsidies and by the provision of guaranteed source of supply for certain basic components of their diet. According to a source from the early seventeenth century, a quantity of 300,000 sheep was set side each year from the Rumelian provinces for the use of the palace kitchens, and a significant proportion of this was in turn assigned for the exclusive use of the Janissary messes.23 In a more detailed source it is documented that during the 21 months of the army’s march from the capital to Baghdad and back to base in the period between March 1638 and January 1640, the members of the sultan’s standing regiments consumed 217,279 sheep. Of these 128,242 head (60 per cent) were purchased on the spot (ishtira) at a cost to the treasury of 220,418 gurush or 17.6 million akçes. The remaining 88,437 sheep (40 per cent) were acquired as purchases along the way to the front, or as contributions credited against provincial tax obligations (sürsat). With the average sheep supplying 12 okkas of meat, this provided the army with a quantity of more than two and a half million okkas of mutton. The precise amount (2,576,515 okkas) was sufficient (using the standard ration of 60 dirhems = 0.15 okka) to cover distribution of 17 million meat rations to the troops.24 The historian Mevkufatî recorded that the daily mutton requirements of the Janissary corps in the 1690s amounted to 1825 okkas (2.34 metric tons). On this basis, in an average 365-day period, not including special rations and allowances on feast days, the Janissaries alone accounted for 666,125 okkas, the equivalent of 4.44 million individual rations.25

Because of the transport difficulties typically encountered by the army (see Chapter 4 above), the mutton component of the soldier’s daily diet, beyond its nutritional significance, represented added value by reducing both the scale and expense of systems required for the delivery of alternative foods. The availability of generous supplies of meat might make the small but critical margin of difference between otherwise equal opponents, and the Ottomans had early on developed a centralized system for meat provision which provided adequate spare capacity for both civilian and military use.26 During campaigns led by the sultan the imperial kitchen was able to supply from its own resources a large proportion of the meat consumed by the household troops.

During the course of the campaign for the retaking of Baghdad in 1638–9, for example, the treasury disbursed 220,418 gurush just to meet the cost of purchasing sheep to feed the imperial entourage.27 From examples of this kind it can be seen that the level of comfort provided (at least in the case of the better-cared-for elite troops) for soldiers on campaign was not substantially different from that offered to troops barracked at Istanbul during the off-season. The example cited above of meat supply during the Baghdad campaign indicates that after a period of nearly two years of continuous service in the field there still remained a sufficient reserve supply of mutton for the sultan to distribute celebratory benefactions both to the Janissaries and the Tatar auxiliaries with enough left over to allow the sultan to host victory banquets upon his return to the capital.28

The sure knowledge that such food reserves remained secure throughout the campaign acted as an important source of psychological comfort to the soldiers. It is beyond question that persistent worries about the adequacy of food supply for themselves or for their mounts had a potentially corrosive effect on the fighting spirit of the troops.

It is no accident that food, feasting and the imagery of plenty played such a prominent role, especially in the initial phases of a campaign, in army camp routine and ritual practice. Achieving the levels of comfort and margins of plenty depicted in such images was never accidental. It required considerable care both in planning and execution. As part of the ceremonies for seeing the army off on campaign, whether in the provinces from winter quarters to a place designated as the pre-battle assembly point, or from the capital, banquets were held and food distributed to all members of the sultan’s standing regiments. An example from the Erivan campaign of 1635 documents the allocation of a thousand okkas each of honey and butter for the preparation of baked sweets to serve at the pre-departure banquet for the troops.29 On another occasion the arrival in camp of the new commander Bayram Pasha in July 1637, following the sudden dismissal in February 1637 of the commander Tabani-yassi Mehmed Pasha during a critical phase of preparations for the planned assault on Baghdad, was marked by the distribution of a sum of 40,000 akçes. This money was to be spent to buy supplies for a festive meal to

mark the transfer of command (and the accompanying duties of benefaction and patronage) to the new commander. By their participation in a communal meal, the troops symbolically underlined their personal loyalty to their new master and a collective acceptance of the transfer of power to him.30

One of the organizational means by which supply of basic necessities to the troops in the field was achieved was the registering and efficient mobilization of representatives of essential trades and crafts who were required to accompany the army physically throughout the course of a campaign. A particularly well-documented example of how the system worked is provided for the eastern campaign planned for the year 1730, but abandoned in September before the army had yet left the capital. This example records the presence and planned participation of 28 different crafts (hirfet) housed in single or, for the essential crafts, multiple tents and comprising the army’s mobile commissariat called the ordu bazar. In the example from 1730 the army market was composed of 85 separate tents.31 The most represented craft whose members occupied eight tents with a working capital of 129,600 akçes were the bootmakers (hiffafan). The most heavily invested group was the grocers (bakkalan) who occupied four tents with a working capital of 1.4 million akçes. While providers and repairers of essential military equipment were naturally among the groups represented, it is noteworthy that concerns of basic hygiene and soldierly comfort were not neglected. Six of the 85 tents were taken up by barbers who, apart from personal grooming, played a secondary role in the dressing of wounds.32

We know from a post-bellum account of the Cyprus campaign of 1570–1 that higher-ranking officers went into battle (and left behind them for probate assessors’ inventorying) significant quantities of material goods and other seeming impedimenta. These were used, it may be assumed, to recreate the illusion of the comforts of home while away on campaign.33 The Cyprus example records that a grocer (bakkal) and a surgeon (cerrah) were among those who left fortunes of between 4,000 and 7,000 akçes, and two merchants (one from Basra and the other from Tunis) both left estates valued in excess of 10,000 akçes in tangible assets that were readily capable of being assessed and registered on the battlefield.34

Some researchers, particularly those working on the economic impact of Ottoman war in the eighteenth century, have suggested that the burden of repeated demands on the merchant community for such rotational fulfilment of campaign services became oppressive. The burden, it is argued, was felt not just by the participants, but began also to have a generally depressive effect on the Ottoman manufacturing sector as a whole. The basis of such arguments is the assumption that, through the removing of basic raw materials from general circulation and their reserving for “strategic” military use, the domestic economy was deprived of goods essential to its own growth and

1. Army market place, ordu bazar. Source: Hazine 1365, folio 93a.

development.35 There is, however, considerable doubt about whether the scale of military demand present in Ottoman warfare of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ever assumed sufficient proportions to cause either significant denial of goods to, or major disruption of production within, the non-military sectors of the economy.36 On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the merchant community regarded its participation in military supply contracts as an opportunity for exceptional gain.

development.35 There is, however, considerable doubt about whether the scale of military demand present in Ottoman warfare of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ever assumed sufficient proportions to cause either significant denial of goods to, or major disruption of production within, the non-military sectors of the economy.36 On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the merchant community regarded its participation in military supply contracts as an opportunity for exceptional gain.

In document Ottoman Warfare 1500 - 1700 (Page 108-128)