Customer Reviews

The Janissaries (Elite)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is certainly one of the best volumes in the Osprey Elite Series. Author David Nicole gives an excellent overview of the Janissary corps of the Ottoman army, without the usual western European bias. The chapters: Origin and evolution of the Janissary corps - Recruitment and training - Ottoman army infantry forces - Uniforms and weaponry - Strategy and tactics - Promotion, pay and morale - Support, services and other duty - Other infantry forces. The book is no easy reading, as David Nicole uses the correct Turkish terms for weapons, army units and the like; but he explains all terms, so with a little bit of effort one can follow his thoughts and learn a lot. The illustrations by Christa Hook are of outstanding quality. The book should even interest readers who are already familiar with the subject.

This is a good source of information about thier lives and their ways as well as their units. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the period or the empire. While my field falls away from this as, I would recommend it in a heart beat just to show how they dressed and acted as well as thier units and weapons. A 5/5 for me.

The Janissaries were an Elite corps within the Ottoman Armies and feared by their European counterparts. The Janissaries by Mr. Nicolle gives a good description of this elite force, the evolution of the crops, recruitment process, weapons in their arsenal, strategies and tactics. Everything is contained in a very compact 60 pages. Mr. Nicolle sticks to the facts and presents it in a text book format.

It's a good book for someone looking for a basic facts and understanding of this Elite force within the Ottoman armies.

Another worthy elite title from Osprey publishing, written by David Nicolle, an expert in Eastern military history, and colorfully illustrated by the talented Christa Hook. This book takes a detailed and intimate look at the Janissaries, converted slaves who formed the elite of the army of the Turkish Ottoman Empire between the late 1300's and the early 1600's.

"The Janissaries" by David Nicolle is a nice companion to his Men-at-Arms volume "Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774." Although the book is readable by someone with little to no background knowledge on the Ottoman Turks, it is not the best book for beginners. The book is loaded with Turkish words and names, so it can be a little confusing.

Overall, I probably learned more useful information from his other book. Essentially, there is a lot of attention placed on details of names and not enough attention on a general overview. Regardless, it is still worth reading "The Janissaries" if you enjoyed Nicolle's other book on the Ottoman Turks and wanted to learn more about them.

One thing that did strike me as being odd was the Turks were painted as being such tolerant people and that Europeans are somehow biased and dislike them. The brutality, conquest, and their encroachment on their neighbors was absent from the book. At least addressing the issue of what the Turks did to get their "terrible" reputation would have given a more complete picture of who they were.

A good solid book that looks at one of the Turk's better fighting Units that spanned several hundred years from Malta to Persia. Well done!

Let me start simple, something the author fails to do. I like this book. It covers a lot of information, from the formation of the Janissaries and different theories about early 14th Century Ottoman politics. The author provides photographs of locations he himself has taken, and so I can trust his research led him to these great spots in Turkey and the Balkans. There are also photographs from museums or references to medieval manuscripts which deal with the text. In short, he covers a lot, and he knows it well.

However, he fails to communicate it. I've spent the past two years studying Eastern European and Turkish politics in the 14th and 15th Centuries. As this culture is quite different from our own (and indeed, is a mixture of many different overlapping and somewhat conflicting cultures) I feel it is important to clarify information for different audiences. When five obscure military units (from different countries) are mentioned within a very small and dense paragraph, and none of them are explained, save that they all functioned loosely within a two hundred year period of time, I have issues. The author does nit explain how these units overlapped, what their functions were, or quite how they influenced the forming of the Janissaries.

Also, chronology nonexistent in this. In the section dealing with the formation of the formation of the Janissaries, the author randomly jumps around from 13th Century Dervishes to 18th Century political strife. This kind of inconsistency not only proves confusing, but also begs the question of what the later events have to do with the formation of an army in the 14th Century.

Overall, the book i good, if not great. The author knows his facts, just not how to clearly present them.