| Abstrakt: |
In this article I compare late Byzantine and early Ottoman tendencies towards evidently poor, ill-armed and unskilled men, who joined military expeditions as infantrymen without being actual members of the military or support personnel, or even as uninvited participants. At the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Byzantine sources have references to people almost spontaneously taking up arms to fight against the enemies of the realm. The Byzantine government and elite in general seem to have had a negative attitude towards these troops, although some expressed contrary opinions. On the other hand, the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Ottoman government seems to have encouraged the voluntary participation of commoners in campaigns, even if the quality of such troops might have often been poor. The Ottomans also recruited low-standard infantry forces through arrangements resembling conscription. In the article I analyze the possible motives of the troops and their use, the plausible reasons for the attitudes taken towards them and the results of different policies during the twilight of Byzantium and the rise of the Ottomans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
