View source for Sekban

{{Infobox military unit
| unit_name = Sekban
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| allegiance =[[Ottoman Empire]]
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| type = [[Mercenaries]]
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| notable_commanders =Yeğen Osman
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{{Military of the Ottoman Empire sidebar}}
The '''sekban''' were  [[mercenaries]] of peasant background in the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="İnalcıkQuataert1997">{{cite book|author1=Halil İnalcık|author2=Donald Quataert|title=An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA419|accessdate=2013-06-07|date=1997-04-28|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57455-6|page=419}}</ref> The term ''sekban'' initially referred to [[irregular military]] units, particularly those without guns, but ultimately it came to refer to any army outside the regular military.<ref name="White2011">{{cite book|author=Sam White|title=The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=or3J_GNhJOAC&pg=PA170|accessdate=2013-06-07|date=2011-08-15|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49949-1|page=170}}</ref> The sekbans were not only loyal to the Ottoman state, but they could become loyal to anyone who paid them a sufficient salary.<ref name="Barkey1996">{{cite book|author=Karen Barkey|title=Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wijlgELdgKQC&pg=PA174|accessdate=2013-06-07|date=1996-12-01|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-8419-3|page=174}}</ref>
These troops were maintained by raising a tax called the ''sekban aqçesi''.<ref name=Parry1976 /> They were recruited in such numbers that they became the most numerous component of the imperial armies.<ref name=Parry1976 /> The use of these troops ultimately led to grave consequences: the end of hostilities, as in the [[Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590)|war against Persia]] in 1590 and the [[Long War (1591–1606)|war against Austria]] in 1606, saw a large number of sekban without employment or means of livelihood.<ref name=Parry1976 /> As a result, many of these soldiers took to [[brigandage]] and revolt, and they plundered much of [[Anatolia]] between 1596 and 1610.<ref name="Parry1976">{{cite book|author=V. J. Parry|title=A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUs7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA141|accessdate=2013-06-07|year=1976|publisher=CUP Archive|page=141}}</ref>
Rivalries between the [[janissaries]] and the sekban ultimately resulted in a rebellion. After the janissaries had been defeated on the Rumelian front, they marched on Istanbul in 1687 to depose [[Mehmed IV]].<ref name="İnalcıkQuataert1997" /> The latter appointed [[Yeğen Osman Aga]], a self-made sekban commander, to hold the janissaries in check. Yeğen Osman failed to accomplish this however, and Mehmed IV was deposed.<ref name="İnalcıkQuataert1997" />
His successor, [[Suleyman II]], continued the policy of his predecessor, making Yeğen Osman governor-general of [[Rumelia Eyalet|Rumelia]]. Yeğen Osman, by then a [[Pasha]], then attempted to become [[grand vizier]]. When this happened, the incumbent grand vizier outlawed the sekban corps, threatening soldiers who proved unwilling to disperse with execution, and a civil war ensued.<ref name="İnalcıkQuataert1997" />
The sekban gained the upper hand, but a further volte-face of the Ottoman central administration saw Yeğen Osman captured and executed. This did not end the sekban rebellions, and while in 1698 the Sultan reached an agreement with the sekban, extending them guarantees in return for future good behaviour, the agreement was rapidly broken, and sekban rebellions continued throughout the 18th century.<ref name="İnalcıkQuataert1997" />
==See also==
* [[Sekbanbaşı Mosque]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Military units and formations of the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Auxiliary units and formations]]
[[Category:Mercenary units and formations of the Early Modern era]]