Book Review: The Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1645–1718 by Bruno Mugnai

With its 369-page paperback format weighing in at 800 g (~1.8 lb) (thanks to the use of heavy, quality stock), Bruno Mugnai’s book is a dense and mighty tome, physically and this translates directly to the subject matter. The quality and detail begins with the preface pages—which feature a detailed, six-page chronology, introduction from Barry Hilton along with the author’s prefaces to the original and revised editions and a note on the Ottoman currency—and continues through the book’s six chapters (incorporating 16 pages of beautiful, full-colour plates), to the 30 pages of tabular data and orders of battle and, finally, to the notes on the colour plates, glossary and bibliography. All told, this book is a treasure-trove of detailed content delivered in a clear and beautiful presentation.

I’m not the first to wax lyrical about this book. Having purchased it, I read the rave reviews of Colin Ashton, ‘BalkanDave’ and Barry Hilton. It is always pleasing to be encouraged about the quality having made a purchase! Now, having read it, I agree wholeheartedly with them all and echo Barry Hilton, who wrote the foreword and concludes; “Enjoy this masterful work. It sets the benchmark for others to follow.”

The first four chapters (The Sublime Porte, The ‘Ottoman Commonwealth’ and the Sultan’s Allies, Ottoman Armies, Allies and Tributaries) comprising half of the book, serve as a detailed introduction to the Ottoman Empire, its armies and allies. ‘The Sublime Porte’ describes the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century, the structure of the state, government and military, land tenure and administrative areas. The second chapter follows with an introduction to each of the peoples or states that were satellites or allies of the Ottoman Empire (Tartars, Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, North African Regencies, Georgia, Cossacks, Persians and Swedes), with a brief history of each, their association with the Ottomans and conflicts, both with and on behalf of the Porte. The chapter on the ‘Ottoman Armies’ covers the size and structure of the army and, for each troop type, details its formation, structure, size and involvement in peace and war. This is followed by ‘Allies and Tributaries’, which covers similar content for the Tartars, Transylvanians, Wallachians and Moldavians.

The final two chapters (‘The Ottoman Art of War’ and ‘Dress, Equipment and Ensigns’) comprise the second half of the book’s text. Here Bruno Mugnai draws upon the great detail of the preceding chapters, including units, command structure and army make-up to discuss in detail how the army gathered and fought and, finally, how the various troop types were dressed and equipped.

Mugnai begins his discussion of the Ottoman Art of War, appropriately, with logistics, demonstrating how the Ottoman Empire was well set-up to provide all the necessarily matériel for war (reminding me of a key strategy in Civilization!). He then describes how the army gathered for war, its command structure, overall strategy and some detailed examples of campaigns and battles—using the Austro-Ottoman war of 1663–64, a detailed account of the campaign and siege of Vienna in 1683 (and it’s consequences), plus the Russo-Ottoman War of 1710–11 and Austro-Turkish War of 1716–1718. The chapter on uniforms and equipment provides details for each troop type in both the imperial (kapikulu) and provincial (serhaddkulu) forces including, most usefully, a detailed section on flags and pennants.

Every page of this book is dense with content. For example, the section of the first chapter dealing with command of the army is interspersed with mini-biographies of several of the Grand Viziers during the period covered by the book. Not only are these informative and interesting in their own right, but they serve to illustrate and expand on the general information about the process of appointing commanders in the army, its pros, cons and impacts. While packed full of detail no prior knowledge is assumed; introductory information is provided, terms and titles are defined. By not assuming knowledge, readers are not ‘lost’, but the level of detail and specific information, from the very beginning, adds insights and particulars which make the book extremely edifying.

The text of each chapter is well-supported by maps, diagrams, drawings and reproductions of prints. In addition to the 16 pages of superb colour plates (an example of which is on the cover),124 pages of the book contain some kind of black & white illustration (map, diagram, drawing or reproduced print), many of them as full pages. A bit of a bonus is that one of Bruno Mugnai’s drawings that appears in black & white on p 261 is reproduced in colour on back cover of the book.

The book contains several clear maps

Black and white photographs of uniform items from various museums and collections are accompanied by detailed descriptions, including colours.

'A Janissary Assault', an example of the author's drawings (including troops, uniforms and representations such as this).

Several prints of period paintings also adorn the book.

The book’s appendices are an absolute treasure trove. Here you’ll find a list of Grand Viziers 1645–1718, tables of army expenditure, numbers of troops by type and region, orders of battle for Ottoman troops in the campaigns between 1663 and 1718, specifications of cannon, howitzers and mortars captured after Peterwardein in 1716, a description of the procession of the Ottoman army in Constantinople in 1682 and tables of the major sieges and field engagements involving the Ottoman army (listing place, date, name of the war/conflict, Ottoman strength, enemy strength, casualties for each side and result). Finally we have the notes on the colour plates the glossary and bibliography. The only thing missing is an index (which is a shame).

This English edition is an “expanded and revised” version of the original work, which was published in 1998 in Italian. I have read a review of Mugnai’s book about the Cretan War bemoaning the number of poor translations that greatly affected the comprehension of that book. This is not a problem here. The text is written in clear, quite formal, English. There are occasional incidences of expressions that are not common English, for example “The most large contingents came from the…” instead of ‘largest’, but these are very few in number and none of them affect comprehension of the text.

There are, however, a few errors, such as missing words smattered through the book. These number in but a handful and are chiefly things such as conjunctions and articles, so do not impact on the reader’s understanding, but they are annoying and a little disappointing. The worst error in my version of the book is that most of a sentence is missing at the beginning of the last paragraph on p. 271. It thus begins. “ancient origin.” then proceeds to the next, complete sentence. Fortunately, there is enough of the paragraph to make it intelligible. Without these few mistakes I would have given this book a perfect score of ten Napoleons!

Many books about armies and uniforms leave you asking, what about x troop type, or what was the organisation of y unit? Not so with this tome. You’ll not find here the phrase “there is insufficient space to cover this”, as appears too often and annoyingly in other books about armies and uniforms. The majority and certainly the key information about organisation, structure, strength, operations, tactics, campaigns and uniforms are all covered.

Reference and Information

Mugnai, B (2020) Wars And Soldiers In The Early Reign Of Louis XIV. Volume 3 The Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1645-1718. Century of the Soldier 1618-1721 No. 55. Helion & Company, Solihull, England. 369 pp.