Ancient Byzantium, fourteen parts of the city, Pera, dervishes and plague

It remains for me to say a few words about the new military equipment introduced by Mahmud into his troops. After the war with Rosaya, the Sultan carefully began organizing regular troops; incessantly and before his own eyes, Taught new warriors, Formed regiments; finally equipped and armed them in European style. The new army extended to 40 thousand people; but it fell into complete disarray after the Battle of Iconia, where the city did not live up to the Sultan’s expectations. His enemy, Ibrahim, has generals and many officers from Europeans who accepted the Mohammedan army; and this is exactly what the Sultan lacked. The commanders and officers, who unwillingly accepted the newly introduced rules, did not understand their benefits, and the soldiers, who did not place hope in them, all this made a great difference in favor of Ibrahim. It must be said, however, that at first they fought bravely and thoroughly; but the opponents maneuvered better and bypassed them almost to the rear; then everything went well, and Sultansk and the regular troops often lay down in battle, and most often died in battle, from Ibrahim’s cavalier. Now they are being completed; but it’s very nice that it’s in Sultan. already whining with the same zeal; he is sad from failure. I looked at Turkey's shelves in detail. They are made up mostly of children, between 16 and 47, who know neither proper manners nor bearing. The soldier stands under his gun and walks like a frail man; some with a tie, others untied and bare-chested. I've even seen barefoot guards! Soldiers treat their training poorly, but officers, either through negligence or inexperience, do not punish for it. They load their guns and shoot like mice; and the worst thing is that they do not expect anything good from innovations, and inwardly despise them as the invention of innocents, whom, they say, our ancestors always beat according to their old method. Seraskir and other nobles say: Peter Veliy called the same, and the ambassador struck his conqueror; but they don’t know what Peter the Great had, with the exception of two or three commanders-in-chief, such as: Shein, Sheremetev, Golitsyn, and then already. Menshchikov, almost all division, brigade and even regimental commanders were at first foreigners. They formed the Fkhitsers, and from them the generals emerged: Minich, Keith, Lasai, Levendal. During the reign of Empresses Anna and Elizabeth, the Saltykovs, Rumyantsevs, Chernyshevs, and Dodgorukte appeared. These, in turn, under Great Catherine, produced Orlov-Cheemensky, Kamensky, the great Suvorov, Repnin, Ferzen. Since then, we have always had famous commanders. In general, now all the generals are good, but some of them are excellent, even great! How many of them suddenly came out under `Alexander! Who among us does not remember Barclay de Tolly, VBagratlon, Ermolov! who does not honor the memory of the immortal Kutuzov! In the now prosperous time of Nicholas, when the banners of His victorious army fluttered on one side to Erzerum, and on the other to Adranopolf, and threatened the very capital of the Sultans, the Turks do not remember the name of Paskevich-Erivansky without trepidation. This is what Tsentr Velik planted! But he had teachers and commanders. The Turks will never do this. You have to train them in order to enter the service and then become a commander; but what can one expect from renegades, whom the Turks themselves inwardly despise? They generally despise science, and the idiots who serve in the military service, and even then out of skill, do not learn anything. In my opinion, they will never have an army, and it seems that the Turkish state is going in the wrong direction.