ON THE "BESHE" TITLE

Abstract

Because Janissary Army was mostly used for consolidating the power of sultan as an absolute monarch in traditional Ottoman politics, its history synchronically came to mean the history of Empire. The title "beshe", which was traditionally used by janissaries, has also become an indicator for the researchers to verify whether a person was a janissary. After 1559, when janissaries rapidly spread to the provinces and started to provide themselves a social basis, the title "beshe" became one of the most common titles that many people used. In the Sharia court records, which are the best group of documents to observe the Ottoman society, the title "beshe" could be seen in almost every record. In this article the question we try to answer is that whether it was still a title belonged only to the janissaries or not by the beginning of the 17th century. Under the lights of those records, it was eventually seen that the beshe title was not only used by Janissaries, but also adopted by other social groups in Ottoman perihperies in the 17th century.