Irish Letters By Ottoma Busbecq

The Turkish Letters by Ogier Ghiselin de Bushecq who was Flemish born and was appointed by the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as ambassador to the Turkish Sultan's court in Constantinople in the 16th Century were written between the years 1555-1562. The letters give not only an insight into the Ottoman Empire’s superior military training in Busbecq’s eyes but also act as a lament of the Christian soldier’s lack of military disciple and the Christian forces use of heredity as advancement. Busbecq speaks glowingly of the disciple that the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire. Busbecq describes how the Janissaries who were the infantry of the Royal Guard for the Ottoman’s would so gently approach him and treat him with such compassion that he mistook them for monks at first and not the feared warriors the rest of the world knew. Busbecq admires the way the …show more content…
Christian soldiers on a campaign refuse to put up with their ordinary food,… It makes me shudder to think of what the result of a struggle between such different systems must be;…” Busbecq’s concern here is that if these two forces face each other in battle that the Turks will not be complaining like the Christian soldier but will face their adversities and overcome them. Busbecq also laments the system of how the Christian soldiers achieve rank through heredity and not through achievement like the Turks. Busbecq states this disparity as the reason for the Turks immense success, “This is the reason that they are successful in their undertakings, that they lord it over others, and are daily extending the bounds of their empire.” What Busbecq is conveying is that the Christians better wake up and take notice of the superior training and discipline that the Turks are displaying or they will be under Turkish rule