Boluk-bashi
Boluk-bashi (Ottoman Turkish: بولق باشی, Turkish: bölükbaşı, "head of [infantry] company, company captain") was an Ottoman officer rank equivalent to captain. It was replaced in the 19th century by the rank of yüzbaşı.
Etymology
[edit]The word is made up of two elements, bölük ("division, group of troops", from böl, "to separate") and baş ("head").[1] It entered into Balkan languages such as Albanian: bylykbashi and Serbo-Croatian: buljubaša.
Usage
[edit]Ottoman Empire
[edit]The bölükbaşı was an Ottoman officer rank equivalent to captain. It was used in the Janissary corps during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66).[2] In the 17th century the holder was in command of a bölük, a sub-division of a regiment.[3] During the Ottoman Old Regime (1703–89) the rank translated into "captain of a squadron", commanding a bölük of the sipahi and silahdar cavalry.[4]
It was higher than oda-bashi (lieutenant).[citation needed] The Ottoman reforms of Tanzimat (1839–76) saw the bölük being a company of hundred men (yüz meaning "hundred") under the commanding rank of yüzbaşı (also translated as "captain").[5]
Serbs
[edit]The rank of buljubaša (Serbian Cyrillic: буљубаша) or buljukbaša (буљукбаша) was used by the Serbian hajduks for the commanders of a brigand četa ("company"). Among notable hajduks holding the rank that were murdered by the Dahije (renegade Janissaries) in the Slaughter of the Knezes[6] were Janko Gagić, Gavrilo Buđevac and Mata from Lipovac.[7] It then entered the ranks of the Revolutionary Serbian Army in the First Serbian Uprising (1804–13) as the equivalent of kapetan ("captain").[8] Among notable holders were Arsenije Loma, Todor Bojinović, Zeka Buljubaša, Hajduk-Veljko and Petar Dobrnjac.
Royal Corps of Colonial Troops
[edit]![[icon]](/location/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion with: Italian entry at it:Bulucbasci. You can help by adding missing information. (July 2025) |
In the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops of the Italian Royal Army, it was known as bulucbasci and was the equivalent to the rank of sergeant.
Notable people
[edit]- Iliaș Colceag (fl. 1710–1743), Ottoman Moldavian commander
- Yahya bey Dukagjini (1498–1582), Ottoman Albanian commander and poet
See also
[edit]
- Bölükbaşı (surname)
- Buljubašić, surname
References
[edit]- ↑ E. J. Brill 1970, pp. 740–741.
- ↑ The government of the Ottoman Empire in the time of Suleiman the Magnificent (1913) at the Internet Archive
- ↑ Charles L. Wilkins (2010). Forging Urban Solidarities: Ottoman Aleppo 1640-1700. BRILL. p. 293. ISBN 978-90-04-16907-4.
- ↑ E. J. Brill 1970, p. 741.
- ↑ E. J. Brill 1970, p. 740.
- ↑ Novaković 1904, p. 55.
- ↑ Gavrilović 1904, pp. 23, 27.
- ↑ Bodrožić 2022, p. 32.
Sources
[edit]- Bodrožić, Đuro (2022). "Vojska i država: počeci moderne srpske vojske". Nacionalni Interes. 44 (2): 29–46. doi:10.22182/ni.4222022.2 (inactive 25 July 2025).
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link) - The Encyclopaedia of Islām: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples. Vol. 1. E. J. Brill. 1970. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
- Gavrilović, Andra (1904). Црте из историје ослобођења Србије. Belgrade: Нздање дворске књпжаре Мпте Стајпћа у Београду. (Public Domain)
- Novaković, Stojan (1904). Ustanak na dahije 1804. U Beogradu tampano u dravnoj tampariji. (Public Domain)