Dervendjis

The name is derived from a Persian word Dar-band meaning "pass", "gateway" or "closer of the door".{{cite book|last=Tütüncü|first=Mehmet|title=Türk-Yahudi Buluşmaları|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rd1tAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=SOTA|isbn=978-90-804409-4-4|page=38}}{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=A.B. Wiliams|title=From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam|url=https://archive.org/details/fromconstantino00jackgoog|year=1911|page=[https://archive.org/details/fromconstantino00jackgoog/page/n139 61]}}

The Ottomans had common practice to exempt some of their tax-paying subjects (rayah) from paying certain taxes in exchange for some services. In case of derbendcis this also included military services such as guarding mountain passes.{{cite encyclopedia |last=İnalcık |first=Halil |title=Autonomous Enclaves in Islamic States: Temlîks, Soyurghals, Yurdluk-Ocakliks, Mâlikâne-Mukâta⁠ʾas and Awqāf |encyclopedia=History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods |editor1-last=Pfeiffer |editor1-first=Judith |editor2-last=Quinn |editor2-first=Sholeh Alysia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4D9pO_4j9-4C&pg=PA116|year=2006|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz|location=Wiesbaden|isbn=978-3-447-05278-8|page=116}} Usually the entire villages were assigned with this duty and exempted from paying war time taxes ({{langx|tr|avarız-ı divaniyye}}), customary taxes ({{langx|tr|tekâlif-i örfiye}}), service as oarsmen in the Ottoman navy and devşirme of their boys into janissaries.{{sfn|Ursinus|2012| p=40+}}{{cite book|last=Faroqhi|first=Suraiya|author-link=Suraiya Faroqhi|title=Peasants, dervishes and traders in the Ottoman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWzpAAAAIAAJ|year=1986|publisher=Variorum Reprints|isbn=978-0-86078-179-0|page=72|quote=According to this document, the derbendci were equally exempt from all avarız-ı divaniye and tekâlif-i örfiye, a privilege customarily enjoyed by pass guards throughout the Empire); the exemption also covered service as oarsmen...}} In the region of northern Macedonia at least 175 villages had derbendci status and enjoyed these kind of tax exemptions. Sometimes the Ottoman state "created" villages around derbend territories while in some cases the existing villages applied to their kadı to receive derbendci status in exchange for providing security, constructing or maintaining roads and bridges.{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Kenneth R.|title=Secondary cities and urban networking in the Indian Ocean Realm, c. 1400-1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qF_aAAAAMAAJ|year=2008|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-2835-0|page=275}} Newly settled population of such villages was not exempt from paying avariz taxes.{{cite thesis|type=PhD|last=MacKay|first=Camilla Martha|title=The Road Networks and Postal Service of the Eastern Roman and Byzantine Empires (First-Fifteenth Centuries AD): Social Effects on the Provincial Population|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P3ofAQAAMAAJ|year=1999|institution=University of Michigan|page=164}}

Their duty was to patrol the territory they were assigned to (derbend), similar to immobile gendarmerie.{{cite book|last1=Forsén|first1=Jeannette|last2=Forsén|first2=Björn|title=The Asea Valley Survey: An Arcadian Mountain Valley from the Palaeolithic Period Until Modern Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mkiAQAAIAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Svenska Institutet i Athen|isbn=978-91-7916-047-0|page=372}} Since the end of the 18th century derbendcis were organized within Derbendat Ministry ({{langx|tr|Derbendat Başbuğluğu}}) that appointed derbend aghas ({{langx|tr|derbendat başbuğ}}) whose post lasted one year.{{cite book|last=Vakfı|first=Türk Kültürüne Hizmet|title=Türk dünyası kültür atlası|year=1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHc_AQAAIAAJ|publisher=Türk Kültürüne Hizmet Vakfı, Turkish Cultural Service Foundation|page=46 |isbn=9789757522195|language=Turkish}}

Derbendci status was compulsory and hereditary. If some individual or group would escape from their duty, the Ottomans would forcefully return them. They were organized into simple structures of 30 men (tabl) whose members performed rotational duties. Initially they carried only light weapons and later also fire guns. Significant part of this units were Christians who were, because of their derbendci duty, allowed to ride horses and carry weapon,{{cite encyclopedia|last=Kursar|first=Vjeran|title=Some Remarks on the Organization of Ottoman Society in the Early Modern Period: The Question of "Legal Dualism" and Societal Structures|encyclopedia=Perspectives on Ottoman Studies: Papers from the 18th Symposium of the International Committee of Pre-Ottoman and Ottoman Studies (CIEPO) at the University of Zagreb 2008|editor1-last=Čaušević|editor1-first=Ekrem|editor2-last=Moačanin|editor2-first=Nenad|editor3-last=Kursar|editor3-first=Vjeran|location=Münster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXozTgKsAdMC&pg=PA847|year=2010|publisher=LIT Verlag|isbn=978-3-643-10851-7|page=847}} but only of conventional type.{{cite book|last1=Parry|first1=Vernon J.|last2=Yapp|first2=Malcolm|title=War, technology and society in the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ip1tAAAAMAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=195|isbn=9780197135815}} Because derbendcis were poorly motivated, they could not match trained and better armed soldiers, so the Ottomans had to hire mercenaries (Christians or Muslims) to ensure loyalty of derbendcis, especially since the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 17th century.{{sfn|Uyar|Erickson|2009|pp = 62–63}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|last1=Uyar|first1=Mesut|last2=Erickson|first2=Edward J.|authorlink2=Edward J. Erickson|title=A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JgfNBKHG7S8C&pg=PA62|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-275-98876-0}}
• {{cite book|last=Ursinus|first=Michael|title=Grievance Administration (Sikayet) in an Ottoman Province: The Kaymakam of Rumelia's 'Record Book of Complaints' of 1781-1783|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BI5PyOWbkyAC&pg=PA41|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-24328-0}}

• Cengiz Orhonlu, Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Derbend Teşkilatı (İstanbul: Eren Yayınları, 1990)

Category:Military units and formations of the Ottoman Empire

Category:Auxiliary units and formations