Among the tribes of semi-savage men which inhabit the confines of the Turkish Empire, none are more remarkable for their love of freedom than the Bashi-Bazouk. Since the war in the Crimea commenced, efforts have been made at various times to reduce them as soldiers into discipline, but every effort has failed. Fight they will, but come under the restrictions of military rule, they will not. The consequence is that every organisation of Bashi-Bazouk has, sooner or later, been broken up by desertion, the guilty parties fleeing into the desert for safety. Our picture represents one of these men enjoying the happiness of being gazed at by the admiring inhabitants of Constantinople. His attitude, his arms, the whole man in fact, are calculated to inspire respect, and confirm the idea that, as with our Indians, the restraints of high civilization would be death.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, New York, NY, January 26, 1856
