sekban

The sekban were mercenaries of peasant background in the Ottoman Empire. The term sekban initially referred to irregular military units, particularly those without guns, but ultimately it came to refer to any army outside the regular military. The sekbans were not only loyal to the Ottoman state, but they could become loyal to anyone who paid them a sufficient salary.

These troops were maintained by raising a tax called the sekban aqçesi. They were recruited in such numbers that they became the most numerous component of the imperial armies. The use of these troops ultimately led to grave consequences: the end of hostilities, as in the war against Persia in 1590 and the war against Austria in 1606, saw a large number of sekban without employment or means of livelihood. As a result, many of these soldiers took to brigandage and revolt, and they plundered much of Anatolia between 1596 and 1610.