Deli (Ottoman troops)

Deli is a Turkish word meaning "mad", "crazy", or "wild". In the Ottoman Empire, it was applied to irregular troops recruited in the Balkans, chiefly Bosnians and Albanians, and commanded by a deli bashi ("head of the delis"). They were often employed as bodyguards to provincial governors.

Sources

Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor, ed. (1987). "Deli". E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Volume II: Bābā Fighānī–Dwīn. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 90-04-08265-4.

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