[308] 10,000 is the number according to Bragadino, 106. 12,000 is given by almost all contemporaries: Ramberti, below, p. 249; Junis Bey, below, p. 266; Giovio, _Commentarius_, 76; Geuffroy, 234; Navagero, 53; Trevisano, 128; Barbaro, 305; Postel, iii. 30; Busbecq, _Life and Letters_, i. 86; Nicolay, 88; Erizzo, 127. Navagero, 56, says some think that 15,500 or 16,000 were inscribed; and Garzoni, 416, says that there were 13,000 or 14,000. Djevad Bey, i. 90, gives 12,000 in 1523, and 13,599 in 1574. In 1564 D. Barbarigo, 33, gives a precise number, 13,502. D’Ohsson, vii. 330, says, without stating any authority and against the above contemporary evidence, that Suleiman raised the number to 40,000. Hammer (_Geschichte_, i. 95, and iii. 473) says, referring to D’Ohsson, that Suleiman had 20,000; but in his _Staatsverwaltung_, 195, he states that Suleiman had only 12,000 before Szigets. Knolles (ed. 1687, p. 990) says, about 1603, that the Janissaries numbered not over 12,000 to 14,000. [309] Junis Bey, 272, and Ludovisi, 17, give the number of this garrison as 3000. Postel, 38, gives the number as 30,000; this must include the Mamelukes. [310] Giovio, _Commentarius_, 77: about 6000 of the older of them stay about the Prince. Navagero, 55: 8000 to 10,000 are always ready. [311] Ramberti, 249; Junis Bey, 267. [312] Hammer, _Staatsverwaltung_, 194; Ricaut, 365 (mentions 162 _odalar_); Djevad Bey, i. 28. In Chalcocondyles’s time (1465), 97, the strength of each _oda_ seems to have been of 50 men. In Suleiman’s time it was less than 100. Later it became much larger. [313] Nicolay, 96-97; D’Ohsson, vii. 313-320; Hammer, _Staatsverwaltung_, 201 ff.; Djevad Bey, i. 35, 45. [314] D’Ohsson, vii. 314; Hammer, _Geschichte_, ii. 428. This was the case only from 1515 to 1582. [315] _Kiaya_ is a word which offered infinite difficulties of pronunciation and spelling; for example, gachaia, cacaia, checaya, quaia, queaya, caia, cahaia, chiccaia, chechessi. Some authors employ a different spelling each time they use the word. Trevisano, 118, gives chietcudasci. _Kiaya_ represents the popular pronunciation. The more nearly correct form of the word, following the Turkish spelling, is _ketkhuda_. [316] D’Ohsson, vii. 353. [317] Djevad Bey, i. 35. [318] Ramberti, below, p. 250; Junis Bey, below, p. 266. [319] Ludovisi (1534), 9, gives a pessimistic account of them; according to him, they had not the order or the discipline or the astuteness which was found in the Christian infantry. Postel, iii. 30, praises them greatly for order, frugality, and temperance. Djevad Bey, i. 56-64, gives a favorable description; he says (p. 56) that the first of their fundamental laws enjoined absolute obedience. [320] Postel, iii. 31; D’Ohsson, vii. 353; Djevad Bey, i. 66, 69. [321] Busbecq, _Life and Letters_, i. 296. [322] D’Ohsson, vii. 351; Djevad Bey, i. 56-59. [323] Ramberti, below, p. 249; Junis Bey, below, p. 267; D’Ohsson, vii. 352. [324] Djevad Bey, i. 289.