[325] This name for the sultan’s paid cavalry is that regularly employed by the Venetian writers of the sixteenth century: for example, Moro, 337; Bernardo, 330. [326] Hammer, _Geschichte_, i. 95. [327] D’Ohsson, vii. 353. [328] For the great disturbance which they raised in 1593, see Zinkeisen, iii. 79. [329] All of these names are spelled with an ingenious variety in contemporary writings:— _Spahi_: spai, spachi, sipahi, sipah, spacoillain (spahi-oghlan). _Silihdar_: selicter, sillictar, sulastrus, suluphtar. _Ulufagi_: holofagi, allophase. _Ghureba_: caripy, caripicus, ciarcagi, caripp (oglan), gharib (oglan), capi (oglan) The word _Spahi_ is of identical derivation with _Sepoy_. [330] Ramberti, below, p. 250; Junis Bey, below, p. 267; Postel, iii. 34. Giovio (_Commentarius_, 75) says that some _Spahis_ brought as many as ten horsemen. [331] Giovio, 75; Postel, iii. 35. [332] They were called “poor youth” by Menavino, 152; Junis Bey, 267; Ramberti, 251; Trevisano, 126; Postel, iii. 36. Spandugino, 97, says that they were strangers from Asia, Egypt, and Africa. Giovio, 76, says that they were all Moslems from Persia, Turcomania, Syria, Africa, Arabia, Scythia, and even India; but he is wrong in confining them to Moslems in the sixteenth century. Trevisano, 126, asserts that they were renegades from every nation; and on this authority Zinkeisen falls into the opposite error of confining them to Christian renegades. Postel, iii. 36, says that they were chosen from the _Akinji_, Kurds, and _Azabs_. Menavino, 152, declares that they were not slaves of the great Turk, but that part were Turks, part Christian renegades, and part Arabs (_Mori_). [333] The _Spahis_ of the Porte are discussed at length in D’Ohsson, vii. 364 ff.; Hammer, _Staatsverwaltung_, 237 ff.; Zinkeisen, iii. 168 ff. [334] Giovio (_Commentarius_, 75) mentions 2000 in each of the first two corps, and 1000 in each of the second two. Junis Bey (below, p. 267) puts 3000 in each of the first two corps, 2000 in each of the second two. Ramberti (below, p. 250) gives more than 3000 _Spahi-oghlans_, 3000 _Silihdars_, and 2000 in each of the other corps. Ludovisi, 15, puts 3000 in each of the first two, 2500 in the third, and 2000 in the fourth. Trevisano, 125, puts 2000 in each but the fourth, which contained 1500. D. Barbarigo, 33, mentions 7095 _Spahis_. Barbaro, 304, says that there were 15,000 _Spahis_ of the Porte. There were under pay in 1660, after serious changes, 7203 _Spahis_, 6254 _Silihdars_, 976 _Ulufajis_, and 722 _Ghurebas_: Hammer, _Staatsverwaltung_, 175.