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A bashi-bazouk (in Turkish başıbozuk, meaning leaderless) was an irregular mounted mercenary soldier of the Ottoman army. They were often recruited from homeless, vagrants, criminals, slaves and prisoners of war. Foreign mercenaries and volunteers could also be hired to the corps.
The bashi-bazouk were notorious for being brutal and undisciplined, thus giving the term its second, colloquial meaning of "undisciplined bandit". Hergé's "Captain Haddock" from "The Adventures of Tintin" was fond of this word, commonly using it as an expletive.
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