The elite Janissary corps, established in the 14th century, were among the first standing infantry units in the world to be systematically equipped with firearms. Their disciplined use of arquebuses and later muskets provided a deadly, steady core to Ottoman armies. While the Sipahi cavalry, the empire's armored horsemen, famously retained their powerful composite bows for speed and flexibility, it was the combined-arms approach—pairing traditional cavalry with gunpowder-wielding infantry and ma