Nubian Bashibazouk

Digital drawing, archival pigment inkjet print on fine art paper, Limited edition of 5, 42 x 29.7 cm, 350 USD

“Bashibazouk”—the “mad ones” without fear or perhaps a reason to live—were the Ottoman army’s irregulars, the muscle to weaken the enemy’s front lines until the regulars crushed them with brute force. Mustafa was a Nubian slave taking part in the conquest of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Tall, muscular, in his 20s, and strong as an ox, he could slice a fully armored knight in two with a single swing of his blade. He was in love with a beautiful Persian handmaiden in the Sultan’s court, whom he’d kissed just once behind the barracks. He had finally found a reason to live just as he was about to face almost certain death. Mustafa’s hat was inspired by Orientalist artist Jean-Leon Gerome’s portrait of a Bashibazouk.