Mentions of blue cloth for Janissaries in
THE TRAVELS OF EVLIYA EFENDI.
Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Seventeenth Century, by Evlíya Efendí.
Translated from the Turkish by the Ritter Joseph von Hammer, F.M.R.A.S, &c. &c.
2nd quarter of the 17th century. Translation published 1834.

124

The Jebbehjí-báshí said to Dávud Páshá: ' My lord, may your name be everlasting in the world, and may the family of the Dávuds always be in power.' For this wish he was rewarded with the place of ághá of the Janissaries, and actually entered into a plan to raise his own son, Soleďmán Beg, to the throne of the Ottomans ; and promised the Janissaries that, instead of the blue cloth of Salonik, they should wear fine scarlet cloth. This story having circulated throughout the city, it raised the indignation and excited the greatest grief in the hearts of all true believers and faithful subjects. A mob of Ajem-oghláns and Janissaries assembled at the mosque of Sultán Mohammed II., and there killed many thousands of the learned and worthy divines, and threw their bodies into the wells : the houses also of many honest men were entirely pillaged.

166-167

The fourteenth is the Inspector of the cloth-magazines ; he has the inspection of the cloth, and a company of Janissaries is at his command. The blue cloth for the eighty thousand Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, which comes from Salonica, is deposited in the magazine, which is opened once a year on the holy night (Kadr). On this night the first Lieutenant-General of the Janissaries (Kolkiagassí), attended by the ághás of the corps, the inspector of the magazine and its Colonel receive the officers of all the sixty-two regiments of Janissaries with their men, who each get, according to the constitution of Sultán Súleimán, ten yards of blue cloth, a piece for the turban, and a piece of cotton for the shirt. This distribution lasts three days and nights. This magazine (enbár) is a large square building within the enclosure of the mint. The Inspector of the cloth and the colonel with their suite pass before the Imperial koshk, each carrying a piece of cloth on their shoulder.

Source



See also An extract on Janissaries and other soldiers from Constantinople Ancient and Modern, with Excursions to the Shores and Islands of the Archipelago and to the Troad by James Dallaway, 1797
An extract on Janissaries and other soldiers from Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. Between the years 1803 and 1807. by Domingo Badía y Leblich, 1816
Illustrations of Ottoman Janissaries (Janizary, Yeniceri)
Ottoman Illustrations of Costume and Soldiers