Seğirdim, Running on the Path
Every morning a phenomenal event used to take place in the Meat Arena of the New Barracks. The event was a mixture of a ritual and an athletic race. It was called “Seğirdim” (The Run). The fastest runners, “Seğirdim Aşçıları” (The Runner Cooks) were chosen from each orta and bölük for the race. The target was the reward itself: A sheep in the hands of a christian butcher standing all alone at the other side of the Arena, about 300 meters away. The winner was the one who could reach and touch the sheep first. He then could take the sheep back to his orta or bölük for an extra feast for his yoldaş. Two of his comrades used to carry him on their shoulders and no doubt he was welcomed as a victor, an admired champion.³³⁷ Until here the event seems simply to be an athletic race. Soon we will see that there was more to it.


Seğirdim Aşçıları (The Runner Cooks)
The race was only the end of a longer ceremony which used to start right after the sunrise. A group of runner cooks called “Usta Çavuşlar” (Sergeant Masters) or “Seğirdim Ustaları” (Runner Masters) used to get together in front of the “Meydan Tekkesi”³³⁸ (Lodge of the Arena) in the Meat Arena.³³⁹ Three of these Runner Masters with the highest ranks were called “Casuslar” (The Spies [observers]) and the oldest of them was “Meydan Şeyhi” (Sheikh of the Arena). Kavanin-i Yeniçeriyan gives us information about their role in the Race:

… And there are three veterans of the cooks. They call them “Casuslar” (The Spies). One of them is from the Ağa Squadrons, he is the oldest (superior). Another one is from the Infantry Masters (thus from the Cemaat divisions). And the other one is from the Old Barracks (possibly from the Sekban squadrons to complete the picture) …. And these control the (Runner) Cooks. In the Seğirdim (The Race) they line them up. If one of them (The Runner Cooks) moves any further these hit them with their sticks (turra). This is their Law.³⁴⁰

These “Spies” led by their Sheikh had the duty and the authority to keep order during the event. At the same time, they used to send a procession of Runner Masters, Seğirdim Alayı to fetch the daily meat of the headquarters. With their mules, the Running Procession, Seğirdim Alayı used to run to the slaughterhouses in the Yedikule district, and return as quick as possible. It was strictly forbidden to pass from the front or the back of this battalion, again pointing out to the holiness of the food for the janissaries.

³³⁷ Kapıkulu Ocakları, v.I, p.247-251
³³⁸ Uzunçarşılı describes this tekke as having a large hall (possibly for semah rituals) with apt decoration, two marble gates with inscription above, a stone of date (of its construction), and a lantern in the entrance. This must be one of the four tekkes in the New Barracks mentioned above. (Possibly the biggest)
³³⁹ Op.cit.
³⁴⁰ Kavanin-i Yeniçeriyan, p. 201

Source: Janissary and Samurai: Early Modern Warrior Classes and Religion by E Küçükyalçin 2007