Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of
military marching bands in the world. Though they are often known by the
Persian-derived word
mahtar (مهتر;
mehter in
Ottoman Turkish) in the West, that word, properly speaking, refers only to a single musician in the band. In Ottoman, the band was generally known as
mehterân (مهتران, from the Persian plural
mahtarān), though those bands used in the
retinue of a
vizier or
prince were generally known as
mehterhane (مهترخانه, meaning roughly, "a gathering of
mehters", from Persian "house of the
mahtar"). In
modern Turkish, the band as a whole is often termed
mehter bölüğü ("
mehter company [troop]"),
mehter takımı ("
mehter platoon"). In the West, the band's music is also often called Janissary music because the
janissaries formed the core of the bands.