Ottoman military band

Ottoman military bands were the first-recorded military marching bands. Though often known as the mehter, this term refers only to a single musician in the band. In the Ottoman Empire, the band was generally known in the plural as mehterân, though those bands used in the retinue of a vizier or prince were generally known as mehterhâne. The band as a whole is often termed mehter bölüğü ('mehter company [troop]') or mehter takımı ('mehter platoon').