An army whose colonels were "soup men", whose sacred object was a cooking pot. When the Janissaries carried their cauldrons out, everyone knew what it meant.
The Janissaries were the sultan's salaried standing infantry. Each unit, an orta, was led by a çorbacı, literally a "soup man".
Each unit's cauldron, its kazan, was sacred. In the field it was guarded more carefully than the banner.
When they meant to rebel, they brought the pots out. The Turkish idiom is kazan kaldırmak, "to lift the cauldron"; it stood for Janissary revolt. English accounts prefer "overturned"; Turkish sources say carried out. Probably lifted, not tipped.
Legend says the dervish Hacı Bektaş blessed the corps and left it the Kazan-ı Şerif, the holy cauldron.
By 1826 Mahmud II wanted a new army. On the night of 14 June (or 15), 200 to 300 men gathered at Et Meydanı, growing to about 2,000.
Then the twist. Mahmud is cited as saying it would be solved when respectable townspeople set their own cauldrons outside their homes. The rebels' sign, turned on them.
Cannon from Tophane broke into the barracks; many died in the fires. About 4,000 there and 6,000 or more executed, by one count. On 17 June the corps was abolished: the Vak'a-i Hayriye, the "Auspicious Incident".
The mehter band went too. It returned at the Military Museum in 1952 (or 1953), rebuilt from palace miniatures.
The Mehteran plays its nevbet at the Military Museum in Harbiye five days a week, per the museum's site. But when we checked (26 Oct 2026), sources conflicted on whether the museum is open. Check first; don't build a day around it. If it's playing, you're hearing the band a sultan banned.