The Bashi-bazouk reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Bashi-bazouk

A bashi-bazouk (in Turkish başıbozuk, meaning leaderless) was an irregular mounted mercenary soldier of the Ottoman army. The bashi-bazouk were notorious for being brutal and indisciplined. They were recruited from homeless, vagrants, criminals, slaves and prisoners of war. Foreign mercenaries and volunteers could also be hired to the corps.

In Hergé's Tintin comic book series, a character named Captain Haddock uses this term to show his frustration with something.

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