"The Turkish army is encumbered with no impediment which would prevent it from moving at any time, in any direction, and doing any work... No one is distracted by women or household cares from his military duties... For the Turks regard war as the most profitable of all arts, and have collected together all the arts of war in their warlike system... How different is our practice! Our soldiers eat and drink and talk idly when they should be digging; they spend their time in quarrels, drinking bouts, dice and cards."

Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Turkish Letters, written 1555-1562, published 1589. Busbecq was the Habsburg ambassador to the Ottoman court of Suleiman the Magnificent. He spent seven years in Istanbul and wrote detailed observations of Ottoman society.