Çorbaci

in the Ottoman Empire:

(1) An officer rank among the janissaries that corresponded to the commander of an orta (company).

(2) A member of the village elite, which comprised elders, leaders, and prosperous peasants. The Turkish authorities recruited çorbacis to work in judicial and administrative agencies and usually appointed tax collectors from their ranks. In the 19th century the term came to refer mainly to merchants and wealthy Christians. In modern Turkey the term is used colloquially by sailors to mean shipowner.