Ottoman military bands are the oldest recorded military marching bands in the world. Though they are often known by the word Mehter (Ottoman Turkish: مهتر, plural: مهتران mehterân; from "senior" in Persian) in West Europe, that word, properly speaking, refers only to a single musician in the band. In Ottoman, the band was generally known as mehterân (مهتران seniors), though those bands used in the retinue of a vizier or prince were generally known as mehterhane (Persian: مهترخانه, meaning "house of seniors"), the band as a whole is often termed mehter bölüğü ("mehter company [troop]"), mehter takımı ("mehter platoon"). In West Europe, the band's music is also often called Janissary music because the janissaries formed the core of the bands.