The Powerful & Dangerous Janissaries and the Secret Plan to Destroy Them: The Auspicious Event—Part I
The Janissaries (yeni-cheri, or “new troops”) were a small elite branch established by the Ottoman military sometime around the 14th century by Orhan Ghazi, second bey (chieftain), of the Ottoman Beylik or Emirate. The Janissaries corps was made up of Christian children who were either bought or captured and forced to convert to Islam.
A 15th-century Janissary drawing by Gentile Bellini. (Public Domain)
Devshirme (devşirme) was the forcible recruitment of young boys, begun in the mid-1300s by Sultan Murad I as a way to countercheck the growing power of the Turkish nobility. This “blood tax” came in the form of military officers of the Ottoman Empire ranging afield to take boys, ages eight to 18, from their families to be raised as soldiers. They were taught Turkish language and customs, and were trained under strict, near-monastic conditions. They served as an elite bodyguard to the sultan but also fought in battle if necessary. (This practice of devshirme was abolished in the early 1700s).
Painting portrays Greek Muslims at prayer in a mosque. Jean Léon Gérôme - 1865 (Public Domain)
The Janissary force was initially small, roughly consisting of one thousand troops during the early part of the 14th century, and as time went on they gradually began to swell in size and scope, becoming the first Ottoman standing army.
In 1514, their numbers were at 10,156; and by the time of the 1807 revolt their numbers were around 135,000 men.
Recruitment and registration of boys for the devşirme (a tax of sons imposed on Christian subjects of the Ottoman empire. If good enough, the boys would become Janissaries). (Public Domain)
