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“The Janissaries: Rise and Fall” Marcus Charles

The Janissaries became arguably one of the most famous military units in history.They helped the Ottoman empire expand their territories as far west into Egypt. The conscripts started out as Christians slave boys from conquered lands. They were educated and trained like no other military of the time. The Janissaries were a warrior class formed for several reasons: the rapid expansion of the Ottomans into northern Africa, southern Europe and Asia Minor, did not allow the Ottomans time to establish a military force to maintain order in the newly conquered lands.! Ottoman Sultan Orkhan under advice from Vizier Black Khalil, decided to make the inhabitants of the newly conquered lands pay a tribute with their Christian sons, a form of slavery called gate slaves. These slaves or tributaries were taken from the Balkan provinces, which at the time had been predominately Christian. This type of recruitment is called Devshrime, was introduced by Murad I in 1362. At the time, the idea was to convert the newly conquered Christians to Islam. The goal was the Ottoman state wanted to make their soldiers totally loyal to the sultan. Once taken, the Christian boys had no interaction with the outside world during their training. They were celibate, not allowed to marry and focus on military trainings and subsequent objectives… like victory for the Janissary’s sultan. . The Janissaries were the first standing army since the Roman Empire. They were militarily far superior on the battlefield compared to the European and Asian armies during their peak strength. Eventually the price of the Ottoman’s constant expansion through military action became too expensive to maintain. the Janissaries did not keep up with European progress in modern warfare. The status of the Janissaries was maintained not by their military conquests but by their ability to manipulate the sultans by threatening revolt against the current rulers of the Ottoman empire. The education the Janissaries from their early stages of training gave them the ability to take over towns, which eventually led to corrupt practices while still allowing them to accumulate vast amounts of wealth. They took professional jobs as sellers in marketplaces. This, in time, removed the fear many felt towards them, replacing it with ridicule and distain. During the early part of the nineteenth century, the Janissaries’ status was still declining. The large amounts of capital from the Ottoman government to support them began to take its toll on the empire. So, in 1826 the Sultan Mahmut II declared a reform of the Janissaries and the removal of the Janissaries.

Veinstein, Gilles (2013), On the Ottoman janissaries (fourteenth-nineteenth centuries, A Comparative Study of Military Labour 1500-2000, pg 7, Retrieved from  https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ett6wp  Ibid, 1  Ibid, 117  Ibid, 42.  MacMillan, Hugh. THE JANISSARIES Good words; London (Jan 1896): 564-570.  Ibid, 117  Kafadar, C. (1991). On the Purity and Corruption of the Janissaries. Turkish Studies Association Bulletin, 15(2), 273-280. Retrieved March 16, 2020,  www.jstor.org/stable/43385269  Ibid., p. 399  Benesch, Oleg (2006) "Comparing Warrior Traditions: How the Janissaries and Samurai Maintained Their Status and Privileges During Centuries of Peace," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 55 : No. 55, Article 6.  Aksan, V. H. (1998). Whatever Happened to the Janissaries? Mobilization for the 1768-1774, Russo-Ottoman War. War in History, 5(1), 23-36. https://doi.org/10.1177/096834459800500102 Ibid, 38. Ibid, 43. Ibid, 43. André Raymond (1991) Soldiers in trade: the case of 9. Ottoman Cairo, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Bulletin, 18:1, 16-37, DOI: 10.1080/13530199108705524 Ibid., p. 52. Ibid., p. 52