Editing Janissary (section)

==Origins and history==
[[File:Yeniceri aga.jpg|thumb|230px|right|''[[Agha of the Janissaries]]'', commander of the Janissary Corps, in 1768]]

The Janissary Corps was formed in the 14th century, either during the rule of [[Murad I]] ({{reign | 1362 | 1389}}), the third sultan of the [[Ottoman Empire]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Michael |author-link1=Michael Cook (historian) |date=7 May 2024 |chapter=The Ottoman Empire |title=A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vGXiEAAAQBAJ |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=457 |isbn=9780691236575 |access-date=21 November 2024 |quote=In 1402 [...] the core of Bayezid's forces [...] consisted of infantry. These were the famous Janissaries, the 'New Army' ({{langx | ota | Yeni Cheri}} , {{langx | ota | yeni}} being the Turkish for 'new' and {{langx | ota | cherīk}} a word of Mongol origin for 'army'). This force had come into existence at some point in the fourteenth century, most likely under Murad. [...] The third significant feature of the Janissaries was the way they were recruited: they were Christians enslaved and converted to Islam [...] Their enslavement happened in either of two ways. One was through capture in the course of warfare against the infidel. Ottoman soldiers took large numbers of prisoners when they raided the Balkans, and the ruler would take his cut of them. The fifteenth-century Ottoman chroniclers date the beginning of this practice to the reign of Murad and associate it with the origin of the Janissaries. [...] But already in the fourteenth century an alternative and unprecedented form of recruitment had developed: collecting children from the subject peasant population, again particularly in the Balkans.}}</ref> or during the time of Murad's father, [[Orhan]] ({{reign | {{circa | 1324}} | 1362}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Akgunduz |first1=Ahmed |last2=Ozturk |first2=Said |date=1 January 2011 |translator-last1=Ercan |translator-first1=Ismail |chapter=The reign of Sultan Murad Hudavendigar |title=Ottoman History – Misperceptions and Truths |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKfIAgAAQBAJ |series=Ottoman History, volume 1 |location=Rotterdam |publisher=IUR Press |page=51 |isbn=9789090261089 |access-date=21 November 2024 |quote=[...] Murad was loved by everyone, friends and foes alike. Although the Janissary Corps had been established during his father's reign, it was he who really became the driving force behind it and improved the Janissary Corps and the Acemi Oglans (Novices) Corps.}}</ref> The [[Ottoman government]] instituted a [[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|tax of one-fifth on all slaves taken in war]], and from this pool of manpower the sultans first constructed the Janissary corps as a personal army loyal only to the [[Ottoman sultan]].<ref name=creation>{{Cite book|last= Kafadar |first= Cemal |title= Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=R_tLADmRyWAC |publisher= University of California Press |date= 1995 |isbn= 978-0-520-20600-7 |pages=111–3}}</ref>

From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the ''[[devşirme]]'' system of [[Ghilman|child levy]] enslavement,<ref name="Ágoston-Masters 2009"/><ref name="Glassé 2008"/><ref name="Wittek 1955"/>{{sfn|Nicolle|1983|p=7}} which was abolished in 1648.<ref name="Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America">{{cite book|author=Hubbard, Glenn and Tim Kane. (2013)|title=Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America |year=2013|publisher=Simon & Schuster| isbn=978-1-4767-0025-0|pages=151–154}}</ref> This recruitment of Janissary troops was achieved through the enslaving of ''[[dhimmi]]'' peoples (i.e., [[Kafir|non-Muslims]]),<ref name="Ágoston-Masters 2009"/><ref name="Glassé 2008"/><ref name="Wittek 1955"/>{{sfn|Nicolle|1983|p=7}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f7Wz4b4JTC8C&pg=PA366|title=Lineages of the Absolutist State (Verso, 1974), p. 366|author=Perry Anderson|isbn=9780860917106|year=1979|publisher=Verso }}</ref> predominantly [[Balkans|Balkan]] [[Christianity in the Ottoman Empire|Christians]].<ref name="Glassé 2008"/> [[History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire|Jews]] were never subject to ''{{lang|tr|devşirme}}''; however, there is evidence that Jews tried to enroll into the system.<ref name="Yılmaz 2015"/> Jews were not allowed to join the Janissary Corps, and so in suspected cases the entire batch would be sent to the [[Imperial Arsenal]] as [[Indentured servitude|indentured laborers]].<ref name="Yılmaz 2015"/> Ottoman documents from the levy of the winter of 1603-1604 from [[Bosnia Eyalet|Bosnia]] and [[Ottoman Albania|Albania]] wrote to draw attention to some children as "possibly being Jewish" ({{transliteration|ota|şekine-i arz-ı yahudi}}).<ref name="Yılmaz 2015">{{cite journal |last=Yılmaz |first=Gülay |date=December 2015 |title=The Devshirme System and the Levied Children of Bursa in 1603-4 |url=https://belleten.gov.tr/doi/10.37879/belleten.2015.901 |journal=Belleten |language=tr |volume=79 |issue=286 |pages=901–930 |doi=10.37879/belleten.2015.901 |issn=0041-4255|url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to the ''[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]'', "in early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from what is now [[Albania]], [[Bosnia]], [[Serbia]], [[Greece]], and [[Bulgaria]] were preferred."<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Janissaries |volume= 15 |page=151 |quote=see para 2 }}</ref> The [[Bektashi Order]] became the official [[Sufism|religious and spiritual institution]] of the Janissaries in the 15th century.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=The Effects of the abolition on the Bektashi - METU|url=https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615172/index.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706145511/http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615172/index.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2017 }}</ref>

The Janissaries were ''{{lang|tr|kapıkulları}}'' (sing. ''[[kapıkulu]]''), "door servants" or "slaves of the [[Sublime Porte|Porte]]", neither freedmen nor ordinary slaves (''{{lang|tr|köle}}'').<ref>Shaw, Stanford; Ezel Kural Shaw (1976). ''History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey'', Volume I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 27. {{ISBN|0-521-21280-4}}.</ref> They were subjected to strict discipline, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement and formed their own distinctive social class.<ref>Zürcher, Erik (1999). ''Arming the State''. United States of America: LB Tauris and Co Ltd. pp. 5. {{ISBN|1-86064-404-X}}.</ref> As such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivalling the [[Social class in the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turkish aristocracy]]. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, [[Enderun School|Enderun]]. Through a system of [[meritocracy]], the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts to reform the military.<ref name="Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America"/>

According to [[military historian]] Michael Antonucci and [[economic historian]]s Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, the Turkish administrators would scour their provinces (but especially the [[Balkans]]) every five years for the strongest sons of the [[Europeans|European]] [[Christianity in the Ottoman Empire|Christians]].<ref name="Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America"/> When a [[Kafir|non-Muslim boy]] was recruited under the ''[[devşirme]]'' system of [[Ghilman|child levy]] enslavement,<ref name="Ágoston-Masters 2009"/><ref name="Glassé 2008"/><ref name="Wittek 1955"/> he would first be sent to selected [[Ottoman Turks|Ottoman Turkish families]] in the provinces to learn [[Ottoman Turkish language|Turkish]], subjected to [[forced circumcision]] and [[Forced conversion#Islam|forced conversion to Islam]],<ref name="Ágoston-Masters 2009"/><ref name="Glassé 2008"/><ref name="Wittek 1955"/> and to learn the customs and culture of [[History of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman society]]. After completing this period, ''acemi'' ("new recruit") boys were gathered for training at the Enderun ''acemi oğlan'' ("rookie" or "cadet") school in the capital city. There, young cadets would be selected for their talents in different areas to train as engineers, artisans, riflemen, clerics, archers, artillery, and so forth. Most were of [[Kafir|non-Muslim origin]] because [[Islamic views on slavery|it was not permissible to enslave other Muslims]].<ref name="Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America"/>

[[File:Ralamb Janissary 1.jpg|thumb|230px|left|Portrait of a Janissary with [[Ottoman weapons|rifle]] (before 1657)]]
It was a similar system to the Iranian [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid]], [[Afsharid dynasty|Afsharid]], and [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar-era]] ''[[ghilman]]'', who were drawn from converted [[Circassian people|Circassians]], [[Georgians]], and [[Armenians]], and in the same way as with the Ottoman Janissaries, who had to replace the unreliable ''[[Ghazi (warrior)|ghazi]]''. They were initially created as a counterbalance to the tribal, ethnic, and favoured interests the [[Qizilbash]] gave, which make a system imbalanced.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/barda-v|title=BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran|access-date=15 April 2014|archive-date=17 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517011518/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/barda-v|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=McCabe|first1=Ina Baghdiantz|last2=Harlaftis|first2=Gelina|title=Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History|date=2005|publisher=Berg|isbn=9781859738757|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u9kTAQAAIAAJ&q=janissary+ghulam+counterbalance|page=36|access-date=1 December 2015|archive-date=5 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405174342/https://books.google.com/books?id=u9kTAQAAIAAJ&q=janissary+ghulam+counterbalance|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the late 16th century, a sultan gave in to the pressures of the Corps and permitted Janissary children to become members of the Corps, a practice strictly forbidden for the previous 300 years. According to paintings of the era, they were also permitted to grow beards. Consequently, the formerly strict rules of succession became open to interpretation. While they advanced their own power, the Janissaries also helped to keep the system from changing in other progressive ways, and according to some scholars the corps shared responsibility for the political stagnation of Istanbul.<ref name="Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America" />

Greek historian [[Dimitri Kitsikis]] in his book ''Türk Yunan İmparatorluğu'' ("Turco-Greek Empire")<ref name="Kitsikis, Dimitri 1996">Kitsikis, Dimitri (1996). ''Türk Yunan İmparatorluğu''. Istanbul, Simurg Kitabevi</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2016}} states that many Bosnian Christian families were willing to comply with the ''devşirme'' because it offered a possibility of social advancement. Conscripts could one day become Janissary colonels, statesmen who might one day return to their home region as governors, or even [[List of Ottoman grand viziers|Grand Viziers]] or ''[[beylerbey]]'' ("governor generals"). Some of the most famous Janissaries include [[George Kastrioti Skanderbeg]], an [[Albanian people|Albanian]] feudal lord who defected and led a 25‑year [[Skanderbeg's rebellion|Albanian revolt against the Ottomans]]. Another was [[Sokollu Mehmed Paşa]], a [[Bosnian Serbs|Bosnian Serb]] who became a [[List of Ottoman grand viziers|Grand Vizier]], served three sultans, and was the de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire for more than 14 years.<ref>Imamović, Mustafa (1996). Historija Bošnjaka. Sarajevo: BZK Preporod. {{ISBN|9958-815-00-1}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2014}}