Editing Devshirme (section)

== The life of the devshirme ==
According to historian [[William Gervase Clarence-Smith]], Christian children were taken by Ottoman officials, every four to seven years, their age ranging from 7 to 20.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 49"/> Those younger than 8 were called {{Transliteration|ota|şirhor}} (nursling) and {{Transliteration|ota|beççe}} (child).{{Clarify|date=June 2020}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ortaylı |first1=İlber |title=Türklerin Tarihi 2 |date=2016 |publisher=Timaş Yayınları |isbn=978-605-08-2221-2 |pages=71}}</ref> One for every forty households was chosen,<ref name="Itzkowitz 2008 p.50" /> they had to be unmarried and once taken were ordered to cut all ties with their family.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 493" >{{cite book | last1=Clarence-Smith | first1=W.G. | last2=Clarence-Smith | first2=W.G. | title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-19-522151-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQbylEdqJKkC}}</ref>

Christian parents undeniably resented the forced recruitment of their children,<ref name="bbc" /><ref name="Mansel 2011 p. 26">{{cite book |last=Mansel |first=P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrnvC98bNSoC&pg=PT26 |title=Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924 |publisher=John Murray Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84854-647-9 |page=26 |access-date=2020-06-24}}</ref> as a result they would beg and often seek to buy their children out of the levy. The Balkan peasantry tried to evade the tribute collectors, with many attempting to substitute their  children in Bosnia.<ref>Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition, Norman Itzkowitz, p. 49</ref> Many sources (including [[Paolo Giovio]]) mention different ways to avoid the devshirme such as: marrying the boys at the age of 12, mutilating them or have both father and son convert to Islam.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Detrez |first1=Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hywaBgAAQBAJ&q=devshirme |title=Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria |date=18 December 2014 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-4180-0}}</ref> Conversion to Islam was used in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] to escape the system.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} In Albania and Epirus the practice led to a Christian revolt where the inhabitants killed the recruiting officials in the year 1565.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 493" /> In [[Naousa, Imathia|Naousa]], after killing the recruiting officials the parents fled to the mountains but were later caught and executed in 1705.<ref name="Bostom 2010 p.559 ">{{cite book | last=Bostom | first=A.G. | title=The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims | publisher=Prometheus Books | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-61592-017-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ju8xJ5JBXgsC }}</ref>

Any parent who refused to have their child taken as a slave was put to death, and children who attempted to resist being taken from their families as janissaries by fleeing would lead to the Turks arresting and then torturing their parents to death (Many children who attempted to flee on their own returned after hearing of their parents torture). Such was the case of an Athenian boy who returned from hiding to save his father's life but chose to die himself rather than abandon his faith and convert to Islam.<ref name="auto4"/> A firman in 1601 gave strict orders to Ottoman officials to kill any parent that resisted:<ref name="auto5"/>
{{Blockquote
|text=To enforce the command of the known and holy fetva [fatwa] of Seyhul [Shaikh]-Islam. In accordance with this whenever some one of the infidel parents or some other should oppose the giving up of his son for the Janissaries, he is immediately hanged from his door-sill, his blood being deemed unworthy.|}}

Sources show that it was not rare for the older youth to attempt to preserve their faith and some recollection of their homeland and their families. For instance, [[Stephan Gerlach]] writes:<ref>{{cite book|author=D.A. Zakythēnos|title=The Making of Modern Greece: From Byzantium to Independence | publisher=Rowman and Littlefield|year=1976|isbn=978-0-87471-796-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zoKgAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text=They gather together and one tells another of his native land and of what he heard in church or learned in school there, and they agree among themselves that Muhammad is no prophet and that the Turkish religion is false. If there is one among them who has some little book or can teach them in some other manner something of God's world, they hear him as diligently as if he were their preacher.|}}

Greek scholar [[Janus Lascaris]] visited Constantinople in 1491 and met many janissaries who not only remembered their former religion and their native land but also favored their former coreligionists. The renegade Hersek, the sultan's relative by marriage, told him that he regretted having left the religion of his fathers and that he prayed at night before the cross which he kept carefully concealed.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qwIoAAAAYAAJ | title=Bibliographie hellénique | last1=Legrand | first1=Emile | year=1885 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://savvidis-store.gr/en/products/the-history-of-turkish-occupied-greece-four-volumes/ | title=The History of Turkish-Occupied Greece (Four volumes) }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q-N9U-O4u4oC | title=De Turcarum moribus epitome, Bartholomaeo Georgieviz, peregrino, autore | year=1558 | publisher=apud J. Tornaesium }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=emprvwEACAAJ | title=Istoria tou neou ellenismou: Tourkokratia 1453-1669. Oi agones gia ten piste kai ten eleytheria | last1=Vakalopoulos | first1=Apostolos E. | year=1961 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2-2zQEACAAJ | title=Istoria tou neou ellenismou | last1=Vakalopoulos | first1=Apostolos E. | year=1974 }}</ref>

In his memoir, Konstantin Mihailović (1430–1501), a Serbian who was abducted in his youth and marched away by the Turks, saw nothing “prestigious” or “lucrative” about becoming a janissary. “We always thought about killing the Turks and running away by ourselves among the mountains,” he writes, “but our youth did not permit us to do that.” Once when he and a group of other boys broke free and escaped, “the whole region pursued us, and having caught and bound us, they beat us and tortured us and dragged us behind horses.”<ref name=auto3>{{cite book | last1=Michałowicz | first1=K. | last2=Soucek | first2=S. | last3=Stolz | first3=B.A. | title=Memoirs of a Janissary|pages=50–51 | publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-55876-531-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AFHwwAEACAAJ}}</ref>

It is said that: "Even those personally chosen by the Sultan found nothing admirable about their lot." After Ottoman Sultan [[Mehmed II]] took eight Christian youths into his service, they made a pact to assassinate him by night, saying “If we kill this Turkish dog, then all of Christendom will be freed [from Ottoman tyranny]; but if we are caught, then we will become martyrs before God with the others.” When their plot was exposed, and Mehmed inquired what caused them to “dare attempt this,” they responded, “None other than our great sorrow for our fathers and dear friends.” He had the children slowly tortured over the course of a year before beheading them.<ref name="auto3"/>

On the other hand, since the devshirme could reach powerful positions, some Muslim families tried to have the recruiters take their sons so that they could achieve professional advancement.<ref>{{cite book |author=Traian Stoianovich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKVzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA201 |title=Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe |date=May 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47615-3 |page=201 |author-link=Traian Stoianovich}}</ref> Sometimes people of both religion, or family in great needs, attempted to bribe scouts to take their children.<ref>{{cite book |title= Bosnia: A Short History |last= Malcolm |first= Noel |author-link= Noel Malcolm |year= 1996 |publisher= Papermac |location= London |isbn= 0-333-66215-6 |page= 46 }}</ref> The boys were forced to convert to Islam.<ref>''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', ed. Cyril Glassé, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 129.</ref>

In [[Epirus]], a traditional folk song expressed this resentment by cursing the Sultan and admonishing against the kidnapping of boys:<ref name="Merry Greenwood Press 2004 p. 197">{{cite book|last=Merry|first=B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-lr20SuvfIC&pg=PA197|title=Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature|author2=Greenwood Press|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-313-30813-0|page=197|access-date=2020-06-24}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=<poem>Be damned, O Emperor, be thrice damned
For the evil you have done and the evil you do.
You catch and shackle the old and the archpriests
In order to take the children as Janissaries.
Their parents weep and their sisters and brothers too And I cry until it pains me;
As long as I live I shall cry,
For last year it was my son and this year my brother.
</poem>|author=|title=Anonymous song protesting the collecting of young boys to be made slaves of the Ottoman Empire|source=<ref name="Bator Rothero 2000 p. 43">{{cite book | last1=Bator | first1=R. | last2=Rothero | first2=C. | title=Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Istanbul | publisher=Runestone Press | series=Cities through time | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8225-3217-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1thG1smoSMC&pg=PA43 | access-date=2020-06-24 | page=43}}</ref>}}

The Tübingen manuscript written by Andre Argyros and John Tholoites and given to Martin Crusius in 1585 shows what the Christian parents thought of the Janissaries:<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ju8xJ5JBXgsC | isbn=9781615920174 | title=The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims | date=29 December 2010 | publisher=Prometheus Books }}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text= You understand, then, my lords and Christian gentlemen, what sorrow the Greeks bear, the fathers and the mothers who are separated from their children at the prime of life. Think ye of the heartrending sorrow! How many mothers scratch out their cheeks! How many fathers beat their breast with stones! What grief these Christians experience on account of their children who are separated from them while alive, and how many mothers say, “It would have been better to see them dead and buried in our church, rather than to have them taken alive in order to become Turks and abjure our faith. Better that you had died!”|}}

[[Stephen Gerlach]] gives the case of a Greek Mother from [[Panormus (Ionia)|Panormus]] in Anatolia who had two boys and begged God every day to take them away because she would soon be forced to give up one of them. The distress expressed here was motivated not only by religious considerations, but also by the low opinion the Byzantines held for Turks (whom they called barbarians).<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2853347 | jstor=2853347 | title=Isidore Glabas and the Turkish Devshirme | last1=Vryonis | first1=Speros | journal=Speculum | year=1956 | volume=31 | issue=3 | pages=433–443 | doi=10.2307/2853347 | s2cid=164148319 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/f/1/e/metadata-162-0000029.tkl | title=Anemi - Digital Library of Modern Greek Studies - Tagebuch der vonzween Glorwurdigsten Romischen Kaysern Maximiliano und Rudolpho ... / Stephan Gerlachs }}</ref>

In desperation the parents would appeal to the Pope and western powers for help. A petition of the [[Albanians]] of [[Himarë]] in the year 1581, addressed to the Pope reads: "Holiest father, if you could convince him and save us and the children of Greece, that are taken every day and are turned into Turks, if you could only do this, God may bless you. Amen”.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qajNileHeuoC | title=Monumenta spectantia ad unionem Ecclesiarum Graecae et Romanae, majorem partem e sanctioribus Vaticani tabulariis, edita ab Augustino Theiner et Francisco Miklosich | year=1872 }}</ref>

In 1456 Greeks living on the western coast of Anatolia appealed to the Knights Hospitalers of Rhodes for help.<ref name="auto5"/>
{{blockquote|We, who do dwell in Turkey ... inform your lordship that we are heavily vexed by the Turk, and that they take away our children and make Muslims of them ... For this reason we beseech your lordship to take council that the most holy pope might send his ships to take us and our wives and children away from here, for we are suffering greatly from the Turk.}}

The children were taken from their families and transported to Istanbul. Upon their arrival, they were [[Forced conversion|forcibly converted]] to Islam, examined and made to serve the empire. The system produced infantry corps soldiers as well as civilian administrators and high-ranked military officials."<ref>A History of the Modern Middle East Cleveland and Buntin p.42</ref> Their village, district and province, parentage, date of birth, and physical appearance was recorded. [[Albertus Bobovius]] wrote in 1686 that diseases were common among the devshirme and that strict discipline was enforced.<ref>Nicolas Brenner. Serai Enderun; das ist inwendige beschaffenheit der türkischen Kayserl, residentz, zu Constantinopoli die newe burgk genannt sampt der ordnung und gebrauschen so von Alberto Bobivio Leopolitano. J. J. Kürner. 1667. Search under Bobovio, Bobovius or Ali Ulvi for other translations. French version exists, and fragments exist in C.G. and A.W. Fisher's "Topkapi Sarayi in the Mid-17th Century: Bobovi's Description" in 1985.</ref> Although the influence of Turkic nobility continued in the Ottoman court until [[Mehmet II]] (see [[Çandarlı (2nd) Halil Pasha|Çandarlı Halil]]), the Ottoman ruling class slowly came to be ruled exclusively by the devshirme, creating a separate social class.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zürcher |first=Erik |title=Arming the State |publisher=LB Tauris and Co. Ltd. |year=1999 |isbn=1-86064-404-X |location=United States of America |pages=5}}</ref> This class of rulers was chosen from the brightest of devshirme and handpicked to serve in the palace institution, known as the [[Enderûn]].{{sfn|Shaw|1976|pp=115–117}} They had to accompany the Sultan on campaigns, but exceptional service would be rewarded by assignments outside the palace.{{sfn|Shaw|1976|p=117}} Those chosen for the scribe institution, known as {{Transliteration|ota|kalemiye}}, were also granted prestigious positions. At the religious institution, [[İlmiye]], all orthodox Muslim clergy of the Ottoman Empire were educated and sent to provinces or served in the capital.{{sfn|Shaw|1976|pp=132–139}}

The children were subjected to a draconian training system: “They make them drudge day and night, and they give them no bed to sleep on and very little food.” They were allowed to “speak to each other only when it is urgently necessary” and were made to “pray together without fail at four prescribed times every day.” As “for any little offense, they beat them cruelly with sticks, rarely hitting them less than a hundred times, and often as much as a thousand. After punishments the boys have to come to them and kiss their clothing and thank them for the cudgelings they have received. You can see, then, that moral degradation and humiliation are part of the training system,” writes 16th century Italian diplomat [[Giovan Francesco Morosini (cardinal)]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1W8rAwAAQBAJ | isbn=9781442606234 | title=The Crusades: A Reader: Second Edition | date=January 2014 | publisher=University of Toronto Press }}</ref> They were “degraded to the level of animals” and showed a “dog-like devotion to the sultan”, writes Vasiliki Papouli. Many possibly suffered from Stockholm Syndrome.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.zvab.com/Polis-Nationalstaat-vergleichende-%C3%9Cberbauanalyse-Anschlu%C3%9F-Aristoteles/17472213595/bd | title=Polis und Nationalstaat. Eine vergleichende Überbauanalyse im Anschluß an Aristoteles (= Sammlung Luchterhand, Band 93). Mit Widmung des Autors an den Philosophen Prof. Michael Theunissen von Tomberg, Friedrich: (1973) &#124; Graphem. Kunst- und Buchantiquariat }}</ref><ref name="auto4"/>

[[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier|Tavernier]] noted in 1678 that the [[janissary|janissaries]] looked more like a religious order than a military corps.<ref>[[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier|Tavernier]].  Nouvelle Relation de L'ınterieur du Serrial du Grand Seigneur. 1678, Amsterdam.</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}} The members of the organization were not banned from marriage, as Tavernier further noted, but it was very uncommon for them. He went on to write that their numbers had increased to a hundred thousand but only due to a degeneration of regulations, with many of them in fact being "fake" janissaries, posing as such for tax exemptions and other social privileges. He noted that the actual number of janissaries was in fact much lower. Shaw writes that their number was 30,000 under [[Suleiman the Magnificent]].{{sfn|Shaw|1976|p=121}} By the 1650s, the number of janissaries had increased to 50,000, but by this time, the devshirme had largely been abandoned as a method of recruitment.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ágoston |first=Gábor |date=2014 |title=Firearms and Military Adaptation: The Ottomans and the European Military Revolution, 1450–1800 |journal=Journal of World History |volume=25 |pages=118 |doi=10.1353/jwh.2014.0005 |s2cid=143042353}}

* {{cite book |last=Kunt |first=Metin İ. |title=The Sultan's Servants: The Transformation of Ottoman Provincial Government, 1550–1650 |date=1983 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-05578-1 |place=New York |pages=76 |ref=none}}</ref>

According to Cleveland, the devshirme system offered "limitless opportunities to the young men who became a part of it."<ref>Cleveland, William L. "A History of the Modern Middle East. 3rd Edition." p. 46</ref> Basilike Papoulia wrote that "the devishirme was the 'forcible removal', in the form of a tribute, of children of the Christian subjects from their ethnic, religious and cultural environment and their transportation into the Turkish-Islamic environment with the aim of employing them in the service of the Palace, the army, and the state, whereby they were on the one hand to serve the Sultan as slaves and freedmen and on the other to form the ruling class of the State."<ref>''Some Notes on the Devsirme'', '''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies''', Vol. 29, No. 1, 1966, V.L.Menage, (Cambridge University Press, 1966), 64.</ref> Accordingly, Papoulia agrees with [[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb]] and Harold Bowen, authors of ''Islamic Society and the West'', that the devshirme was a penalization imposed on the Balkan peoples since their ancestors had resisted the Ottoman invasion.<ref>''Some Notes on the Devsirme'', '''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies''', Vol. 29, No. 1, 1966, V.L.Menage, (Cambridge University Press, 1966), 70.</ref> [[Vladimir Minorsky]] states, "The most striking manifestation of this fact is the unprecedented system of devshirme, i.e. the periodic conscription of 'tribute boys', by which the children of Christians were wrung from their families, churches, and communities to be molded into Ottoman praetorians owing their allegiance to the Sultan and the official faith of Islam."<ref>''Shaykh Bali-Efendi on the Safavids'', '''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies''', Vol. 20, No. 1/3, 1957, V. Minorsky, (Cambridge University Press, 1957), p. 437.</ref> This system as explained by [[Çandarlı Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha]], founder of the Janissaries: "The conquered are slaves of the conquerors, to whom their goods, their women, and their children belong as lawful possession".<ref>Lybyer, Albert Howe, ''The Government of the Ottoman empire in the time of Suleiman the Magnificent'', (Harvard University Press, 1913), pp. 63–64.</ref>