Editing Devshirme (section)

== Status under Islamic law ==
According to scholars, the practice of devshirme was a clear violation of [[sharia]] or Islamic law.<ref name="autogenerated2" /><ref name="nicolle" /><ref name="nicolle2" /><ref>{{cite journal|title=Devs̱ẖirme and s̱ẖarī'a|author=Paul Wittek|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|volume=17|issue=2|year=1955|pages=271–278}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mikaberidze|first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander Mikaberidze|title=Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia &#91;2 volumes&#93;: A Historical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBBYD2J2oE4C&pg=PA273|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-337-8|page=273|quote=This effectively enslaved some of the sultan's own non-Islamic subjects and was therefore illegal under Islamic law, which stipulated that conquered non-Muslims should be demilitarized and protected.}}</ref><ref>{{New Cambridge Medieval History|volume=6|chapter=The Rise of the Ottomans|first=I. |last=Kunt|page= 860}}</ref>  [[David Nicolle]] writes that since the boys were "effectively enslaved" under the devshirme system, this was a violation of the {{Transliteration|ar|[[dhimmi]]}} protections guaranteed under Islamic law to [[People of the Book]].<ref name="Mikaberidze2011" /> The practice of devshirme also involved forced conversions to Islam.<ref name="nicolle2" /> This is disputed by Turkish historian [[Halil İnalcık]], who argues that the devshirme were not slaves once converted to Islam.<ref name="auto" />{{efn|name=slave-or-voluntary}}

Some scholars point out that the early Ottoman Empire did not care about the details of sharia and thus did not see any problems with devshirme.<ref>{{cite book|author=F .E Peters|title=The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Conflict and Competition, Volume II: The Words and Will of God|page=122|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]}}</ref> During this time, the Ottomans believed that the [[Qanun (law)|Qanun]], the law enacted by the Sultan, superseded sharia even though the latter was treated with respect.<ref name=Zubaida /> The devshirme was just one example in which the Sultan's wishes superseded the sharia (another example is that Ottoman sultans set maximum interest rates even though sharia [[riba|totally prohibits interest]]).<ref name=Zubaida>{{cite book|author=Sami Zubaida|title=Law and Power in the Islamic World|page=115|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic}}</ref> [[James L. Gelvin]] explains that Ottoman [[qadi|jurists]] were able to get around that injunction with an extraordinarily creative legal manoeuvre by arguing that although Islamic tradition forbade the enslavement of Christians, Balkan Christians were different because they had converted to Christianity after the advent of Islam.<ref name="Gelvin" /> (This was true of most rural Christians in the Balkans, but not the Greeks.)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ménage |first=V. L. |date=2012 |editor-last=Bearman |editor-first=P. |title=Devs̲h̲irme |url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EIEO/SIM-1807.xml |website=Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition Online (EI-2 English) |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1807|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[William Gervase Clarence-Smith]] points out that the reasoning is not accepted in the [[Hanafi]] school of law, which the Ottoman Empire claimed to have practiced.<ref name ="Clarence-Smith">{{cite book|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery |author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|pages=38–9}}</ref>

Contemporary Ottoman chroniclers had mixed opinions on the practice. An Ottoman historian of the 1500s, [[Mustafa Âlî]], admitted that devshirme violated sharia but was allowed only out of necessity.<ref name ="Clarence-Smith" /> Others argued the Muslim conqueror had the right to one fifth of war booty and could thus take the Christian boys;<ref name="Hathaway 2005 p. ">{{cite book | last=Hathaway | first=J. | title=Beshir Agha: chief eunuch of the Ottoman imperial harem | publisher=Oneworld Publications | series=Makers of the Muslim World Series | year=2005 | isbn=978-1-85168-390-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e35pAAAAMAAJ | page=4}}</ref> however, Islamic law allows no such booty from communities that had submitted peacefully to conquest and certainly not from their descendants.<ref name ="Clarence-Smith" />