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Janissary
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===Training=== [[File:Ataturk Janissary.jpg|thumb|[[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] wearing the traditional Janissary uniform at a masquerade ball during his early years in the [[Ottoman Army (1861–1922)|Ottoman army]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ottomanempire.info/Janissaries.htm|title=The Janissaries and the Ottoman Armed forces OttomanEmpire.info|website=ottomanempire.info|access-date=2011-03-08|archive-date=2012-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627042843/http://ottomanempire.info/Janissaries.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>]] 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. Janissaries were trained under strict discipline with hard labour and in practically [[Monasticism|monastic conditions]] in ''acemi oğlan'' ("rookie" or "cadet") schools, where they were expected to remain [[Celibacy|celibate]]. Unlike other [[Muslims]], they were expressly forbidden to wear beards, only a moustache. These rules were obeyed by Janissaries at least until the 18th century, when they also began to engage in other crafts and trades, breaking another of the original rules. In the late 16th century, an [[Ottoman sultan]] gave in to the pressures of the Janissary Corps and permitted Janissary children to become members of the Corps, a practice strictly forbidden for 200 years. Consequently, succession rules, formerly strict, became open to interpretation. They gained their own power but kept the system from changing in other progressive ways.<ref name="Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America"/> Even after the rapid expansion of the size of the corps at the end of the 16th century, the Janissaries continued to undergo strict training and discipline. The Janissaries experimented with new forms of battlefield tactics, and in 1605 became one of the first armies in Europe to implement rotating lines of [[volley fire]] in battle.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Günhan |last=Börekçi |title=A Contribution to the Military Revolution Debate: The Janissaries' Use of Volley Fire During the Long Ottoman-Habsburg War of 1593–1606 and the Problem of Origins |journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |volume=59 |issue=4 |date=2006 |pages=407–438 |doi=10.1556/AOrient.59.2006.4.2 }}</ref> [[Giovanni Antonio Menavino]], a Genoese who was enslaved in the Ottoman Empire from 1504 to around 1514, spent five years (until 1509 or 1510) as a page to the Sultan in the [[Seraglio]] of Constantinople.<ref name="Wolfgang Schweickard">{{cite journal| author = Wolfgang Schweickard| title = Giovan Antonio Menavino's Account of His Captivity in the Ottoman Empire: A Revaluation| journal = Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie| volume = 132| issue = 1| year = 2016| pages = 181–182| doi = 10.1515/zrp-2016-0007| url = https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/fachrichtung/romanistik/W._Schweickard/Publikationen/Menavino__ZrP_132__2016___180-205.pdf }}</ref> in chapter XXIII ''Delli novitii Giannizzeri Agiami Schiavi del gran Turco'' (On the novice Janissaries Agiami Slaves of the Great Turk) from his book ''Trattato de costumi et vita de Turchi'' (1548), he describes what he observed about the Agiami (novice Janissaries):<ref>{{cite book| author = Giovanni Antonio Menavino| authorlink = Giovanni Antonio Menavino| title = Trattato de costumi et vita de Turchi | year = 1548| pages = 164–165 | url = https://www.google.com/books/edition/Trattato_de_costumi_et_vita_de_Turchi/PHMVS0ukePAC}}</ref> {{Blockquote |text=The novice Janissaries, numbering around five hundred, are kept and trained to become full members of the corps. Taken from their fathers and mothers in Greece, they do not speak Turkish. They receive a daily wage of two [[Akçe|asper]]s. Their captain, called the Agiander agasi{{efn|Typographical error for {{lang|ota|acemiler agası}}.<ref name="Wolfgang Schweickard"/>}}, receives a stipend of thirty aspers and is issued a uniform. They are tasked with sweeping the entire Seraglio once a week, and when the Sultan orders construction, they carry lime, stones, water, and similar materials. In winter, they collect snow and store it underground in a place where it is preserved throughout the summer and used to cool the drinks of the Great Turk. When the Sultan goes to war, these novices remain in Constantinople. }}
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