Janissaries (Turkish: yeniçeri, new troops), the name given to the formidable soldiers of the infantry created by the Ottomans as early as the 14th century, who remained the terror of Europe until the mid-17th century. The janissaries were drawn from devşirme (collection or round-up) of Christian boys of conquered territories of the Balkans. Generally between the ages of 12 and 18, these boys were unmarried, converted to Islam, slaves of the sultan, and educated in special schools which graduated both the disciplined, fighting force and many of the high officials, including the grand vizier, of the early empire. Five to ten per cent served in the palace; the rest of the recruits were attached to the acemioǧlan (cadet) corps. The janissaries were created to counterbalance the cavalry, fief-based troops (sipahi, hence the English ‘sepoys’, or timariots) of the Turkish aristocracy, acting as the private standing army of the sultan. The effective fighting force under Suleiman ‘the Magnificent’ (1494-1566), was 20, 000; that figure rose to as high as 80, 000 by the end of the 17th century.
The janissary corps was called the ocak (hearth), and divided into 196 distinct regiments (orta), varying in size from 100 to 1, 000 depending on the period, and lodged in barracks (oda) in Istanbul. Their skill in the use of firearms, unique uniforms, and extensive privileges distinguished the corps from all other Ottoman troops. The chief officer was the aǧa, appointed by the sultan. Discipline remained the prerogative of the corps itself, one of the persistent problems of the later empire. Janissaries of the 16th century were described as the most disciplined, ascetic, and fierce infantry troops Europe had ever encountered. By the mid-16th century, janissaries served throughout the empire, manning fortresses and battlefronts, guarding cities, and quelling internal violence. At sustained sieges they were unparalleled, as in 1683, when they literally came within inches of breaking through the walls of Vienna. Their importance to the spread of Ottoman power cannot be exaggerated.
By the beginning of the 17th century, janissary recruits came from the Muslim population, even from sons of the janissaries themselves. Devshirme style recruitment lapsed after the 1660s. By 1800, everybody was a janissary, as the corps was swollen to as many as 400, 000 names, based on corrupt and marketable muster rolls, which supported a process of gentrification of the janissary families. Probably 10 per cent of that number could be counted upon to defend the empire. The Ottomans evolved different means of recruitment through state-funded militias, both cavalry and infantry, to defend the Danubian fortress system, and other battlefronts. They replaced the timariots, whose presence on Ottoman campaigns was insignificant after 1700, and were the antecedents to the new style regiments (nizam-i cedid) of Selim III (1761-1808). The militias were organized side by side with the janissaries, a corps which represented both the chief obstacle (and source of profit) to reforming sultans and bureaucrats, now challenged by the successful western military system.
Mahmut II (1785-1839) put an end to the corps in 1826, when loyal artillery troops surrounded the barracks, and shot down those remaining janissaries who had rebelled against his creation of the new trained and disciplined eşkinci corps. Thereafter, the Ottomans created an army more closely aligned to western models.
Bibliography
- Goodwin, Godfrey, The Janissaries (London, 1997).
- Huart, C. ‘Janissaries’, Encyclopedia of Islam
2nd edn. (Leiden, 1987). - Stiles, Andrina, The Ottoman Empire, 1450-1700 (London, 1989)
— Virginia H. Aksan
