A janissary ( , ; , , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were one of the first modern standing armies, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped primarily with firearms, adopted during the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451). The corps was established under either Orhan or Murad I, By the 17th century, due to a dramatic increase in the size of the Ottoman standing army, the corps' initially strict recruitment policy was relaxed. Civilians bought their way into it in order to benefit from the improved socio-economic status it conferred upon them. Consequently, the corps gradually lost its military character, undergoing a process that has been described as "civilianization".
The Janissary Corps were a formidable military unit in the early centuries, but as Western Europe modernized its military organization and technology, the Janissaries became a reactionary force that resisted all change within the Ottoman army. Steadily the Ottoman military power became outdated, but when the Janissaries felt their privileges were being threatened, or outsiders wanted to modernize them, or they might be superseded by their cavalry rivals, they would rise in rebellion. By the time the Janissaries were suppressed, it was too late for Ottoman military power to catch up with the West. The Janissary Corps was abolished by Mahmud II in 1826 in the Auspicious Incident, in which 6,000 or more Janissaries were executed.
Origins and history
thumb|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 (), the third sultan of the Ottoman Empire, or during the time of Murad's father, Orhan (). The Ottoman government instituted a 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.
From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the system of child levy enslavement, This recruitment of Janissary troops was achieved through the enslaving of dhimmi peoples (i.e., non-Muslims), predominantly Balkan Christians. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "in early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from what is now Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary were preferred." The Bektashi Order became the official religious and spiritual institution of the Janissaries in the 15th century.
The Janissaries were (sing. ), "door servants" or "slaves of the Porte", neither freedmen nor ordinary slaves (). They were subjected to strict discipline, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement and formed their own distinctive social class. As such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivalling the Ottoman Turkish aristocracy. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, Enderun. Through a system of meritocracy, the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts to reform the military.
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. states that many Bosnian Christian families were willing to comply with the 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 Grand Viziers or ("governor generals"). Some of the most famous Janissaries include George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, an Albanian feudal lord who defected and led a 25‑year Albanian revolt against the Ottomans. Another was Sokollu Mehmed Paşa, a Bosnian Serb who became a Grand Vizier, served three sultans, and was the de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire for more than 14 years.
Characteristics
thumb|left|The Janissary Agha leading the corps, 1658.
The Janissary corps were distinctive in a number of ways. They wore unique uniforms, were paid regular salaries (including bonuses) for their service, marched to music (the mehter), lived in barracks, and were the first military corps to make extensive use of firearms. A Janissary battalion was a close-knit community, effectively the soldier's family. By tradition, the Ottoman sultan himself, after authorizing the payments to the Janissaries, visited the barracks dressed as a Janissary trooper, and received his pay alongside the other men of the First Division. They also served as policemen, palace guards, and firefighters during peacetime. The Janissaries also enjoyed far better support on campaign than the other armies of the time. They were part of a well-organized military machine, in which one support corps prepared the roads while others pitched tents and baked the bread. Their weapons and ammunition were transported and re-supplied by the cebeci corps. They campaigned with their own medical teams of Muslim and Jewish surgeons and their sick and wounded were evacuated to dedicated mobile hospitals set up behind the lines.]]
thumb|Ottoman Janissaries in 1558, [[Futūhāt-i jamīla, 1592]]
The first Janissary units were formed from prisoners of war and slaves, probably as a result of the sultan taking his traditional one-fifth share of his army's plunder in kind rather than monetarily; however, the continuing exploitation and enslavement of dhimmi peoples (i.e., non-Muslims), predominantly Balkan Christians, Children were drafted at a young age and soon turned into slave-soldiers in an attempt to make them loyal to the Ottoman sultan. The Ottoman Empire began its expansion into Europe by invading the European portions of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries up until the capture of Constantinople in 1453, establishing Islam as the state religion of the newly-founded empire. The Ottoman Turks further expanded into Southeastern Europe and consolidated their political power by invading and conquering huge portions of the Serbian Empire, Bulgarian Empire, and the remaining territories of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries. As borders of the Ottoman Empire expanded, the devşirme system of child levy enslavement was extended to include Armenians, Bulgarians, Croats, Hungarians, Romanians, Serbs, Ukrainians, and later Bosniaks, and, in rare instances, Circassians, Georgians, Poles, and southern Russians. They were useful in preventing both the slave rebellions and the breakup of the Empire itself, especially due to the rising tide of nationalism among European peoples in its Balkan provinces from the 17th century onwards. Throughout the 16th to 19th centuries, the Barbary States sent pirates to raid nearby parts of Europe in order to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in the Muslim world, primarily in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, throughout the Renaissance and early modern period. According to historian Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th centuries, Barbary pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves, although these numbers are disputed. These slaves were captured mainly from the crews of captured vessels, from coastal villages in Spain and Portugal, and from farther places like the Italian Peninsula, France, or England, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Azores Islands, and even Iceland. The Crimean Tatars frequently mounted raids into the Danubian Principalities, Poland–Lithuania, and Russia to enslave people whom they could capture.
Apart from the effect of a lengthy period under Ottoman domination, many of the subject populations were periodically and forcefully converted to Islam Radushev states that the recruitment system based on child levy can be bisected into two periods: its first, or classical period, encompassing those first two centuries of regular execution and utilization to supply recruits; and a second, or modern period, which more focuses on its gradual change, decline, and ultimate abandonment, beginning in the 17th century. The prescribed daily rate of pay for entry-level Janissaries in the time of Ahmet I was three Akçes. Promotion to a cavalry regiment implied a minimum salary of 10 Akçes. Janissaries received a sum of 12 Akçes every three months for clothing incidentals and 30 Akçes for weaponry, with an additional allowance for ammunition as well.
For all practical purposes, the Janissary Corps belonged to the Ottoman sultan and they were regarded as the protectors of the throne and the sultan. Janissaries were taught to consider the corps their home and family, and the sultan as their father. Only those who proved strong enough earned the rank of true Janissary at the age of 24 or 25. The Odjak inherited the property of dead Janissaries, thus acquiring wealth. Janissaries also learned to follow the dictates of the dervish and Sufi saint Haji Bektash Veli, disciples of whom had blessed the first troops. The Bektashi Order served as a kind of chaplaincy for the Janissaries.]]
When a non-Muslim boy was recruited under the devşirme system of child levy enslavement,
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. 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):